About the job
The Project Manager for Strategic Initiatives serves as a trusted execution partner to the CEO, leading critical and non-routine projects that have significant strategic and reputational implications. This role is designed to transform uncertain concepts into structured, risk-mitigated, and execution-ready projects, ensuring rapid advancement while upholding governance, credibility, and institutional integrity.
This position is inherently project-based, with success measured by the ability to navigate ambiguity, facilitate executive decision-making, and transition projects effectively into operational execution.
Authority & Decision Rights
- Independently structure initiatives, pilot programs, and execution strategies.
- Coordinate and engage internal teams and external stakeholders within established mandates.
- Provide recommendations for go/no-go decisions, escalation procedures, and readiness for transition.
- Final authority on strategic direction, external commitments, and scope changes remains with the CEO.
Career Path / Role Evolution
This role serves as a stepping stone toward senior leadership, transformation leadership, or general management positions. Engagement with complex CEO-level projects enhances strategic maturity and visibility at the executive level.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee CEO-sponsored projects from Exploration → Build → Pilot → Transition.
- Convert ambiguous concepts into structured projects with clear objectives, success metrics, sequencing, and risk assessments.
- Ensure rapid progress of projects while adhering to governance protocols and maintaining institutional credibility.
- Act as the CEO's representative in high-stakes internal and external scenarios.
- Collaborate with internal departments including Legal, Finance, HR, Operations, PMO, and Executive Office.
- Interact directly with external stakeholders, including ministries, regulators, and international partners.
- Safeguard the CEO’s authority, positioning, and intentions during all interactions.
- Deconstruct complex, unstructured challenges into manageable workstreams and decision-making paths.
- Create Initiative One-Pagers, executive summaries, and decision packs to alleviate the CEO's cognitive load.
- Proactively assess and anticipate secondary and tertiary implications prior to escalation.
- Utilize advanced digital tools for documentation, presentations, tracking, and research.
- Implement AI-assisted analysis and synthesis frameworks to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and quality of deliverables.
- Maintain oversight of logical reasoning and judgment while leveraging AI as an execution enhancer, not a replacement.
- Design and lead the Build & Pilot phases to validate assumptions in real-world contexts.
- Generate evidence for decision-making on whether initiatives should scale, iterate, or discontinue.
