Director, Strategy

Job Title
:
Director, Strategy

Team
:
Insights & Strategy Planning

Location
:
Hybrid in Chicago (IL) strongly preferred, Atlanta (GA), Newark (NJ), or New York (NYC)

Employment Type
:
Full-time

FLSA Classification
:
Exempt

Start Date
: ASAP

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80, Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Director, Strategy who will work with Braven’s leadership to set and monitor overall strategic direction for the organization and lead and execute strategic projects important to our short‑term and long‑term financial, operational, and scale goals.

You will leverage strategic and analytical strengths to design and own a portfolio of strategic projects that drive impact. You will also lead cross‑functional project teams and manage outside consultants as needed. You read context well, operate comfortably in ambiguity, demonstrate utmost discretion, and know how and when to take the best next step without waiting to be asked.

This role is on the Insights & Strategy team and reports directly to the Head of Insights & Strategy.

• Lead the development and execution of strategic initiatives and projects directly alongside executive leaders, ensuring alignment with our business model and program model. Example projects might include evolving Braven’s regional and central business units and developing & executing a new change management framework.
• Collaborate with the executive team to identify and evaluate new business opportunities and partnerships that align with Braven’s strategic goals.
• Lead working groups that drive our strategic plan to execution, codify decisions and next steps, report progress to Braven’s leadership, and make recommendations for unlocking.
• Establish and achieve key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the success of strategic initiatives.

• Design, build, and manage a system to document, cascade, and monitor Braven’s most important metrics across program and organizational health
• Own the build, rollout, and maintenance of Braven’s regional and organizational health dashboards and other department-specific dashboards to monitor KPIs

• Support the planning and facilitation of two leadership bodies at Braven:
  Central Leads (c‑suite direct reports of the CEO) and One Braven (broader leadership group). Example activities include planning and executing stepbacks, maintaining the knowledge base for both, preparing agendas, and creating content.

• Facilitate, project manage, and lead aspects of multi‑year and annual planning processes
• Provide ongoing thought partnership and data‑driven decision support for the Alignment Team (Braven’s leadership team)

For all of the above responsibilities, use AI in responsible, smart, and human‑valuing ways to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your work.

• Bachelor’s degree
• 5+ years of relevant experience
• Fluency in Excel/Google Sheets and SQL
• Proficiency in designing and building dashboards and visualizations for business end users and/or organizational leaders (Tableau preferred)
• Extensive experience writing and presenting compelling data‑driven stories, arguments, and narratives for internal and external audiences

• MBA and/or experience in strategy consulting
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Slack, and Jira
• Proficiency in Salesforce
• Proficiency in Python or R
• Highly entrepreneurial - someone who is curious and can take initiative, with a capacity to independently think holistically and strategically
• Skilled…