Director, Leadership Effectiveness

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on complex leadership, team, and organizational-effectiveness challenges.
• Lead a portfolio of leadership-effectiveness initiatives, defining objectives, scope, implementation plans, resource needs, and measures of success.
• Manage and develop Academy staff through clear goal setting, performance management, coaching, and ongoing feedback, supporting engagement and career development in alignment with Academy priorities.
• Diagnose challenges by distinguishing among individual capability, team dynamics, organizational conditions, and broader systemic factors.
• Conduct stakeholder research, interviews, observation, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative evidence to identify needs and patterns across the institution.
• Design and lead interventions that strengthen leadership effectiveness, team performance, decision-making, collaboration, and organizational performance.
• Translate Leading the St. Jude Way, the Culture Principles, and leadership capabilities into practical behaviors, tools, experiences, and ways of working.
• Apply organizational development, systems thinking, behavioral science, and human-centered design to develop evidence-informed solutions.
• Design, prototype, test, and refine interventions; guide implementation and establish approaches that support sustained adoption.
• Define and evaluate intervention outcomes in partnership with the SVP and Academy Operations, using findings to improve approaches and inform decisions about broader implementation.
• Facilitate senior leadership teams through complex conversations, problem-solving, reflection, and decision-making.
• Advise leaders navigating organizational change, addressing the leadership behaviors, team practices, and organizational conditions required for successful implementation.
• Lead cross-functional and matrixed teams, aligning stakeholders, clarifying responsibilities, and securing executive sponsorship for assigned initiatives.
• Partner with HR Leadership Development to determine when formal learning is an appropriate response and shape solutions accordingly.
• Partner with Culture Strategy where leadership behavior intersects with broader culture priorities, maintaining clear roles and coordinated action.
• Direct the work of external coaches, facilitators, consultants, and other practitioners supporting assigned initiatives, establishing expectations and evaluating quality and effectiveness.
• Partner with Academy Operations on initiative budgets, resource allocation, contracting, and delivery planning.
• Advise the SVP on emerging leadership needs, systemic barriers, intervention priorities, and opportunities for institutional impact.
• Communicate insights, recommendations, progress, and outcomes clearly to senior leaders and institutional partners.
• Remain directly involved in consulting, design, facilitation, and implementation, consistent with the Academy’s small-team operating model.

Minimum Education and/or Training

Bachelor’s degree in organizational development, behavioral science, business, design, or a related field required; master’s degree preferred.

Minimum Experience

• 7-10 years of progressively responsible experience in organizational effectiveness, organizational development, leadership consulting, strategic design, or related work within a consulting firm or complex organization.
• Demonstrated experience managing and developing direct reports and leading complex work through direct, matrixed, and cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated success advising senior executives on complex organizational challenges and translating insights into practical, implemented solutions.
• Experience leading leadership, team-effectiveness, or organizational-change initiatives from diagnosis through implementation and evaluation.
• Strong understanding of how organizational functions, leadership practices, and institutional conditions interact to influence performance.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct and synthesize qualitative and quantitative research, test assumptions, and develop evidence-informed recommendations.
• Advanced facilitation and consulting skills, including experience guiding senior teams through sensitive issues, competing perspectives, and consequential decisions.
• Experience applying human-centered design, systems thinking, behavioral science, and organizational-change methods.
• Strong project leadership skills, including experience coordinating resources and aligning cross-functional and matrixed teams.
• Ability to define meaningful outcomes and evaluate changes in leadership practice, team effectiveness, and organizational performance.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage credibly with senior leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, exercise sound judgment, prioritize competing needs, and remain directly involved in execution.

Preferred Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Experience in navigating complex organizational environments.
• Experience directing external consultants, coaches, or facilitators.
• Relevant advanced training or credentials in organizational development, executive coaching, facilitation, or related disciplines.