Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives
Stanford University · Stanford
Job Purpose
The Office of the President is seeking an Associate Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, to serve as a trusted strategic partner to the President and university senior leadership. Reporting to the President’s Chief of Staff, this role will lead select university-wide strategic initiatives on behalf of the President and senior leadership. It will provide the President and senior leaders with dedicated analytical and operational capacity to proactively identify, evaluate, and address consequential strategic questions. It will spearhead high-priority strategic initiatives, mobilize leaders and stakeholders, and advance initiatives that simultaneously strengthen schools and administrative units as well as further the university’s broader strategic objectives. The role will translate university priorities to executable plans by identifying responsible parties, resources, timelines, and success measures, and bring data and evidence to bear on leadership decisions. Balancing long-range strategic foresight with near-term execution, the role will bring an institution-wide perspective to complex issues, evaluate alternative scenarios, and deliver the data, evidence, and insights needed to inform leadership decisions and organizational action.
The role will build a small internal team dedicated to this work, including a rotational fellows program drawing from early-career professionals, giving Stanford an in-house strategic capacity.
Core Responsibilities
Strategic Capacity for Consequential Questions
- Proactively identify institutional opportunities, risks, and strategic questions requiring senior leadership attention, developing recommendations and potential courses of action for consideration by the President and university leadership.
- Provide the President and university leadership with dedicated analytical capacity to work through consequential strategic questions, including major proposals with significant financial, reputational, or long-term institutional implications, and recommend potential courses of action for senior leadership consideration.
- Prepare rigorous analysis and evidence that helps leadership weigh proposed strategic directions and calibrate the level of support a given question warrants.
Strategic Planning & Execution
- Support university-level strategic planning efforts and collaborate closely with schools and administrative units to align their goals with university-wide priorities.
- Translate university priorities into executable plans with clear owners, resources, and timelines, and work with senior leaders to address barriers, competing priorities, and decisions necessary to maintain progress. Maintain a dashboard for the President and Cabinet to track the progress and success of strategic initiatives.
University Relationships
- Serve as a thought partner to the President and a trusted advisor to senior leaders on the Cabinet, building alignment on shared strategic priorities.
- Maintain regular relationships with deans and senior vice leaders to surface emerging priorities, handling confidential and sensitive institutional matters with sound judgment and discretion.
Team Leadership & Development
- Build and lead a dedicated strategic initiatives team, including a rotational fellows program, with training in confidentiality, institutional client service, and analytical standards, and establish the operating model, priorities, and standards for the strategic initiatives function.
- Coach team members toward independent leadership of their own workstreams and exercise judgment to identify where and how analytical support would be most valuable.
Minimum Qualifications
Education & Experience
- Master's degree required, with significant experience in higher education administration or executive leadership and/or top-tier consulting experience preferred.
- 15+ years of progressively responsible experience in strategy consulting, corporate strategy, or executive VP/C-suite level leadership in a complex, multi-stakeholder organization.
- Direct experience with strategic planning implementation, including process development and execution, and demonstrated success in building and developing a team.
- Demonstrated experience partnering effectively within shared/faculty governance structures.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Strong analytical judgment and the ability to help senior leaders work through the relative consequence, risk, and urgency of major strategic questions facing a large, complex institution
- Ability to synthesize ambiguous, incomplete, or politically sensitive information into clear, persuasive recommendations.
- Strong executive presence, sound judgment, and discretion, with the personal influence to earn the confidence of a university president, provost, deans, senior staff, and trustees.