Lead Strategist - Technology, Governance, and Operations

Lead Strategist – Technology, Governance, and Operations

Salary: $130k-$140k + bonus

Location:

Chicago, IL

Hybrid: 3 days onsite, 2 days remote

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of experience in Information Technology, with exposure to IT governance, process improvement, portfolio management, or technology strategy.
• Experience in Financial Services, or highly regulated environments
• Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio)
• Confluence and SharePoint for documentation
• Portfolio or project tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Service Now, Azure Dev Ops)
• Data visualization and reporting tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI)
• Process modeling and diagramming tools (e.g., Draw.io, Visio)
• Familiarity with governance and policy management platforms (Policy Tech, Archer)
• Experience with workflow automation and process tooling
• Working knowledge of COBIT, NIST 800-53, and ITIL with ability to identify control gaps and coordinate remediation.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end process improvement initiatives across OTSI (Office of Technology Strategy and Innovation), applying structured frameworks (e.g., CMMI, ITIL, Lean) to assess current-state maturity and define target-state roadmaps.
• Identify gaps in existing workflows, controls, and processes; design and implement remediation plans with measurable outcomes and defined owners.
• Develop, publish, and continuously refine OTSI policies, procedures, standards, and technology governance protocols in coordination with ITBM, Legal, Security, and Compliance stakeholders.
• Own end-to-end facilitation of the Enterprise Architecture Working Group (EAWG) and similar governance forums, including agenda development, pre-read coordination, minutes, action item tracking, and follow-through.
• Own and maintain a comprehensive, current-state portfolio spanning all OTSI managed work: innovation initiatives, OTSI-centric operational work streams, recurring service commitments, and ad hoc requests.
• Define and monitor SLAs across OTSI managed work; model team throughput and capacity constraints, apply priority-based triage to incoming requests, and ensure commitments are realistic and defensible.
• Coordinate with initiative owners, sponsors, and delivery teams to maintain portfolio data integrity; surface risks, dependencies, and milestone variances early and with recommended actions.
• Own OTSI KPIs, OKRs, and governance metrics end-to-end (definition, collection, analysis, and reporting) and develop portfolio health dashboards that give OTSI leadership a clear, real-time picture of team performance and workload.