Chief Strategic Projects Officer

Description

The Chief Strategic Projects Officer is a senior executive leader responsible for planning, guiding, and delivering the organization’s highest-priority strategic initiatives. This role partners closely with the Chief Executive Officer, executive leadership team, department leaders, and key stakeholders to translate organizational strategy into measurable programs, projects, and business outcomes.

This position provides enterprise-level leadership across complex, cross-functional initiatives that may include business transformation, operational improvement, organizational growth, technology modernization, market expansion, mergers and acquisitions, change management, and other executive-sponsored priorities. The ideal candidate brings strong strategic judgment, executive presence, program leadership, financial acumen, and the ability to align diverse stakeholders around shared objectives.

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Project Leadership

• Lead the development, planning, and execution of enterprise-wide strategic projects and executive-sponsored initiatives.
• Translate the organization’s strategic priorities into defined programs, project plans, milestones, performance measures, and expected outcomes.
• Establish governance structures, decision-making processes, reporting requirements, and accountability standards for major initiatives.
• Ensure strategic projects are properly scoped, resourced, prioritized, and aligned with organizational goals.
• Oversee multiple complex projects simultaneously while maintaining focus on schedule, budget, quality, risk, and business value.
• Identify dependencies between projects, departments, systems, and organizational priorities.
• Facilitate the resolution of obstacles that may affect project performance or organizational results.

Executive Leadership and Advisory Support

• Serve as a strategic advisor to the Chief Executive Officer and executive leadership team.
• Provide objective analysis, recommendations, and decision support regarding strategic opportunities, risks, investments, and organizational priorities.
• Prepare executive-level briefings, presentations, business cases, status reports, and recommendations.
• Lead or support executive planning sessions, strategy reviews, leadership meetings, and organizational performance discussions.
• Represent executive leadership in meetings, working groups, and special initiatives as assigned.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality when handling sensitive business, financial, personnel, or strategic information.

Organizational Transformation and Change Management

• Lead major business transformation and organizational improvement initiatives.
• Develop and implement change-management strategies that promote stakeholder engagement, adoption, accountability, and long-term sustainability.
• Partner with department leaders to assess organizational readiness, operational impacts, resource requirements, and implementation risks.
• Ensure employees and stakeholders receive timely communication regarding major organizational changes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of transformation initiatives and recommend corrective actions when necessary.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence.

Performance, Risk, and Financial Oversight

• Develop key performance indicators, dashboards, and reporting tools to measure project progress and organizational impact.
• Monitor project budgets, resource utilization, schedules, deliverables, and expected benefits.
• Identify strategic, operational, financial, legal, reputational, and implementation risks.
• Develop risk-mitigation plans and escalate significant issues to executive leadership.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews to evaluate results, lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure strategic projects demonstrate measurable value and support the organization’s financial and operational objectives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Build strong working relationships across business units, departments, and leadership levels.
• Coordinate the efforts of internal teams, external consultants, vendors, and strategic partners.
• Clarify project roles, responsibilities, decision authority, deliverables, and accountability.
• Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders with competing priorities or differing perspectives.
• Communicate project objectives, progress, challenges, decisions, and results clearly and consistently.
• Support department leaders in resolving issues that require enterprise-level coordination.

Team Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing strategic projects function.
• Establish standards, methodologies, tools, and best practices for strategic project delivery.
• Recruit, develop, coach, and evaluate assigned personnel.
• Promote accountability, professional growth, collaboration, and high-quality performance.
• Assign resources based on organizational priorities, project complexity, and team capabilities.
• Provide leadership to cross-functional project teams that may not report directly to the position.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, finance, organizational leadership, project management, or a related field.
• Minimum of 12 years of progressively responsible experience in strategic planning, program management, operations, business transformation, consulting, or executive leadership.
• Minimum of seven years of experience leading complex, enterprise-level programs or strategic initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with executive leadership, governing bodies, or senior stakeholders.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and initiatives involving multiple departments or business units.
• Demonstrated ability to develop business cases, implementation plans, executive presentations, performance measures, and risk-management strategies.
• Strong financial, operational, analytical, and organizational skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business administration, organizational leadership, finance, public administration, project management, or a related discipline.
• Project Management Professional certification or comparable program-management credential.
• Change-management certification or formal training.
• Experience leading organizational transformation, technology modernization, market expansion, business integration, or merger and acquisition initiatives.
• Experience establishing or managing an enterprise project management office, transformation office, or strategic initiatives function.
• Experience working in a complex, rapidly growing, highly regulated, or geographically dispersed organization.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to convert broad organizational goals into actionable strategies and executable project plans.
• Ability to evaluate complex information and provide clear, practical recommendations.
• Strong executive presence and the ability to influence decisions without relying solely on direct authority.
• Exceptional judgment, discretion, integrity, and professionalism.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced and changing environment.
• Strong understanding of strategic planning, project governance, budgeting, risk management, performance measurement, and change management.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly to executive, technical, operational, and nontechnical audiences.
• Ability to develop productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to anticipate challenges, identify solutions, and drive projects through completion.
• Proficiency with project-management, presentation, data-analysis, collaboration, and business-productivity tools.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic thinking
• Executive judgment
• Results orientation
• Enterprise collaboration
• Change leadership
• Financial and business acumen
• Decision-making
• Accountability
• Communication and influence
• Team development
• Innovation
• Risk awareness

Performance Expectations

• Success in this position will be measured by:
• Timely and successful completion of strategic initiatives.
• Alignment of projects with organizational priorities.
• Achievement of approved project objectives, budgets, schedules, and performance measures.
• Effective identification and mitigation of project and organizational risks.
• Quality and timeliness of executive reporting and recommendations.
• Stakeholder engagement, communication, and satisfaction.
• Adoption and sustainability of organizational changes.
• Measurable financial, operational, or strategic value delivered through assigned initiatives.

Work Environment and Physical Requirements

This position primarily operates in a professional office or remote-work environment. The employee must be able to communicate effectively, use standard office and computer equipment, participate in extended meetings, and travel as required. Reasonable accommodations may be provided to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

Summary

Company Overview

At CenCore Group, we deliver security solutions that support critical national security missions. We specialize in designing, building, securing, and maintaining advanced technology environments at the intersection of emerging technology and national security. We are seeking a dependable, cleared professional to join our team in support of secure physical security operations.

CenCore Group is an equal opportunity employer. We hire based on merit and qualifications and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.