Executive Director of Growth & Strategy

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nWho We Are Liberum exists to deliver in the environments where most firms struggle. Our clients are public sector agencies navigating enterprise-scale transformations in politically complex, high-stakes environments where the margin for error is thin, and the consequences of failure are public. We believe clients deserve real ownership, not warm bodies and hope. We are a team first. Not a loose collection of consultants sharing a logo, but a genuine team that pushes each other’s thinking, pressure-tests each other’s work, and shows up when engagements get hard. The people we hire make the team better, not just their own deliverables. We’re building an AI-forward consulting practice. We don’t manage growth or strategy the way firms did five years ago. We use AI to see around corners, move faster, and deliver sharper analysis than leaders who are still doing everything manually. If your toolkit hasn’t evolved to include AI as a core capability, you’re already behind the standard at Liberum. We’re also at an inflection point. Liberum has built a strong reputation delivering complex solutions for Washington State agencies. Now we’re ready to scale: expanding across the Pacific Northwest, deepening our client relationships, building our brand, and assembling a team of elite practitioners. We need a leader who can drive that growth and shape the firm’s future, not just manage what exists today. If you’re looking for a comfortable executive title and a steady paycheck, this isn’t the role. If you want to build something: grow a firm, set its strategic direction, and leave a lasting mark on how public sector consulting gets done in the PNW. Keep reading. The Role This is not a business development position with a leadership title. This is a senior executive role for someone who will shape the trajectory of the firm. You will own the growth strategy, yes, but you’ll also have a seat at the table on firm-wide operational decisions, financial accountability, talent strategy, and the culture that defines who Liberum is and who we become. You will serve as the primary engine for Liberum’s expansion across the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon), building the relationships, partnerships, and market presence that turn a strong Washington State practice into a dominant regional firm. But growth without substance is noise. You’ll also be accountable for ensuring that every new engagement, every new hire, and every new partnership meets the standard Liberum is built on. The right candidate isn’t precious about role boundaries. You’ll partner with Project Directors to provide executive air cover, regional networking, and strategic insight. You’ll step into client escalations when the situation demands senior leadership presence. You’ll make hiring and team composition decisions that shape our delivery capability. And you’ll own growth outcomes, not just pipeline metrics, but whether the growth you’re driving translates into real, sustainable business results aligned with where the firm is headed. You’re an AI-enabled executive. You use AI tools to analyze legislative budget cycles and market data to surface opportunities before they hit the open market. You generate executive-ready briefings and regional growth strategies in a fraction of the time it takes traditional leaders. You drive and empower the team to integrate AI tools and processes into their methodology and daily work. AI isn’t a nice-to-have in your toolkit. It’s how you operate at a level that would otherwise be impossible. This role carries significant autonomy and significant accountability. You’ll have direct influence over firm strategy, financial performance, talent composition, and client relationships at the highest level. The scope of this role will expand as Liberum grows, and if you’re the right person, you’ll be the one defining what that expansion looks like. What You’ll Do Firm Strategy & Operational Leadership Strategic Direction: Partner with Liberum’s ownership to set and execute the firm’s strategic direction, not just the BD plan, but the overall vision for where Liberum is going, how we get there, and what we become in the process Growth Accountability: Ensure that growth initiatives translate into meaningful business results. Think beyond pipeline volume to whether new engagements are sustainable, well-scoped, and positioned to strengthen the firm’s long-term trajectory Operational Decision-Making: Participate in firm-wide operational decisions including resource allocation, investment priorities, service line development, and organizational structure as the firm scales Culture & Values Stewardship: Protect and strengthen the culture that makes Liberum work: the standard of excellence, the team-first mentality, the intolerance for mediocrity. As the firm grows, you are one of the primary guardians of who we are and who we refuse to become Market Growth & Regional Expansion Regional Strategy: Build and execute Liberum’s expansion strategy across the PNW, establishing the firm as the premier partner for public agencies in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and beyond Relationship Building: Build and nurture deep, authentic relationships with public sector leaders, establishing yourself and Liberum as the trusted advisor that enables them to get things done right. These aren’t transactional sales relationships; they’re long-term partnerships built on credibility and results Contract Capture: Use Master Contracts to identify and secure new opportunities, aligning Liberum’s services with high-priority agency needs: compliance modernization, legacy technology replacement, and major ERP implementations (Workday, SAP, Oracle) Brand & Market Presence: Serve as the primary face of Liberum at industry events, conferences, and in high-level client meetings, building a brand that elite practitioners want to join and agencies trust with their most complex work Strategic Partnerships: Identify, vet, and build alliances with large-scale system integrators and firms with complementary service lines, expanding Liberum’s reach and collective capability while knowing exactly when to partner and when to compete Talent Strategy & Team Building Hiring Authority: Own the talent strategy for the firm, defining what an elite Liberum consultant looks like, leading recruitment efforts, and making the hiring and team composition decisions that determine our delivery capability Performance Accountability: Identify performance gaps and work with Project Directors to ensure the team is composed entirely of exceptional talent. You have the authority and the responsibility to make difficult personnel decisions when the standard isn’t being met Team Development: Partner with Project Directors to balance delivery execution with professional growth, strategic mentoring, and leadership development, building the next generation of Liberum leaders Client Escalation & Executive Sponsorship Executive Sponsor: Serve as the senior executive escalation point for client relationships when engagements require leadership presence, whether that’s navigating a politically sensitive situation, resetting expectations, or strengthening a relationship that needs senior attention Delivery Partnership: Partner with Project Directors to provide strategic oversight, pressure-testing, and the executive perspective needed to ensure deliverables meet and exceed client standards Quality Stewardship: Audit and refine project management, change management, and organizational development products to ensure they provide undeniable value, protecting Liberum’s reputation with every engagement AI-Forward Leadership Market Intelligence: Use AI to analyze legislative documents, RFPs, budget cycles, and regional market data to identify early-warning patterns and opportunity chains that inform proactive growth decisions Executive Acceleration: Use AI to rapidly produce executive-ready deliverables: regional growth strategies, risk assessments, pipeline presentations, and competitive analyses, at a quality and speed that traditional approaches can’t match Innovation Leadership: Continuously evaluate emerging AI tools and techniques, bring them to the firm, and ensure Liberum stays ahead of competitors who are still running their practices manually What You’ll Produce This is not an exhaustive list, but it reflects the tangible outcomes this role is accountable for: Regional Market Strategy: A rolling 24-month roadmap for expansion across PNW public agencies, with specific targets, relationship milestones, and revenue projections Strategic Capture Plans: Tailored approaches for securing and maximizing engagements on high-value Master Contracts Growth Results: Measurable growth in revenue and new engagements directly attributable to the strategies, relationships, and market positioning you build Decision Frameworks: AI-synthesized market and budget analysis to guide firm-wide investment, resource allocation, and strategic priorities Elite Talent Pipeline: A curated network of best-in-class practitioners ready for deployment as the firm scales, built through your recruitment leadership and industry relationships Partnership Portfolio: Formalized strategic alliances with system integrators and complementary firms that expand Liberum’s market reach and win probability Brand Equity: A measurably stronger Liberum brand across the PNW, recognized by agencies, practitioners, and competitors as the firm that does the hardest work the best Executive Relationship Map: A documented and actively maintained network of key agency leaders, CIOs, program directors, and procurement decision-makers across the PNW, with clear relationship status, engagement cadence, and strategic value for each Agency Trust Pipeline: Demonstrated progression from initial introduction to trusted advisor status with target agencies, measured not by meetings held, but by repeat engagements, sole-source opportunities, and agency leaders proactively reaching out to Liberum when new challenges arise Relationship-Driven Revenue: New engagements and contract expansions that are directly traceable to relationships you built and nurtured, not leads that came in over the transom, but opportunities you created through trust, credibility, and strategic positioning SI & Partner Relationship Outcomes: Active, productive partnerships with system integrators and complementary firms that result in joint pursuits, teaming agreements, and wins that neither firm could have captured alone RequirementsWhat We Require These aren’t suggestions. If you can’t back each of these up with specific results from your career, this isn’t the right fit. Public Sector Market Mastery: 10+ years of experience navigating the unique procurement processes and political dynamics of state and local government. You must possess an active, warm network of executive-level stakeholders across the PNW, relationships you built, not inherited Demonstrated Capture Success: A proven track record of identifying, qualifying, and winning multi-million dollar consulting engagements. You should be able to point to specific Master Contracts or RFPs where you were the primary architect of the win Consulting & ERP Depth: Deep fluency in the business value of enterprise-scale transformations (Workday, SAP, Oracle). You speak the language of business process reengineering and legacy modernization to technical and non-technical executives alike, and you understand the delivery reality behind the sales pitch Business Growth Mindset: You think like a business builder, not just a business developer. You understand that growth has to be smart: well-scoped engagements, the right clients, and a focus on long-term sustainability over short-term wins. You naturally consider the downstream impact of every deal you pursue on the firm’s capacity, reputation, and trajectory Talent & Culture Leadership: Experience building and shaping high-performance teams, not just recruiting, but making the hard calls on team composition, performance standards, and cultural fit that determine whether a firm delivers at an elite level or doesn’t Active, Daily AI Integration: Demonstrated use of AI tools as a force multiplier, for rapid RFP analysis, stakeholder mapping, competitive intelligence, and market analysis. You drive AI adoption in your teams, not just your own work Negotiation & Professional Courage: The ability to negotiate complex SOWs and navigate the tension between agency budget constraints and delivery standards. You deliver difficult truths with data, directness, and a clear path to yes Partnership Architecture: Experience identifying and forming strategic alliances with Tier-1 System Integrators or specialized firms to expand market footprint and win probability Executive Presence: The gravitas, credibility, and relationship skills to represent Liberum at the highest levels, with agency directors, legislative stakeholders, SI leadership, and the firm’s own team What Sets You Apart Not required, but these will move you to the front of the line. Practice Builder: You haven’t just managed a pipeline. You’ve built a regional practice or business unit from the ground up, moving from a single contract to a dominant market position Regional Program Mastery: Direct leadership or high-level capture experience within major PNW statewide initiatives such as Washington’s OneWA or Oregon’s R2B AI Workflow Architect: You’ve designed and implemented AI-driven workflows for business development, automated early-warning systems for legislative budget changes, AI-powered proposal generation pipelines, or market intelligence dashboards Procurement Navigation: Expert-level command of Washington State (DES) and regional procurement vehicles, with a history of influencing procurement strategy to better align with agency outcomes SI Partnership Management: A track record of successfully managing the co-opetition dynamic with Tier-1 System Integrators, knowing exactly when to partner and when to hold them accountable to the client’s interests Firm-Level Leadership Experience: Prior experience in a COO, VP, managing director, or equivalent role where you had direct accountability for firm-wide operations, strategy, or financial performance Team Enablement: Provent experience driving AI adoption across an entire team, not just encouraging it, but building the workflows, standards, and expectations that make AI-enabled delivery the baseline for every practitioner BenefitsWhy Liberum This isn’t a job. It’s an opportunity to build something. You’ll have direct influence over the firm’s strategy, growth trajectory, and the team that delivers the work You’ll work alongside people who hold themselves to the same standard you do, a team where excellence is the baseline, not the exception The work is real: complex, politically nuanced, enterprise-scale transformations that actually matter to public agencies