Director, Corporate Strategy (San Diego / Hybrid)

Illumina · Foster City · $15–$18/hr (stated in the posting)

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Position Title: Director, Corporate Strategy

Function: Enterprise Strategy

Location: San Diego, California (Hybrid).This is a full-time role, Monday through Friday, with an expectation of 2–3 in-office days per week and additional on-site presence as needed. The individual must reside in the San Diego area and be able to commute to our corporate offices. Relocation assistance is available and should be completed within a twelve (12) month period or a mutually agreed upon time.

Reports To: Senior Director, Corporate Strategy

FLSA Status: Exempt

Position Summary:

The Director, Corporate Strategy is a senior member of the Enterprise Strategy team who independently leads high-priority, cross-enterprise strategy engagements and serves as a strategic advisor to senior leaders. Working within enterprise priorities established by the Vice President and Senior Director, the Director sharpens the decision to be made, designs the problem-solving approach, integrates evidence across the company, develops credible alternatives, and owns the recommendation for assigned engagements.

The role operates across R&D, Product, Commercial, Finance, Corporate Development, Medical, Operations, and regional leadership in a global, science- and technology-driven environment. The Director is an individual contributor who is expected to lead a complex strategy question from framing through executive decision, develop an independent enterprise point of view within the engagement mandate, and lead cross-functional strategy project teams without relying on formal reporting authority. Business and functional leaders own execution; Corporate Strategy supports decision clarity and follow-through without owning enterprise transformation or day-to-day implementation.

Essential Functions:

The following are the essential functions of the role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

Lead enterprise strategy engagements. Independently lead cross-enterprise strategy projects from initial framing through recommendation and executive decision. Topics may include growth strategy, business-model evolution, new-market entry, technology disruption, competitive response, enterprise capability choices, or other high-priority questions sponsored by the ELT or Enterprise Strategy leadership.
Shape the strategic question. Translate an executive mandate or emerging concern into a defined decision, meaningful alternatives, decision criteria, hypotheses, and an integrated workplan. Reframe the mandate when evidence shows that a different question is more consequential, and align the revised framing with the senior sponsor.
Own the enterprise fact base. Determine which market, customer, competitive, scientific, technology, operational, and financial evidence is required; direct the analysis; pressure-test assumptions; and remain accountable for the integrity of the project fact base and strategic conclusion.
Develop options and recommendations. Create real strategic alternatives and quantify implications for growth, investment, risk, capabilities, organizational requirements, and opportunity cost. Recommend what Illumina should start, stop, accelerate, deprioritize, or sequence differently within the project scope.
Integrate enterprise perspectives. Engage functional, domain, product, and regional leaders to incorporate expertise without defaulting to the loudest organizational view. Surface disagreements, test them through evidence and explicit decision logic, and build a recommendation that reflects the enterprise rather than one function.
Advise senior leaders. Lead sponsor working sessions, develop concise decision-ready materials, present recommendations to senior leaders and the ELT as appropriate, and respond credibly to challenge. Contribute to Board-ready materials under the direction of the Senior Director or Vice President.
Lead cross-functional strategy project teams and strengthen the craft. Set direction for multi-workstream project teams, coordinate functional and specialist contributors, review and improve analytical quality, provide project-based coaching, and develop reusable approaches that improve problem solving, synthesis, executive communication, and project leadership across Corporate Strategy.
Support decision follow-through. Translate approved recommendations into clear implications, owners, milestones, assumptions, and measures of value. Identify when changed conditions threaten the decision logic or require sponsor intervention while keeping implementation accountability with business, functional, and transformation leaders.

Role Interfaces and Boundaries:

Corporate Strategy determines and clarifies enterprise direction and leads major enterprise strategic questions; this role is accountable for the quality of its assigned strategic work, not for enterprise execution.
Domain Strategy translates enterprise direction into coherent strategies for strategically critical domains, while Product teams develop and execute the initiatives needed to deliver those strategies.
Portfolio Strategy provides analysis and governance that help the ELT make investment and prioritization trade-offs; this role contributes enterprise context without owning the portfolio operating cadence.
Corporate Development leads transaction evaluation and execution. The Director partners with Corporate Development when inorganic options are relevant to a broader strategy question.
Transformation, business functions, and operating leaders own implementation and enterprise execution. The role may contribute to strategic planning but is not primarily a planning-calendar, governance, or internal PMO role.

Decision-Making and Impact

The Director determines the analytical approach, hypotheses, evidence, alternatives, and recommendation for assigned enterprise strategy engagements. The role exercises substantial independence in resolving complex, multifunctional questions and advises senior sponsors on choices that may affect growth, investment, capabilities, and organizational focus. The Director escalates material changes to the enterprise mandate and does not hold unilateral P&L, capital-allocation, transaction, product-roadmap, or implementation authority. Success is measured by the rigor and enterprise orientation of the recommendation, the clarity of the resulting executive decision, and the quality and effectiveness of the project teams the Director leads.

Key Competencies:

Enterprise strategy judgment: Connects external change, internal capabilities, and economics to enterprise choices and develops an independent point of view within the engagement mandate.
Problem framing under ambiguity: Turns a broad mandate into a decision architecture, identifies the highest-value questions, and adapts the framing when evidence requires it.
Analytical and financial rigor: Directs and interrogates market models, business cases, scenarios, and value-creation analyses; distinguishes facts, assumptions, and organizational beliefs.
Executive synthesis and influence: Builds concise decision narratives, leads senior working sessions, presents recommendations credibly, and challenges assumptions constructively.
Scientific and technology fluency: Learns complex science- and technology-driven markets rapidly and translates technical developments into commercial and strategic implications without needing to be a practicing scientist.
Project-team leadership: Leads multiple workstreams as one engagement, sets a high quality bar, and directs cross-functional contributors without relying on formal authority.
AI-enabled strategy development: Uses AI as a practical strategy accelerator, designing responsible workflows that improve research, analysis, synthesis, scenario development, and decision materials while applying rigorous validation and judgment.
Judgment and working style: Demonstrates intellectual curiosity, pragmatism, resilience, sound judgment, and low-ego collaboration in high-stakes settings.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This is an individual-contributor role with no standing direct reports. The Director may lead multi-level, cross-functional strategy project teams by setting engagement direction, structuring and allocating project work, coordinating contributors, reviewing quality, and providing project-based coaching. Formal performance management and career-development accountability remain with each contributor’s people leader.

Minimum Qualifications:

All minimum qualifications are job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, engineering, life sciences, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience profile: Typically requires 15-18 years of cumulative relevant experience. This range reflects the expected career stage rather than a rigid minimum or maximum; selection will be based primarily on the depth and relevance of the experience below.
Top-tier strategy consulting apprenticeship: 4+ years in a top-tier global strategy consulting firm, such as McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, or a directly comparable firm. Experience must include progression to project or engagement leadership, hypothesis-driven problem solving, work with senior executive sponsors, multi-workstream delivery, and development of consulting teams.
Directly relevant strategy depth: Demonstrated experience addressing enterprise, market, growth, portfolio, business-model, and capability decisions through corporate strategy, top-tier strategy consulting, or equivalent strategic roles.
Executive advisory experience: Within that experience, 3+ years directly advising C-suite executives or equivalent enterprise decision-makers, including framing decisions, developing recommendations, and presenting decision-ready materials.
End-to-end strategy leadership: 3+ years independently leading complex, cross-functional strategy engagements from problem definition and analysis through recommendation and senior executive decision.
Project-team leadership and coaching: 2+ years leading and coaching multi-person strategy project teams, with demonstrated impact on analytical quality, synthesis, and the effectiveness of other contributors; direct-report management is not required.
Practical AI application: Demonstrated direct use of AI-enabled approaches to accelerate strategy development, with compelling proof points such as reusable skills, plugins, agentic workflows, or equivalent solutions applied to research, analysis, synthesis, scenario development, or executive communication. Experience must reflect responsible handling of confidential information, validation of outputs, and sound human judgment.
Analytical and influence capability: Advanced structured problem-solving, quantitative analysis, financial modeling, scenario development, synthesis, executive communication, and matrixed influence skills.
Commercial and technology judgment: Strong commercial and financial judgment and the ability to understand complex scientific and technology-driven markets and translate them into enterprise implications.

Preferred Credentials:

Advanced degree: MBA, master’s degree, or other relevant advanced degree.
Sector experience: Experience in genomics, life sciences, diagnostics, healthcare, or another technology-intensive industry.
Perspective breadth: A combination of external advisory and in-house corporate strategy experience, or equivalent breadth across enterprise and business-level questions.
Executive governance exposure: Experience developing ELT materials and contributing to Board-level strategy work in a public-company or similarly complex environment.
Inorganic strategy: Experience evaluating partnerships, acquisitions, or other inorganic options as part of a broader strategy, without requiring transaction-execution specialization.

Other Requirements:

Travel: Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 20%, based on business needs.
Executive cadence: Flexibility to support time-sensitive executive decision cycles across global time zones.

#LI-HYBRID

The estimated base salary range for the Director, Corporate Strategy (San Diego / Hybrid) role based in the United States of America is: $187,400 - $281,000. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. The range reflects long‑term growth in the role; therefore, most candidates are hired between the minimum and middle of the range. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.

We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact accommodations@illumina.com. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants.

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