Director, Strategic Initiatives

NYC - 1211 Ave of the Americas Full time Job_Req_54793 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. You Will: Enterprise Strategy and Executive Partnership 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. Strategic Portfolio Leadership 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. Initiative Design and Delivery 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. Operating Model and Continuous Improvement 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. Communication and Change Leadership 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. You Have: 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. You’ll Thrive in This Role If You 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 About Dow Jones 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. Equal Opportunity and Accommodations 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 We are committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application and/or interview process. If you need assistance or accommodation in completing your application or participating in an interview due to a disability, email us at View email address on click.appcast.io. Please put "Reasonable Accommodation" in the subject line and provide a brief description of the type of assistance you need. This inbox will not be monitored for application status updates. Please refer to the privacy notice at the bottom of this page for submitting any data access, deletion, or other data subject rights requests, where permitted under your local laws and regulations. Business Area: Dow Jones - Global Business Operations Job Category: General Management Union Status: Non-Union role Base Pay Range: $195,000 - $235,000 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. Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world’s largest newsgathering operations globally. It is home to leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America’s largest newspaper by paid circulation; Barron’s, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance and Dow Jones Newswires. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Req ID: 54793 #J-18808-Ljbffr Dow Jones & Company, Inc.