Director of Strategic Projects

Our client is a private equity-backed family of creative brands that manufacture and distribute supplies for makers and sell them through their own e-commerce channels. Over the past two years, they have brought five businesses together onto one ERP, one e-commerce platform and two distribution facilities, and they are now focused on completing a portfolio of foundational projects that will give them a scalable platform for future growth and acquisitions.

Director of Strategic Projects Role

Our client is seeking a Director of Strategic Projects. This individual will report to the CEO and drive execution across the leadership team's prioritized portfolio of strategic projects, working with accountable functional owners and personally leading selected workstreams. This is a team-of-one role with no direct reports, partnering closely with the VP of IT and the operations leader to complement their teams.

The ideal candidate is a tech-savvy project leader with hands-on systems experience and a product or technical project management mindset, who understands how integrated systems, software and internal applications power a modern business. They have a track record of influence: earning trust quickly with long-tenured team members, unblocking work rather than simply reporting on it, and gaining cooperation without direct authority. They are analytical, bring ideas and solutions along with the problems they raise, and actively experiment with AI tools to work smarter. They are adaptable, comfortable managing change and operate with a strong bias toward action and results. They exercise exceptional discretion with confidential information.

Success in this role means projects that are completed and adopted, deadlines the business can rely on, fewer cross-functional surprises, and less recurring coordination work coming back to the CEO.

This will be a full-time, exempt position with Independence, Ohio (Greater Cleveland) as the home base, involvement at the company's second facility about 20 minutes away, and a minimum of four days per week on-site.

Responsibilities

Strategic Project Leadership

• Drive execution across the leadership team's prioritized portfolio of foundational projects, working with accountable functional owners to deliver each one on time.
• Personally lead selected work-streams from start to finish, setting clear milestones, owners and deadlines and running the operating rhythm that keeps work moving, including sprint planning, stand-ups and progress reviews.
• Identify risks and blockers early and work directly with project owners to remove them, so that the focus stays on unblocking work rather than reporting on it.
• Partner with the VP of IT and the operations leader, complementing their teams.

Delivery and Adoption

• Gather and document business requirements, and map downstream impacts before changes go live.
• Coordinate testing, training and rollout for technology-driven changes in areas such as costing, payables, work orders, special order handling, quality control, fulfillment and inventory.
• Drive adoption after launch, making sure new processes and systems work in practice and are sustained by the teams who use them every day.
• Lead process and SOP mapping, defining clear roles and ownership and capturing the domain knowledge of long-tenured team members.
• Find gaps across the company's integrated systems and internal applications, and improve the processes that connect them.
• Experiment with AI tools in practical ways to help projects move faster and teams work more efficiently.

Communications

• Keep the CEO informed through daily check-ins and clear, quantified updates on priorities, progress, risks and recommended solutions.
• Help every team understand the why, the how and the what behind changes, giving people early visibility so they can prepare and contribute with confidence.
• Champion open, timely communication across departments, bringing teams together and choosing the right channel for each message.
• Earn cooperation from leaders, managers and front-line teams without direct authority, communicating clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional work experience, with demonstrated ability to influence across an organization without formal authority.
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Hands-on experience delivering technology, product or systems implementations, from requirements gathering through testing, training, rollout and adoption.
• Proven track record of driving multiple cross-functional projects to on-time completion.
• Strong understanding of integrated business systems such as ERP, e-commerce, warehouse and inventory applications.
• Experience with process mapping, SOP documentation and defining roles and responsibilities across functions.
• Strong analytical and communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Based in the Greater Cleveland or Akron area and able to work on-site at least four days per week.

Preferred Skills & Attributes

• ERP implementation experience strongly preferred; NetSuite-specific experience is not required.
• A product management, engineering or technical project management background, including experience with Agile methods, sprint cycles and product rollouts.
• Practical experimentation with AI tools or agents to improve how work gets done.
• SQL, Power BI or similar data skills a plus.
• An MBA, PMP or Agile certification is valued but not required.
• Experience in e-commerce, manufacturing, distribution or consumer products, in a private equity-backed company, or in an organization with $500 million or more in revenue.

Compensation: DOE $190,000 to $210,000 USD annual base salary + 20% to 25% annual target bonus

Health, Retirement and Time Off Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision coverage
• Health savings and reimbursement accounts to help with healthcare costs
• Short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Employee assistance program and wellbeing support
• Travel assistance
• 401(k) with a company match
• Paid time off plus company holidays

What to Expect from Our Selection Process:

We are seeking passionate operators who possess the ability to move from strategy to tactical smoothly to join our leadership team. Our selection process is designed to assess the whole candidate and foster a mutual match for you and us. The process includes:

1. Chief of Staff Association Screening: 15 min phone interview and 30 min video interview
2. Chief of Staff Association Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment
3. CEO Interview: 30 to 45 min virtual interview with the CEO, with a possible follow-up conversation
4. Investor Interview: Virtual interview with a representative from the private equity partner
5. Finalist Assessments: 15 min cognitive assessment and 45 min Hogan assessment
6. Case Study: Case study exercise with the CEO
7. Final Interview: In-person interview on-site at the company's headquarters in Independence, Ohio

The Chief of Staff Association is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace where our employees can thrive and be themselves. We welcome all persons into our community. We embrace the diversity of gender, gender identity or expression, race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, physical and mental disabilities, medical condition, genetic characteristic, sexual orientation, marital status, family care or medical leave status, military or veteran status, or perceived membership in any of these groups.