Senior Director, Strategic Planning and Campaign Management

Department ADV Office of Campaign Management About the Department The University of Chicago Advancement team cultivates lifelong connections with more than 220,000 alumni, current students, parents, and friends worldwide, building community through intellectual, professional, and other meaningful experiences on campus, around the world and online. Advancement empowers every division, school, department, and institute to thrive, generating support for esteemed faculty, pioneering researchers, visionary practitioners, and ambitious students. During the Chicago Minds campaign, Advancement seeks to raise over $1 billion annually. This unprecedented philanthropic effort is designed to stretch the boundaries of what is possible, fueling bold discovery and amplifying the University’s global impact. Our work is rooted in the belief that meaningful connection and lasting experiences inspire ambassadorship and enduring commitment. We champion a culture of innovation and excellence, inviting every member of our community to participate in a future defined by creativity, intellectual rigor, and shared purpose. Through collaborative partnerships, strategic stewardship, and investment in talent, Advancement is reimagining alumni and donor engagement while ensuring UChicago remains a catalyst of impact for generations to come. The Strategic Planning function in Advancement propels operational excellence and supports enterprise-wide alignment to help us meet, and exceed, our fundraising goals. Acting as a vital bridge between vision and execution, this function brings clarity to priorities, mobilizes cross-functional partners, and keeps complex initiatives on track. With a sharp focus on delivering practical strategies and strengthening core operations, Strategic Planning ensures that Advancement not only performs at a high level today, but is also positioned for long-term, sustainable success. Job Summary The Senior Director bridges strategic direction and execution across the Strategic Planning, Campaign Management, and Executive Office functions, connecting people, priorities, and workstreams to advance the Assistant Vice President’s strategic agenda. Reporting to the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Planning and Campaign, the role translates organizational strategy into coordinated action by establishing clarity around priorities, ownership, sequencing, and decision-making across the division. The Senior Director directly manages project managers embedded within Strategic Planning and Campaign Management who oversee day-to-day implementation, milestones, and delivery within their respective workstreams. Working across rather than within individual workstreams, the Senior Director drives broader organizational progress through cross-functional facilitation, coordination, and problem-solving with colleagues across the enterprise. This role identifies and resolves complex, ambiguous challenges, including competing priorities, unclear ownership, cross-functional dependencies, and stalled decisions, and develops structures to support sustainable solutions or directs issues to the appropriate owners. Through this enterprise-wide perspective, the Senior Director also surfaces emerging risks, patterns, opportunities, and organizational constraints to the Assistant Vice President and other senior leaders to inform strategy and executive-level decision-making. This position leads the planning, development, and implementation of University objectives, long-range and strategic plans, and identifies the University’s strengths and weaknesses. Identifies new external partners to advance strategic priorities. This position is not eligible for employer-sponsored employment authorization. Responsibilities Serves as the operational bridge between the Assistant Vice President's strategic direction and the teams responsible for delivery across Strategic Planning, Campaign Management, and Executive Office Coordination, translating Executive Team priorities into integrated plans with clear ownership, timelines, accountability, and measurable outcomes. Aligns priorities and resources across the portfolio and ensures insights, risks, resource needs, and emerging constraints flow upward to inform strategy. Directly manages project managers embedded within the Strategic Planning and Campaign Management functions, setting priorities, allocating resources, and providing coaching and performance management. Provides the operational leadership and decision-making framework that guides their work and partners with them to build systems and processes that enable efficient, accurate, and repeatable execution. Identifies and resolves complex, ambiguous problems that cross functional boundaries, including competing demands, unclear ownership, contested priorities, and dependencies no single team is positioned to see. Designs and implements governance structures and processes that improve decision-making and, when ownership resides outside the Assistant Vice President's office, elevates issues to the appropriate senior leader and collaborates toward resolution. Facilitates alignment across functional leaders to advance organization-wide campaign and strategic planning objectives, serving as a convener who brings together the appropriate stakeholders to resolve issues, clarify direction, and maintain momentum while surfacing emerging conflicts and resource constraints before they become blockers. Partners with People and Culture to lead the orientation of new senior leaders joining Advancement to the planning process, ensuring they have the context and working knowledge of organizational plans and cross-functional interdependencies needed to lead effectively. Establishes and maintains standards for the quality, accuracy, and completeness of campaign and strategic planning deliverables, serving as the final review point before materials reach the Assistant Vice President or executive audiences and creating inf