Vice President, Enterprise Strategy and External Affairs
Quick Summary
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Vice President,
This Vice President role combines enterprise strategy, external affairs, strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and organizational development.
You will serve as a senior thought partner to executive leadership, translating vision into clear priorities, roadmaps, and actionable recommendations.
The position is intentionally designed as a build-stage leadership opportunity, balancing immediate execution with long-term capability development.
You will assess emerging opportunities, stakeholder dynamics, organizational needs, and external trends to help shape strategic decisions.
The role offers significant autonomy and influence across a lean, collaborative, mission-driven environment undergoing continued evolution.
You will work across functions and external relationships to connect strategy with execution, resources, governance, communications, and growth.
Success will require exceptional judgment, strategic clarity, relationship-building, and the ability to turn ambiguity into meaningful action and measurable outcomes.
- 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
~2 min read- 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.
What We Offer
~2 min readLocation & Eligibility
Listing Details
- Posted
- October 6, 2026
- First seen
- October 6, 2026
- Last seen
- October 6, 2026
Posting Health
- Days active
- 0
- Repost count
- 0
- Trust Level
- 68%
- Scored at
- October 6, 2026
Signal breakdown
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