Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation

Who We Are:

Our vision is to grant the wish of every eligible child. Through our mission, we are uniting communities to grant life‑changing wishes. As the world's largest wish‑granting organization, we strive to create a sense of community and an environment where we warmly embrace our wish families, volunteers, and colleagues.

Joining Make‑Wish means becoming part of a mission that believes in the power of a wish.

Remote positions are open to applicants based anywhere in the continental U.S. Hybrid positions are open to applicants based in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We do not sponsor employment visas or other immigration processes to attain or maintain employment eligibility.

The Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation serves as the enterprise's strategic thought leader and architect of the organization's long‑term vision. This role leads the development, refresh, governance, and execution of the Enterprise Strategic Plan, Annual Operating Plan, and Quarterly Business Reviews, ensuring alignment between enterprise priorities, mission execution, and measurable outcomes. The Senior Director partners closely with executive leadership and cross‑functional stakeholders to identify strategic opportunities, facilitate enterprise governance forums, and drive high‑impact initiatives that advance organizational performance and transformation.

This role plays a central leadership function in enabling strategic decision making through clear strategic narratives, executive‑ready materials, and enterprise‑wide communications, ensuring alignment, clarity, and accountability across the organization.

• Demonstrated strategic mindset with the ability to anticipate future trends and translate them into enterprise priorities.
• Strong consulting, facilitation, and influence skills; able to lead without direct authority across a federated organization.
• Advanced analytical and problem‑solving capabilities, including comfort with ambiguity and complex systems.
• Expertise in enterprise planning, portfolio management, and transformation leadership.
• Proven ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, including executives and the Board.
• Experience designing and implementing organizational change and transformation frameworks.

• Lead the design, refresh, governance, and enterprise‑wide communication of the multi‑year Enterprise Strategic Plan, ensuring clarity, alignment, and sustained focus across all levels of the organization.
• Oversee the development and alignment of the Annual Operating Plan and enterprise performance indicators, ensuring strategic priorities translate into executable goals and measurable outcomes.
• Maintain visibility into organizational priorities, initiative interdependencies, and resource capacity to support informed decision‑making and enterprise‑level trade‑off discussions.
• Facilitate the Strategic Planning Council (SPC) by establishing meeting cadence and agendas; developing executive‑ready materials and presentations (including internal and external business reviews); facilitating discussions with ELT, SPC, and LCLT leadership; and delivering clear pre‑ and post‑meeting communications, decisions, and follow‑ups.
• Deliver quarterly and annual strategic and operational performance reviews for senior leadership and the Board, translating complex data into clear insights, risks, and recommendations.
• Establish and sustain enterprise governance frameworks that ensure disciplined prioritization, initiative alignment, and accountability across functions and leadership forums.
• Guide senior leaders through strategic scenario modeling, long‑range planning, and complex decision‑making, supporting organizational alignment during periods of change and transformation.
• Translate environmental insights, organizational data, and strategic analyses into clear, compelling narratives tailored for diverse audiences, including All Staff, SLT/Director forums, SLT and ELT meetings, and other enterprise leadership venues.
• Lead the creation of executive‑ready…