Sr. Director, Business Strategy And Initiatives

Position Title:

Sr. Director, Business Strategy and Initiatives

Department:

General Audience Programming

Corporate Area:

General Audience Programming

Status:

Regular, Full time Exempt

Manager Title:

Chief Programming Executive & GM, General Audience Programming

Position Overview:

The Senior Director, Business Strategy & Initiatives position is comprised of both strategic and day-to-day tactical responsibilities reporting directly to the Chief Programming Executive & General Manager, General Audience Programming. This position will play a key role in supporting the development and execution of departmental initiatives for General Audience including advancing its multiplatform strategy, business continuity, and future sustainability planning.

As a thought partner to the Chief Programming Executive and other unit leads, this position will oversee a portfolio of projects and ensure a well-aligned approach to advancing new opportunities to help elevate GA content offerings and attract new audiences across platforms.

The position will liaise heavily with internal collaborators, perform landscape analyses, and identify partnership opportunities. They will also enable the Chief Programming Executive and the GA leadership team to focus on the key strategic initiatives by assuming several day-to-day responsibilities for the organizational and operational effectiveness of the team.

Key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Senior Level Operations & Administration (40%)

• Support the Chief Programming Executive’s workload and prioritization of time by managing the flow of information, resolving issues, and providing analysis and insights on key issues.
• Initiate and supervise the administration of the annual content evaluation, budget processes, and other recurring deliverables for the National Program Service and other GA distribution functions.
• Set the Chief Programming Executive’s monthly and quarterly prioritization on activities, key events, and deadlines, and facilitate alignment of resources to meet those objectives.
• Serves as a point of “checks and balances” for GA business deals to ensure clear workflow and approval by Chief Programming Executive.
• Maintain the ongoing collaboration between Programming, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Business Intelligence, and other PBS groups to ensure efficient business flow and to obtain and analyze key performance data for GA content, Digital Studios, and Learning Media.
• Support knowledge management across GA and create and operationalize processes for recurring flow of information across the organization and to partners.
• Lead in the organizing cross-functional working groups, organizational culture building initiatives, and other special leadership activities as needed.
• Assist with the long-term GA budget planning process with the Chief Programming Executive and Finance department, ensuring that PBS resources can be best leveraged across the development and distribution of projects under consideration or in production.
• Work with all areas of GA to provide and coordinate communication, analysis, recommendations, and options to the Chief Programming Executive regarding high impact decisions; track high priority initiatives; and identify potential obstacles and solutions.
• Act as a principal liaison and conduit of information for the Chief Programming Executive, both with internal staff and external stakeholders, and respond to inquiries from stakeholders as assigned. This may involve content planning, budgeting, and other operations needs set forth by the Chief Programming Executive.
• Identify and improve current processes and daily operations of the GA team for optimized efficiency and productivity.
• Serve as GA lead for preparing speeches, briefing documents, and presentations including slides and visual aids; and develop underlying strategies for General Audience communications as needed.
• Communicate with GA and PBS leadership on decision-making, program management, and initiative implementation; help determine key performance indicators and update dashboards as needed.

Strategic Planning (40%)

• Work closely with the Chief Programming Executive and the senior leadership team on the annual strategic planning process and development of an operational roadmap. Working with other PBS departments, create metrics for success, revisit metrics regularly, and evaluate and communicate progress against them.
• Serve as a strategic advisor by bringing together needs, action items, and follow-up and connecting different points of view to help the Chief Programming Executive plan with the best possible business context.
• Lead operational follow up of key initiatives. This includes timeline development, supporting teams to complete associated deliverables, and working collaboratively to prepare executive presentations.
• Oversee strategic initiatives and planning processes (metrics, headcount planning, budget, DEI, etc.) from development through successful execution.

Special Projects (20%)

• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Manage large, often cross-functional, organization-wide projects or initiatives; facilitate special projects, bring together important stakeholders, help drive decisions and ensure action items are executed.
• Operate at a tactical, strategic, and operational level, handling the oversight of projects that do not neatly fit within the organizational chart or that fall between departments or leadership areas of responsibility.

Requirements for success:

• Nimble business mind with a focus on developing creative solutions, while taking account of operational constraints.
• Experience with senior level presentations, meeting planning, and communication across various audiences.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in management consulting, operations, or project management. Experience with a focus in media or a related industry preferred.
• Solid experience with forecasting and budget management.
• Ability to collaborate with all levels of staff and external stakeholders and achieve and maintain consensus among diverse groups.
• A self-starter with exceptional attention to detail, strong initiative, and critical thinking skills, and an ability to motivate others to Innovative thinking.
• Proven success in a position of influence in matrix and/or consulting environments; even when you do not have direct supervision over an individual or department.
• Strong project management and decision-making skills, with a focus on internal and interdepartmental communications.
• Proven leader with a blend of superior strategic, operational, program/project management, and leadership skills.
• Must possess superb judgement and integrity, and unparalleled confidentiality and discretion in handling confidential and sensitive information.
• Proven experience with business analytics and translating data to action, strategy development, and business operations development.
• Excellent communicator in written and verbal form, with peers and senior executives.
• Exceptional organizational skills and experience managing high-profile projects on tight and overlapping deadlines.
• Consistently demonstrates adherence to PBS’ Standards and Practices and respect for inclusion, diversity and ethics.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience in Business Management, Business Development, Media or related field.
• Strong knowledge of media and industry changes and evolution.

PBS is an Equal Opportunity Employer in accordance with the EEOC and the Commonwealth of Virginia.