Strategy & Corporate Development Project Specialist

NielsenIQ•Chicago, IL

7h•Remote

About The Position

NielsenIQ is seeking a highly strategic, structured, and proactive Strategy & Corporate Development Project Specialist to support enterprise level initiatives across strategy, transformation, and corporate development. This role is designed for a project driven operator who brings order to ambiguity, accelerates cross functional execution, and ensures senior leadership has the insights, operating rhythm, and governance needed to drive growth. The ideal candidate combines strong project management capabilities with strategic judgment, exceptional communication, and the ability to translate complex priorities into clear plans, processes, and outcomes.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in project management, strategy operations, corporate development, transformation, or related disciplines.
Proven ability to lead complex cross functional initiatives with strong ownership and high accountability.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to create clear, executive level deliverables.
Strong strategic problem-solving ability; capable of bringing structure to ambiguity and driving toward outcomes.
Expertise in managing multiple projects, priorities, and stakeholders in fast-paced environments.
High professionalism, integrity, and comfort handling confidential information.
Advanced PowerPoint, Excel, and overall collaboration system proficiency (SharePoint, Teams, dashboards, etc.).
Strong business acumen and interest in strategy, corporate development, and enterprise transformation.

Responsibilities

Lead and manage select strategy, transformation, and corporate development projects from initiation through completion, ensuring milestones, timelines, and deliverables are met.
Build structured project plans, maintain schedules, track risks and dependencies, and ensure cross functional accountability.
Drive clarity by synthesizing complex inputs and proactively surfacing decisions, risks, and recommended actions for senior leadership.
Serve as a key liaison across Strategy, Corporate Development, Finance, and business units to ensure alignment to enterprise priorities.
Establish and maintain the operating cadence for the Strategy & Corporate Development function, including quarterly business reviews, annual planning, and strategic offsites.
Facilitate high impact meetings by owning agendas, materials, decisions, follow-ups, action tracking, and documentation.
Build and maintain scalable processes to drive operating discipline, alignment, and predictable execution across initiatives.
Manage a complex executive calendar, aligning time to strategic priorities and enterprise initiatives.
Anticipate needs, decisions, risks, and dependencies; proactively coordinate people, information, and resources.
Oversee domestic/international travel, agenda planning, itineraries, and expense management.
Coordinate cross‑functional working sessions related to strategy and corporate development.
Manage high‑level external interactions with bankers, private equity firms, partners, and advisors.
Establish and maintain the operating cadence (quarterly reviews, annual planning, transformation rituals).
Ensure stakeholders have the right information, context, and timelines through strong communication routines and reporting.
Consolidate strategic updates, dashboards, and status reports that provide leadership with visibility into project health and key decisions.
Partner with internal teams to gather insights and transform them into executive ready narratives, frameworks, and recommendations.
Maintain centralized repositories for strategy documents, decision logs, M&A materials, and Board facing content.
Create and iterate lightweight systems that preserve institutional knowledge and streamline cross functional workflows.
Identify opportunities to enhance tools, processes, and routines to improve alignment, efficiency, and strategic execution.
Support project management components of M&A and strategic growth initiatives, including diligence coordination, timeline management, and cross functional communication.
Maintain trackers for target assessments, banker interactions, NDAs, and corporate development workflows.
Ensure materials and analyses are organized, current, and accessible for decisionmakers.
Translate business priorities and data into succinct executive updates, Board materials, and decision documents.
Shape agendas and content for senior leadership conversations that focus on strategic outcomes, decisions, and risks.
Act as a strategic partner to the Head of Strategy & Corporate Development by enabling clarity, structure, and momentum across all initiatives.