Senior Strategic Initiatives Specialist

Senior Strategic Initiatives Specialist

St. Louis, MO

Position Summary

The Strategic Initiatives department is looking for a Senior Strategic Initiatives Specialist to join their team. The Strategic Initiatives Analyst is a high-impact, high-visibility role on Focus Financial Partners' Strategic Initiatives team a small, senior team that functions as an internal strategy and transformation group for the firm. This role leads a great deal of analytical and presentation work for the team to ensure we meet our business priorities. They are ready to trade deal-by-deal or engagement-by-engagement work for something with broader scope: supporting the highest-priority strategic initiatives at Focus, working directly with executive leadership, and doing the work that makes complex cross-functional decisions actually happen.

Primary Responsibilities

Program & Project Execution

• Own individual workstreams within the AI Strategy Program and other cross-functional initiatives structure the work, drive to decisions, and deliver outputs on timeline.
• Build and maintain the operating infrastructure for complex projects: project trackers, decision logs, risk registers, governance frameworks, and meeting rhythms.
• Triage incoming requests and competing priorities across the team's portfolio; keep the team's attention on the highest-leverage work.

Analysis & Modeling

• Build financial models, business cases, and ROI frameworks to support strategic decisions clean, accurate, and built to be used, not just filed.
• Conduct competitive intelligence and market research; synthesize findings into executive-ready summaries and recommendations.
• Support initiative tracking and KPI dashboards that connect strategic priorities to measurable outcomes.

Communication & Influence

• Prepare board materials, executive presentations, and governance committee deliverables; own the quality of the narrative and the numbers.
• Represent the Strategic Initiatives team in cross-functional meetings; keep stakeholders aligned and accountable without positional authority.
• Translate complex, ambiguous situations into crisp problem statements and structured options for senior decision-makers.

AI Strategy Program Support

• Support the execution of Focus's enterprise AI strategy, including vendor evaluations, use case intake process, governance committee operations, and pilot program management.
• Help develop and maintain the AI program's knowledge base, intake forms, risk frameworks, and operating cadences.
• Serve as a credible, hands-on user of AI tools; bring practical experience to conversations about where and how AI creates value at Focus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, economics or related discipline required, MBA or CFA in progress or completed preferred
• 3+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, management consulting, or corporate strategy at a financial services firm.
• Demonstrated ability to build and own structured work products models, memos, slide decks independently and under time pressure.
• Experience working in fast-paced environments with multiple concurrent priorities and senior stakeholder exposure.
• Exceptional financial modeling and Excel skills builds from scratch, not template-dependent.
• Strong structured communication skills: can write a one-pager, build a five-slide deck, or lead a working session with equal command.
• Intellectually curious and comfortable operating in ambiguity; doesn't wait to be told what the answer should be.
• High personal accountability owns their output, fixes their mistakes, and doesn't let things fall through the cracks.
• Collaborative by instinct but comfortable working independently; can operate with minimal supervision on defined workstreams.
• Familiarity with AI productivity tools (Claude, Notion AI, Copilot, etc.) and a willingness to be an early adopter. Experience building with AI is a plus but not required.