Director, Strategy & Program Office, Long/Short SMA

The Opportunity

The Director will lead the Long/Short SMA Strategy & Program Office, serving as the central leader responsible for setting program strategy, enterprise program governance, executive decision support, cross-functional coordination, and disciplined execution of a complex, multi-yearbook of work.

Reporting to the Managing Director of IOS, this leader will be the person that senior leadership turns to for a clear, well-reasoned point of view on where the program is headed, what decisions need to be made, what risks require escalation, and how the organization should sequence and execute against competing priorities. This is not a traditional product management or portfolio management role. While familiarity with SMAs, asset management, or investment products is helpful, the critical requirement is the ability to frame and make recommendations on key strategic decisions and run a high-visibility enterprise program office across multiple senior stakeholders, functions, workstreams, and governance forums.

On the strategy side, the Director will frame the growth ambition, monetization considerations, competitive positioning, opportunity sizing, sequencing, trade-offs, and strategic options for the Long/Short SMA business. The Director will translate complex inputs from across the organization into crisp recommendations, executive-ready materials, and decision frameworks for Steering Committee, senior governance forums, and Board-level audiences.

On the program office side, the Director will orchestrate execution across multiple cross-functional workstreams, hold workstream owners accountable to plans and milestones, maintain the integrated program roadmap, surface risks and dependencies, and drive timely resolution of decisions. This leader will establish the governance rhythm for the program, including working group management, Steering Committee preparation, executive escalation, and fact-based reporting on progress, risks, and recommendations. 

The Director will partner closely with Treasury, Operations, Technology, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Securities Lending, Advisor Services, and Product to ensure the program is being managed as an enterprise initiative, not simply as an investment product launch or marketplace offering. This is a people leadership role. The Director will build and manage a small, high-caliber program team, likely starting with one direct report and scaling based on program needs. Success requires exceptional strategic judgment, executive presence, structured problem solving, and the ability to influence senior leaders through clarity of thinking, trust, relationships, and disciplined follow-through.

What You’ll Do

• Develop executive-ready materials, recommendations, analytics, and narratives that help senior leaders make timely, well-informed decisions.
• Stand up and lead a centralized program office for a high-growth Long/Short SMA business with enterprise-wide implications.
• Create the governance structure, operating rhythm, decision forums, escalation paths, and executive reporting needed to manage a complex, multi-year initiative.
• Coordinate across 8 to 10+ cross-functional teams, ensuring leaders are aligned, accountable, and focused on the highest-priority decisions and deliverables.
• Manage the integrated program roadmap, including milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, and sequencing across workstreams.
• Partner with Treasury, Operations, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Securities Lending, Advisor Services, and Product to address both client and firm-level implications.
• Bring structure to ambiguous, fast-moving issues by framing problems, identifying options, surfacing trade-offs, and driving alignment.
• Build and develop a small program team with strong analytical, storytelling, execution, and stakeholder management capabilities.

Required Experience

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise strategy, program office leadership, transformation, integration management, corporate strategy, management consulting, or complex financial services execution roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading large, complex, cross-functional programs in a highly matrixed organization, ideally within financial services or another scaled, regulated environment.
• Proven ability to establish or lead a program office, transformation office, integration management office, chief-of-staff function, or enterprise governance model.
• Exceptional structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate ambiguity into clear choices, recommendations, action plans, and executive-ready materials.
• Strong executive presence and influencing skills, with demonstrated ability to drive alignment across senior leaders, cross-functional stakeholders, and competing priorities.
• Experience developing Steering Committee, senior executive, or Board-level materials, including decision frameworks, risk summaries, opportunity sizing, trade-off analysis, and clear recommendations.
• Ability to hold senior workstream owners accountable to milestones, deliverables, risks, and decisions without relying solely on direct authority.
• High degree of comfort operating in ambiguity, moving quickly, and bringing structure, discipline, and accountability to evolving business priorities.
• Expert-level PowerPoint, Excel, executive storytelling, and analytical framing skills, with the ability to guide others in developing high-quality materials.
• People leadership experience, including the ability to build, develop, and lead a small, high-performing team.
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA, CFA, CFP, or other advanced credentials strongly preferred.

  Preferred Experience

• Experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, enterprise transformation, integration management, or a chief-of-staff/program office role supporting senior executives.
• Experience within a large, complex financial services organization, broker-dealer, custodian, asset manager, financial intermediary, or consulting firm serving financial services clients.
• Familiarity with Separately Managed Accounts, Long/Short strategies, investment products, asset management, or third-party manager distribution models.
• Familiarity with the RIA channel and third-party asset manager distribution models.
• Strong emotional intelligence, maturity, and ability to challenge the status quo with respect, clarity, and business judgment.
• Comfort navigating and activating alignment across organizational silos and upward through multiple levels of leadership; navigates and activates alignment across organizational silos and upward 2+ levels.