Senior Consultant, Strategic Alignment

The Senior Strategic Alignment Consultant partners closely with the Director, Strategic Alignment to extend the reach of strategic frameworks, decision-readiness standards, and innovation practices across the institution. This role works directly with Functional Leaders to build their strategic capability, helps functions operationalize institutional strategy, and shepherds ideas through the innovation and R&D pipeline. Where the Director sets and stewards the enterprise-level frameworks and planning cadence, the Senior Consultant activates them: equipping leaders, refining proposals, and ensuring functions engage with strategy in a disciplined, consistent way. This role operates as a trusted advisor and hands-on partner, translating strategic frameworks into practical guidance functional leaders can apply. 

Building Strategic Capability 

• Equip Functional Leaders with strategic thinking tools and approaches, helping them frame problems, evaluate opportunities, and connect their work to institutional strategy. 

• Build tools and templates functions can use on their own for strategic planning and decision-readiness. 

• Partner on active strategic initiatives, embedding strategic frameworks directly into the work. 

Strategy Operationalization 

• Partner directly with Functional Leaders to translate board-approved institutional strategy into concrete, actionable plans for their function. 

• Co-develop function-level plans during annual and off-cycle planning cycles, ensuring priorities, initiatives, and resourcing reflect enterprise strategy. 

• Identify cross-functional dependencies, overlaps, or gaps as functions operationalize strategy, surfacing them for resolution. 

Innovation & R&D Pipeline Stewardship 

• Manage day-to-day operation of the innovation lifecycle (idea to validation to pilot to enterprise adoption). 

• Screen and triage incoming ideas against defined criteria; support submitters in sharpening problem definition and expected value. 

• Design pilot structures, defining scope, success criteria, timeline, and evaluation approach, so pilots generate clear, decision-useful learning rather than open-ended trials. 

• Track pilot progress and health, identifying early risks or signals that inform go/no-go and scaling decisions. 

• Track overall pipeline health and progression, flagging stalled or high-potential concepts for Director and executive visibility. 

• Ensure pilot learnings, successful or not, are documented and routed into enterprise planning, building institutional muscle for responsible experimentation. 

Enterprise Alignment & Governance Support 

• Support preparation of structured summaries and materials for Operations Council and related governance forums. 

• Maintain documentation of strategic decisions, rationale, and follow-up actions. 

• Partner with Finance, PMO, Operational Excellence, and Enterprise Operations to ensure smooth handoff of approved initiatives. 

• Master's degree in organizational development, business, education, or related field required. 

• 5 to 7+ years of experience in strategy, organizational planning, innovation, consulting, or institutional effectiveness. 

• Demonstrated ability to influence leaders without formal authority over them. 

• Strong facilitation skills; comfortable running working sessions with senior stakeholders. 

• Working knowledge of business case development, ROI framing, and decision-readiness criteria. 

• Experience in highly regulated academic or healthcare environments preferred.