The Texas Tribune is seeking a Director of Strategy to help shape and execute the organization’s long-term strategic direction. This role partners closely with the CEO and leadership team to translate vision into measurable priorities, lead cross-functional strategic initiatives, and ensure smart and scrappy disciplined execution in a resource-constrained nonprofit environment.

We have big ambitions, a swiftly changing market and a highly important mission. The Director of Strategy pairs bold thinking with practical execution: designing initiatives that can demonstrate traction quickly, iterate within limited resources, and scale when proven.

This position sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and executive leadership.

This is a full-time, in-office position based in the Texas Tribune in Austin, TX. 

The role serves three primary functions:

Organizational Strategy Oversight

Leads development and plans practical execution of the Tribune’s long-term strategy, translates it into annual OKRs, and ensures measurable progress across the organization and throughout the year.

Cross-Functional Strategic & Innovation Leader

Owns major initiatives that cut across editorial, revenue, product, and operations — including local news expansion and enterprise innovation (e.g., AI transformation).

CEO Strategic Partner / Chief of Staff

Serves as senior thought partner to the CEO, translating vision into structured strategy, board-ready materials, and disciplined execution.

Scope

Strategic Planning

• Maintain a bias toward action, ensuring strategy work results in clear decisions, experiments, or execution steps.
• Lead long-term strategic planning process
• Own organization-wide OKR design and alignment, run quarterly measurement and OKR reviews, and rack against multi-year strategic plan goals
• Work with CFO to align budget and resource allocation to strategic priorities and OKRs, fully considering tradeoffs and opportunities

Lead / Supervise Cross-Functional Strategic & Innovation Initiatives

• Design new initiatives to demonstrate traction quickly through experiments, pilots, and measurable early outcomes - and define when and how to take them to scale
• Lead high-priority, cross-department initiatives from ideation to execution
• Define goals, metrics, timelines, and decision points, and align executive team around trade-offs, resourcing and sequencing
• Define and oversee execution and go-to-market planning in a world of limited resources
• Integrate innovation efforts (including AI) into core strategy — balance the “factory and the lab” and how the Tribune can do both

Local News Experimentation

• Measure performance against our clearly defined hypotheses and goals for audience, revenue and impact
• Define long-term model(s) for local news growth and investment
• Iterate on structural approach based on measurable traction

Measurement & Board Reporting

• Own enterprise-level strategic dashboard, and standardize reporting tied to strategic priorities
• Develop (CEO owns) board-level strategy updates and materials
• Translate performance into clear strategic narrative for internal, board  and external reporting

CEO Strategic Partnership

• Key confidant and partner for the CEO as she charts the next 5 years of the Texas Tribune
• Draft or update strategy memos and strategy execution plans, while maintaining a bias toward action, ensuring strategy work results in clear decisions, experiments, or execution steps.
• Pressure-test and refine strategic direction
• Support prioritization and sequencing decisions with smart use of resources
• Ensure follow-through on CEO-level priorities

What This Role Is Not

• Not a COO, not responsible for day-to-day operations, not a lot of direct reports (indirect supervision ok)
• Not the functional leader of editorial, revenue, product, finance, or HR
• Not a project manager for all company initiatives
• Not an internal consultant producing strategy decks without ownership or implementation
• Not a substitute for executive accountability within departments
• Not solely an AI or innovation lead

Qualifications

Core Capabilities

• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategy, translating big ideas into measurable plans and real-world outcomes
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that require alignment across multiple teams or stakeholders
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with data, metrics, and performance measurement
• Ability to operate in ambiguous environments and bring clarity to complex organizational challenges
• Proven bias toward action — able to move from idea to pilot to execution quickly
• Experience making resource tradeoffs and prioritizing effectively in constrained environments
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear strategy memos and board-ready materials
• Strong collaboration and influence skills; able to drive progress without formal authority

Experience

• 7–12+ years of relevant experience 
• This role does not require an MBA, consulting background or media experience, but this role will likely appeal to those who have thought about those paths
• Experience working closely with senior executives or founders is a plus
• Experience launching or scaling new initiatives, products, or programs preferred

Mindset & Working Style

• Strategic thinker who is equally comfortable executing
• Energized working with creative partners and debating strategic approaches
• Comfortable working in resource-constrained nonprofit environments
• Entrepreneurial and creative problem solver
• Strong curiosity about the future of journalism, media, and civic information
• Able to balance vision, experimentation, and disciplined execution

We recognize that great candidates may come from many different paths. This role may be a strong fit for someone coming from strategy consulting who wants to build and execute inside an organization, a startup operator who enjoys tackling complex strategic problems, or a creative leader with experience launching new initiatives in mission-driven organizations.