Strategic Initiatives Lead

the strategic initiatives lead is a high-impact, high-visibility role on focus financial partners’ strategic initiatives team — a small, senior team that functions as an internal strategy and transformation group for the firm. This role picks up the analytical and presentation work so the director can focus on making strategic decisions, managing stakeholders, and directing the team.

strategic initiatives lead

the strategic initiatives lead is a high-impact, high-visibility role on focus financial partners’ strategic initiatives team — a small, senior team that functions as an internal strategy and transformation group for the firm. This role picks up the analytical and presentation work so the director can focus on making strategic decisions, managing stakeholders, and directing the team.

the ideal candidate brings 2–5 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, or management consulting — a traditional finance skillset: financial modeling, business case development, competitive analysis, board prep, stakeholder materials, deal support. They are ready to trade deal-by-deal or engagement-by-engagement work for something with broader scope: supporting the highest-priority strategic initiatives at focus, working directly with executive leadership, and doing the work that makes complex cross-functional decisions actually happen.

• own individual work streams within the ai strategy program and other cross-functional initiatives — structure the work, drive to decisions, and deliver outputs on timeline.
• build and maintain the operating infrastructure for complex projects: project trackers, decision logs, risk registers, governance frameworks, and meeting rhythms.
• triage incoming requests and competing priorities across the team’s portfolio; keep the team’s attention on the highest-leverage work.

• build financial models, business cases, and roi frameworks to support strategic decisions — clean, accurate, and built to be used, not just filed
• conduct competitive intelligence and market research; synthesize findings into executive-ready summaries and recommendations.
• support initiative tracking and kpi dashboards that connect strategic priorities to measurable outcomes.

• prepare board materials, executive presentations, and governance committee deliverables; own the quality of the narrative and the numbers.
• represent the strategic initiatives team in cross-functional meetings; keep stakeholders aligned and accountable without positional authority.
• translate complex, ambiguous situations into crisp problem statements and structured options for senior decision-makers.

• support the execution of focus’s enterprise ai strategy, including vendor evaluations, use case intake process, governance committee operations, and pilot program management.
• help develop and maintain the ai program’s knowledge base, intake forms, risk frameworks, and operating cadences.
• serve as a credible, hands‑on user of ai tools; bring practical experience to conversations about where and how ai creates value at focus.

• 2+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, management consulting, or corporate strategy at a financial services firm
• bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, or related discipline
• mba or cfa in progress or completed (prefered)
• demonstrated ability to build and own structured work products — models, memos, slide decks — independently and under time pressure.
• experience working in fast-paced environments with multiple concurrent priorities and senior stakeholder…