Vice President, Strategy and Planning

TVO•Toronto, ON

1d•CA$165,000 - CA$185,000•Onsite

About The Position

TVO Media Education Group is Ontario’s partner in learning. As a digital-first Crown agency, we enrich lives through storytelling, civic engagement, and world-class educational resources. Through our family of brands, including TVO ILC, TVO Learn and Mathify, TVOkids, and TVO Today, we serve learners of all ages across the province. TVO is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Education and a registered charity funded primarily by the Province of Ontario. Our work supports Ontario’s curriculum, advances public learning outcomes, and contributes to a strong and equitable education system. TVO has a clear public mandate and a growing set of expectations from the Ministry, from its Board, and from its own leadership about what it will deliver and how it will demonstrate progress. What TVO needs is someone who can pull these threads together: contributing to TVO’s strategy and working with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to sharpen it, running a disciplined annual planning process, and making sure the organization follows through on what it commits to. This is a senior individual contributor role. The person who takes it on will own a real and substantial body of work and will get it done by being genuinely strong at collaboration and influence, working effectively with colleagues across the organization who do not report to this role. Reporting to the CEO and serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the VP, Strategy and Planning combine two core functions: strategy and planning. Strategy means taking direction from the CEO and the ELT and turning it into something the organization can act on, including staying close to the policy and government landscape that shapes TVO’s mandate and funding. Planning means running the operational engine room: the annual planning cycle, government reporting, board governance, and keeping the ELT coordinated and accountable to what it has committed to. Success in this role depends on the same thing in every accountability below: doing strong, credible work, and building enough trust with colleagues that they bring this person in early. This person needs to be a genuine thought partner to the CEO, someone who pushes back and tests thinking.

Requirements

A university degree, preferably in business with a focus on strategy or general management, is required (or equivalent relevant work experience).
Highly organized, with a track record of keeping multiple complex initiatives on track at once without losing sight of any of them.
A strong, independent thinker who can size up a problem quickly, identify what actually matters, and recommend a clear path forward.
Driven and persistent, comfortable chasing down progress and pushing people respectfully but firmly to deliver on what they said they would.
Self-motivated, with real ambition for what this role and TVO can achieve, paired with genuine care for the people they work alongside; this is someone who pushes hard without burning bridges.
Genuinely able to influence and lead people who do not report to them, including senior executives, through credibility and clear thinking.
Deeply invested in TVO’s mission, with a real desire to do the work and care about getting it right.
Significant senior leadership experience in strategy, planning, or organizational performance in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
Experience running organization-wide planning processes, with direct accountability for the quality of the resulting plans and how well they were followed through on.
A track record of working effectively across a senior leadership team and influencing outcomes without direct authority over the people involved.
Experience working credibly with boards and senior government stakeholders, including preparing materials and managing relationships at that level.
A genuine interest in how government and education policy affects TVO: the ability to read a policy shift and quickly work out the risks, the opportunities, and the funding implications for TVO. This is about understanding the sector and what it means for TVO.
Hands-on experience using data and performance information to shape decisions before they are made, at the executive level.
Strong communication skills, with the ability to turn complex information including data and analytics into clear, plain-language updates for boards, government partners, and organizational leaders.
High integrity and sound judgment, with the credibility to work as a real partner to the CEO and peers across the ELT.

Nice To Haves

An MBA is a strong asset.
A consulting background is a strong asset.
Familiarity with Ontario’s public sector governance and working in an unionized environment are meaningful assets.

Responsibilities

Work with the CEO and ELT to take organizational direction and turn it into a clear, coherent plan the organization can act on.
Keep the strategy current, with a regular cycle for monitoring progress against it and for revisiting and updating it.
Work closely with the CEO on cross-organizational decisions, bringing a view that spans the whole organization.
Prepare clear, well-organized materials for the Board on TVO’s strategic direction and key decisions.
Maintain a pulse on and track what is happening in real-time across Ontario government and Ministry of Education policy, along with relevant federal issues affecting areas such as broadcasting, digital safety, and artificial intelligence. Work out what each development means for TVO, the risks, the opportunities, and the funding implications, and feed that into TVO’s strategy and Business Plan.
Build strong collaborative relationships with Ministry of Education contacts, on both the political and the bureaucratic side, to understand what is coming. Support the CEO’s relationship building with government partners.
Ensure that TVO’s obligations to the Ministry, including the Letter of Direction, Business Plan submissions, and performance reporting, are tracked and met with care.
Design and run TVO’s annual planning process, while each ELT member leads the planning work within their own portfolio, and brings their team’s input into the process at the right time.
Coordinate the process by which the ELT sets its priorities for the year, pulling together input from across the organization, and make sure those priorities show up accurately in TVO’s Business Plan and Ministry submissions.
Stay on top of TVO’s recurring government reporting obligations as a public sector entity: know where everything stands, monitor and follow up with those doing the underlying work, and keep it moving.
Question inherited process where it no longer serves the organization, and troubleshoot and resolve problems in major deliverables before they reach the CEO.
Work with the CEO and the Board Secretary to ensure Board meetings are well-prepared from a strategic and content perspective, contributing to agendas and materials while the Board Secretary leads the governance and administrative process.
Take ownership of the quality and clarity of strategic content going to the Board, including executive summaries that give Board members a clear picture of what matters most and what decisions are required.
Track organizational commitments made to the Board and ensure the right people are following through on them, working in close partnership with the Board Secretary on accountability and follow-up.
Set the weekly ELT agenda and track deliverables and follow-ups across the team.
Keep people honest on what they have committed to, driving accountability without having direct reporting authority over these teams.
Support the CEO and the ELT in becoming a genuinely high-functioning, high-performing leadership team. Raise it directly when collaboration is breaking down or priorities are working against each other.