Director, Strategic Initiatives

About the Role:

Dow Jones is seeking a highly strategic, analytically rigorous, and execution-oriented Director of Strategic Initiatives to operate at the intersection of Global Business Operations and the Office of the CEO.

This role will help translate the company’s highest-priority strategic objectives into clear initiatives, decision-ready recommendations, and measurable outcomes. The Director will serve as a connective tissue across the enterprise—bringing structure to ambiguous opportunities, aligning senior stakeholders, surfacing risks and interdependencies, and ensuring that important work moves from executive intent to coordinated execution.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable in an executive strategy discussion, a cross-functional working session, and the details of an initiative plan. They will be trusted to work with sensitive information, exercise sound judgment, and move quickly without sacrificing rigor. This is a high-visibility role for an operator who can see across the organization, identify what matters most, and create momentum where ownership or direction is unclear.

• Partner closely with the Head of GBO and OCEO to translate enterprise priorities into actionable strategic agendas, roadmaps, and operating plans.
• Serve as a trusted thought partner to senior executives, helping frame complex questions, evaluate options, and make clear recommendations.
• Prepare executive-ready decision papers, briefings, narratives, and presentations that synthesize data, risks, trade-offs, and proposed actions.
• Establish a fact base for strategic decisions by combining quantitative analysis, stakeholder input, operating context, and external or market perspectives as appropriate.
• Anticipate emerging issues and opportunities that require executive attention, and bring forward practical paths to resolution.

• Build and maintain visibility into the portfolio of company-wide strategic initiatives sponsored by GBO and/or OCEO.
• Create consistent approaches for initiative intake, prioritization, scoping, governance, milestone tracking, risk management, and value realization.
• Assess initiatives against strategic alignment, expected business impact, urgency, complexity, dependencies, and organizational capacity.
• Identify gaps in ownership, decision rights, resources, or execution discipline, and work with leaders to close them.
• Track progress against agreed outcomes and provide concise, high-quality updates to the appropriate executive forums.
• Surface cross-functional dependencies, duplication, delivery risks, and critical decisions before they become blockers.

• Step into high-priority initiatives that require enterprise coordination, particularly those that are ambiguous, cross-functional, or not yet owned by a single department.
• Translate broad strategic intent into problem statements, success measures, workstreams, milestones, governance, and accountability.
• Lead structured discovery, business-case development, prioritization, and validation in partnership with relevant business and functional leaders.
• Facilitate alignment across stakeholders with competing priorities, ensuring that decisions are documented and translated into action.
• Partner with GBO project and program management resources, business-unit teams, and functional experts to accelerate delivery without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Adapt the operating approach to the needs of each initiative while maintaining appropriate standards for transparency, accountability, and executive visibility.

• Identify opportunities to improve how Dow Jones makes decisions, allocates resources, manages strategic work, and measures results.
• Develop practical frameworks, templates, and ways of working that improve strategic execution across the organization.
• Use process redesign, technology, automation, and data to reduce friction and improve the quality and speed of execution.
• Build feedback loops and lessons-learned practices that continuously strengthen the strategic initiatives portfolio.
• Help clarify the roles of OCEO, GBO, executive sponsors, business units, and functional partners across the lifecycle of an initiative.

• Create clear, audience-appropriate communications that connect enterprise priorities to the work of teams across Dow Jones.
• Lead stakeholder and executive working sessions that produce alignment, decisions, and defined next steps.
• Build trust across functions and geographies by being transparent about context, constraints, risks, and trade-offs.
• Drive adoption of new operating practices by understanding stakeholder needs, anticipating resistance, and tailoring change approaches.
• Represent GBO and the OCEO partnership with credibility, discretion, and a consistently enterprise-minded perspective.

What Success Looks Like:

In the first 12 months, you will be expected to:

• Establish a clear, trusted view of the highest-priority strategic initiatives spanning GBO and OCEO.
• Create a pragmatic portfolio-management and executive-reporting cadence that improves visibility and decision quality.
• Help move priority initiatives from broad ambition to defined scope, accountable ownership, measurable outcomes, and active execution.
• Improve executive readiness by delivering concise, decision-oriented analyses and recommendations.
• Identify and resolve critical cross-functional dependencies, ownership gaps, and risks.
• Build strong working relationships across the ELT, GBO, OCEO, business units, and functional teams.
• Demonstrate measurable progress in the speed, clarity, alignment, and value realization of strategic work.

• 12+ years of experience in strategy, management consulting, business operations, corporate development, transformation, enterprise program management, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, enterprise-level initiatives in a global, matrixed organization.
• A track record of converting ambiguous business problems into clear strategies, decisions, and executable plans.
• Experience working directly with C-suite, executive, or senior leadership stakeholders.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to evaluate opportunities, quantify impact, and articulate trade-offs.
• Exceptional analytical, structured-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex issues simple and compelling.
• Strong project, portfolio, governance, and risk-management capabilities.
• Experience developing executive operating cadences, performance reporting, OKRs, KPIs, or similar management systems.
• Proven ability to influence outcomes without formal authority and lead through collaboration, credibility, and judgment.
• Comfort handling confidential information and navigating sensitive organizational dynamics.
• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience; an advanced degree is a plus.

• Think enterprise-first and naturally connect people, priorities, systems, and decisions.
• Can move between strategy and execution without losing sight of either.
• Bring calm, clarity, and momentum to ambiguous or fast-changing situations.
• Have the judgment to know when a lightweight intervention is sufficient and when stronger governance is required.
• Are rigorous about outcomes but practical about how work gets done.
• Can challenge senior stakeholders respectfully and productively.
• Build trust quickly and operate effectively across different functions, cultures, and levels of the organization.
• Are energized by high-impact work that does not always come with a pre-defined playbook.

Our Benefits

• Comprehensive Healthcare Plans
• Paid Time Off
• Retirement Plans
• Comprehensive Insurance Plans
• Lifestyle Programs & Wellness Resources
• Education Benefits
• Family Care Benefits & Caregiving Support
• Commuter Transit Program
• Subscription Discounts
• Employee Referral Program
• Financial Health Programs
• Cybersecurity Protection

Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering trusted content and data to consumers and organizations around the world. Our portfolio includes leading consumer and professional products, and our teams are united by a commitment to quality, innovation, and impact.

Global Business Operations helps connect teams, systems, and processes so Dow Jones can operate more effectively and deliver on its strategic priorities. In partnership with OCEO, GBO brings structure, insight, and execution discipline to the initiatives that matter most for the company.

Dow Jones is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

We strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals, including women, people with disabilities, and those from underrepresented groups. Reasonable accommodations are available for qualified individuals with disabilities during the application and interview process.

Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. EEO/Disabled/Vets

Reasonable Accommodation

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We’re committed to offering competitive and flexible compensation to attract top talent. This pay range reflects our good faith estimate for the role and may vary based on a candidate’s experience, skills, location, and other relevant factors.

For bonus-eligible roles, targets are determined based on multiple considerations, including market benchmarks and individual contributions.

For benefits-eligible roles, we offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package covering health, retirement, wellbeing, and more, along with optional benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees.