Lead, Digital Strategic Initiatives; Temporary

Lead, Digital Strategic Initiatives (Temporary)

Department: Digital

Employment Type: Temporary

Location: Stephen

A. Schwarzman Building

Reporting To: Vicky Darbouze

Compensation: $120,000 - $140,000 / year

This is a four-year, grant-funded temporary position. This is an onsite role and requires work onsite in NYC 3 days a week.

The New York Public Library has been an essential provider of free books, information, ideas, and education for all New Yorkers for over 125 years. Founded in 1895, NYPL is the nation's largest neighborhood public library system and the most used research library in the world. NYPL provides an extraordinary richness of resources, educational innovation, and opportunities available to all across its 92 locations throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Reporting to the Chief of Staff of the Digital Department, the Digital Strategic Initiatives Lead will play a pivotal role in supporting operations and driving high-impact strategic initiatives across the entire Digital team. This position acts as a critical enabler, helping the Digital Leadership Team (DLT) maintain organizational alignment, quickly innovate, and efficiently manage risk. This role will help support a variety of initiatives, including preparing for board and trustee meetings, orchestrating leadership and team off-sites, and defining our overall approach to risk management.

The ideal candidate will possess exceptional strategic thinking abilities, strong communication skills, and a proven track record in managing complex projects and teams across multiple departments.

We are looking for someone we can count on to:

• Preparing and finalizing all memos and presentations for Digital board meetings
• Cultural programs by championing employee experience through supporting and structuring Town Halls, All Hands meetings, and targeted internal cultural initiatives.
• The definition and establishment of a clear, department-wide risk management framework, including procedures for coordinating with Legal to proactively identify and mitigate systemic risks.

• Operational clarity by developing clear practices and procedures to help drive risk awareness and understanding across the broader Digital Department. Help staff understand when and how to coordinate with partners like Legal to identify and mitigate risk
• Instruct and coach staff on creating high‑level documentation and effectively communicating complex content and narratives through memos and presentations to senior leadership audiences

• The culture of NYPL and the Digital team
• The intricacies of NYPL's existing digital products and strategy and how they ladder up to institutional goals
• The current state of risk management practices across Digital and identify areas for improvement

• Streamline and optimize key processes and practices to ensure a seamless employee experience, including developing scalable onboarding and interviewing procedures in partnership with the Chief of Staff and HR
• Our approach to digital risk management

• Understand the functional structure and core mission of NYPL & Digital
• Meet with key stakeholders across Digital (Product, Engineering, Design, Project Management), Legal, and other relevant departments across NYPL to establish relationships and develop a network
• Understand our approach for department wide special events (leadership and team offsites / onsites, town halls, etc)
• Begin to support materials preparation for the next Board meeting.

• Prepare and orchestrate the agenda and logistics for the next leadership / team offsite.
• Develop a draft proposal for the department’s centralized risk management framework.

• Implement the formalized risk management and compliance procedures across product and engineering teams.
• Lead and actively engage in special projects that significantly enhance the integration and connectivity of the Digital department across the Library.

• Act as a trusted partner and project manager to the Chief of Staff, Digital ensuring that their strategic priorities are executed with speed, accuracy, and…