Global Projects & Strategy Director

KEEN Footwear•Portland, OR

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Projects & Strategy Director leads KEEN’s enterprise project-management and strategic-execution function, translating strategic priorities into a disciplined portfolio of cross-functional initiatives that deliver measurable business results. Partnering with Global leaders, this role combines internal performance and financial data with external market intelligence, consumer insights, industry trends, an competitive benchmarking to inform strategic decisions, strengthen portfolio governance, and identify opportunities and risks. The Director drives initiatives that improve growth, margin, service, operatin effectiveness, and organizational readiness across markets and channels, while building the standards, capabilities, and accountability required to deliver KEEN’s long-term strategy.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Strategy, or related field required.
Ten (10) years progressive experience leading complex, cross-functional strategy, transformation, operations, consulting, or program-management work within a multinational consumer products, retail, manufacturing, technology, or global organization.
Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale initiatives, project portfolios, executive reporting, and project-management teams across multiple markets is strongly preferred.
Advanced strategic, commercial, and financial acumen, with the ability to translate complex business issues into clear choices, compelling business cases, executable plans, and measurable outcomes.
Demonstrated expertise in portfolio, program, and project management, including PMO governance, project lifecycle management, and delivery across multiple functions, countries, and stakeholder groups.
Strong financial literacy and analytical capability, including project budgeting, forecasting, resource planning, investment cases, trade-offs, margin impact, operating cost, and benefits realization.
Executive-level written and verbal communication, facilitation, negotiation, and presentation skills; able to create clear narratives and influence decisions among senior leaders.
Exceptional project-management discipline, including governance design, methodology selection, roadmap development, risk management, dependency management, stakeholder management, and delivery tracking.
Practical problem-solving skills and sound judgment in ambiguous, fast-moving environments; able to resolve escalated issues and simplify complex matters without losing critical detail.
Proven ability to build trusted relationships through diplomacy, credibility, dependability, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration.
Ability to lead without direct authority, develop project-management capability, challenge constructively, and maintain momentum across diverse international teams.
Experience with project-management platforms such as Jira, Asana, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Monday.com, or similar; experience with SAP and planning tools preferred.
Advanced Excel, PowerPoint, and project-management tool experience required.
Fluent English required.

Nice To Haves

MBA, PMP, PRINCE2, Lean, Scrum, or equivalent program-management certification preferred.
additional language skills are a bonus.

Responsibilities

Leads the planning, execution, and successful delivery of strategic 10%initiatives, translating priorities into structured programs with clear objectives, governance, milestones, owners, dependencies, resource requirements, success measures, and executive visibility.
Partners with Global leadership to prioritize initiatives, develop strategic plans and business cases, and create implementation roadmaps that support sustainable growth, margin improvement, high service levels, and efficient cost structures.
Establishes and continuously improves PMO standards, methodologies, tools, templates, and reporting practices, applying Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery approaches as appropriate to the initiative.
Builds and maintains integrated project and portfolio plans; proactively manages scope, schedules, budgets, risks, issues, interdependencies, capacity constraints, and change impacts across Global teams.
Leads cross-functional initiatives spanning commercial strategy, operating-model design, supply chain, direct shipments, network design, systems, process improvement, organizational change, and other strategic priorities.
Develops financially sound business cases, project budgets, resource plans, and benefits-tracking models; monitors delivery, commercial, operational, and financial outcomes and recommends course corrections when needed.
Leads, mentors, and develops project and program-management resources, establishing clear expectations, development plans, and a collaborative, accountable, growth-oriented delivery culture.
Facilitates executive decision-making through clear portfolio health updates, risks, options, trade-offs, and recommendations; aligns stakeholders and resolves competing priorities without direct authority.
Leads project risk and change-management practices, removes delivery barriers, manages external partners as required, and embeds successful outcomes into scalable processes, controls, and operating mechanisms.
Integrate external insights with KEEN’s internal business, financial, operational, and portfolio data to identify opportunities, risks, performance gaps, and emerging implications for growth, margin, service, and operating effectiveness.
Translate relevant external insights into actionable performance measures, strategic scenarios, project priorities, and improvement opportunities; monitor outcomes and adjust recommendations as conditions evolve.