Assistant Director, Strategic Initiatives - Office of University Strategy and Program Development - Tufts University

The Tufts Office of University Strategy and Program Development tackles the most interesting and pressing challenges in higher education through critical strategic planning, advisory, and analytical support. The Office serves the University as a partner to Tufts’ schools and the central administration in the identification and development of mission-related opportunities that transform the University’s model for sustainable success in the 21st century higher education ecosystem. We achieve this mission by providing business analysis and project management expertise for transformational strategic initiatives (often serving as an internal consulting agency), by providing best-in-class market research and business analysis to the Tufts community, by partnering with schools and units across the university to build strategic portfolios of educational programs, and by supporting the university’s strategic planning processes and the cultivation of a strategic mindset in all areas of the institution. Led by an Executive Director, the Office reports to the Executive Vice President and works closely with the Office of the Provost in establishing and implementing its priorities.    

The Assistant Director, Strategic Initiatives reports to the Executive Director of University Strategy and provides process management and consultative expertise to both annual / routine strategy and planning processes and a small portfolio of project-based transformational initiatives. In doing so, the Assistant Director is a key partner to the Executive Director as well as to the Director of Strategy and Analysis, their team, and to initiative owners across the university.

The Assistant Director plays a critical role in implementing and executing annual or ongoing processes that advance the mission of the university. This includes the Annual Strategy and Alignment process, Annual Planning process, and Academic Business Planning processes. The Assistant Director will also be allocated to a small portfolio of strategic initiatives arising from those processes, contributing either to the initiative as a whole or to individual modules of the initiative. The size and scope of this portfolio is determined by the university’s needs, the unique skills of the team providing consultative services, and bandwidth. In this capacity, the Assistant Director will be responsible for advisory, project management, and/or delivery activities as needed to advance the initiative. As with everything administered by the Office of University Strategy and Program Development, there is an expectation that the Assistant Director continually look for opportunities to improve and enhance office activities relative to institutional needs and stakeholder feedback.

Essential Functions: 

Provides leadership and support to the Executive Director in facilitating, managing and implementing key annual / routine processes including, but not limited to the Annual Strategy and Alignment process, the Annual Planning process, the Strategic Consultative Services process, and various Academic Business Planning processes. Activities typically include, for example,:

• Developing and coordinating the scheduling and logistics of annual / routine milestones and materials
• Collaborating on the design and structure of specific milestones to enable institutional goals
• Producing and organizing materials and communications for a wide range of audiences
• Reviewing, analyzing, and synthesizing materials to support and contextualize processes and decision-making
• Preparing leaders for meetings and providing feedback to participants
• Keeping multi-team project management tools updated and checking-in with participants and stakeholders on next steps and deadlines
• Communicating connection points across processes to the OUSPD team to realize synergies
• Uses judgment to suggest when routine processes should be adjusted in real time

Supports the Director of Strategy and Analysis and/or Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives in launching and maintaining best practices for strategic initiatives, including:

• Facilitating project design and structuring conversations
• Reviewing and providing feedback on initiative charters, including viz established best practices and expectations
• Maintaining the university-wide list of university strategic initiatives
• Maintaining the OUSPD best practices guidance and templates repository
• Facilitating university-wide strategic initiatives project managers cohort meeting

Based on the requirements of a given initiative, the Assistant Director is responsible for project management and delivery activities for a small portfolio of initiatives and/or initiative modules. Activities might include:

● Developing issue maps and analytical frameworks that outline the strategic questions and approaches to be used
● Moving projects forward, including providing project management, meeting set-up and leadership, and timeline/milestone management
● Supporting cross-functional teams of individuals from across the University to address the project questions
● Facilitating team workshops at key stages of an initiative to build alignment on and/or consensus for addressing strategic questions
● Designing, participating in, and/or supervising the team’s core work, research, and analytical tasks; this may include actively completing research and analysis in addition to thought leadership
● Developing and delivering the highest quality actionable advice, insights, and impact for our internal stakeholders
● Communicating these results through a variety of media (e.g., PowerPoints, white papers, excel analyses) and during regular and milestone meetings and/or other modalities to senior University leaders (e.g., Executive Vice President, Provost, Deans, etc.)
• As a member of the Office of University Strategy and Program Development, the Assistant Director will be responsible for supporting the broader work of the office as bandwidth allows, including conducting market research and business analysis, program portfolio analyses, and a suite of strategic activation activities (e.g., Tufts Market Mindset monthly newsletter)
● Engages in office-wide and university-wide planning, committees when requested, and environment, proactively contributing to the office and university as a whole beyond day-to-day work.
● Assists in developing and contributing ‘practice building’ the Office of University Strategy and Program Development as it grows over time.

Basic Qualifications:

• Knowledge and skills as typically acquired through completion of Master’s degree and 5-7 years of professional experience, including direct project and/or process management experience
• Excellent skills and demonstrated experience in the following areas:
• Critical thinking and creative problem-solving
• Organization and time management
• Project management and leadership of complex strategic projects and/or processes
• Communication skills in a variety of settings (e.g., written formal and informal memos, reminders, small and large group meetings, etc.) well-pitched to intended audiences (e.g., ranging from executive to junior audiences)
• Ability to demonstrate a high-level of diplomacy and judgement in persuading and influencing a wide variety of people at various levels to achieve results
• Development and synthesis of key takeaways and data-driven recommendations for senior and executive audiences in written and verbal form
• MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Ability to handle multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment including both as an individual contributor and on a small project team, shifting and adapting effort as business needs require
• Proactive and results-oriented, doing what is required to move projects forward in a high quality way without substantial direction and in the context of the big picture; willing to take on any task big or small
• Customer partnership-oriented
• Ability to empathetically understand, articulate, and adapt to a wide variety of skill sets and perspectives with a sense of humor and positive, collaborative attitude
• Tact, discretion, and ability to maintain confidentiality
• Interest in working in or with education, non-profit, government, or other public sector organizations

Preferred Qualifications:

• MBA, Masters in Innovation / Design / Strategy, or equivalent degree
• Experience in strategic facilitation in a mission-oriented environment
• Deep knowledge of Tufts University
• 3-5 years of experience in higher education