Vice President, Enterprise Strategy and External Affairs

Accountabilities:

• Serve as a senior strategic thought partner to executive leadership, helping translate enterprise vision into clear strategic choices, priorities, roadmaps, work plans, and measurable outcomes.
• Help shape and sequence high-priority enterprise initiatives while considering operational capacity, financial sustainability, legal and compliance requirements, organizational readiness, and available resources.
• Develop decision-ready recommendations, business cases, scenarios, and trade-off analyses for complex enterprise opportunities and emerging strategic priorities.
• Strengthen enterprise planning, research, sensing, and decision-making practices that enable the organization to identify trends, test assumptions, and make informed strategic choices.
• Help shape and test emerging external affairs capabilities, balancing hands-on execution of immediate priorities with assessment of longer-term organizational needs.
• Support strategic communications and public affairs initiatives, including narrative development, thought leadership, executive visibility, and selected high-priority communications.
• Steward selected complex relationships with funders, intermediaries, clients, partners, and broader ecosystem stakeholders where senior judgment and cross-functional coordination are required.
• Evaluate potential funds, fiscal sponsorship opportunities, partnerships, products, services, ventures, and other opportunities by assessing mission value, financial implications, stakeholder considerations, and operational requirements.
• Bring relevant philanthropic, movement, policy, market, and partner intelligence into enterprise planning and portfolio decisions.
• Represent the organization in selected external settings and, when delegated, support senior leaders in important relationships and forums while documenting insights and coordinating appropriate follow-up.
• Support the incubation of strategic initiatives by establishing initial strategy, governance, partnerships, resources, and leadership capacity needed to move concepts toward implementation.
• Partner closely with operational and functional leaders to ensure infrastructure, capacity, resources, governance, and risk considerations are incorporated into strategic choices.
• Translate approved strategic direction into clear priorities, outcomes, guardrails, decision points, and execution handoffs while respecting functional ownership.
• Identify implementation barriers, emerging evidence, unresolved strategic choices, and other issues requiring leadership attention, ensuring appropriate ownership and follow-through.
• Create alignment across entities and functions by connecting enterprise priorities with the teams, capabilities, and resources required for successful execution.

Requirements

• 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in philanthropy, social impact, movement infrastructure, mission-driven intermediaries, or other complex and evolving environments, including 8+ years of meaningful senior-level leadership experience.
• Demonstrated success managing and developing staff, building organizational capabilities, and leading complex initiatives or functions.
• Strong enterprise-level strategic thinking, with the ability to recognize patterns and opportunities, frame complex challenges, and advise senior leaders while remaining willing to work hands-on when priorities or capabilities are still developing.
• Proven experience contributing to cross-functional strategic planning or similarly complex organizational strategy processes and translating ambiguity into clear choices and decision-ready recommendations.
• Experience building or significantly shaping a team, function, initiative, or organizational capability from an early or evolving stage.
• Meaningful experience working within or alongside mission-driven intermediaries and fiscal sponsors, with an understanding of how intermediaries move capital, manage risk, and create value for funders, movements, and communities.
• Experience evaluating or developing complex partnerships, funds, programs, products, services, or new lines of work while balancing mission, financial, stakeholder, and operational considerations.
• Deep understanding of the philanthropic and social impact ecosystem, including foundations, donor networks, movement leaders, advocates, socially responsible businesses, public-sector partners, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Established relationships with diverse stakeholders across relevant social impact and philanthropic ecosystems.
• Strong strategic communications and narrative-development capabilities, supported by exceptional written and verbal communication, facilitation, synthesis, and executive-advisory skills.
• Sound judgment and discretion when navigating complex stakeholder relationships, sensitive issues, reputational considerations, and rapidly evolving environments.
• Ability to lead through influence across functions and organizational levels, build trust quickly, and make clear recommendations amid competing perspectives.
• Strong ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, distinguishing what needs to be decided immediately from what can be tested, learned, and refined over time.
• Deep commitment to racial, economic, environmental, and social justice, with meaningful understanding of organizing, advocacy, philanthropy, and power.
• Ability to work effectively across multiple technology platforms and systems with a self-directed approach to learning.
• Experience with impact investing or other mission-aligned capital strategies is a plus.
• Strong adaptability, curiosity, accountability, collaboration, and problem-solving skills suited to a lean, evolving, startup-like environment.

Benefits

• $238,000–$280,000 salary, commensurate with experience.
• Fully remote, U.S.-based position.
• Domestic travel for team gatherings, external convenings, key partner engagement, retreats, and other strategic activities as needed.
• 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) match.
• Paid time off and leave policies.
• Professional development funds.
• Remote work stipend.
• Significant Vice President-level autonomy, strategic influence, and exposure to enterprise-level decision-making.
• Opportunity to shape emerging organizational capabilities, external affairs infrastructure, and long-term strategy.
• Collaborative environment centered on accountability, people, impact, curiosity, growth, and continuous learning.
• Opportunity to work across philanthropy, social impact, advocacy, partnerships, communications, and organizational strategy.
• Meaningful opportunity to contribute to work focused on advancing greater racial, economic, environmental, and social equity.