Director, Strategy and Planning

Follow us on LinkedIn

Posting Reason:

New Position

Job Type:

Employee

Anticipated Duration in Months (for contracts and temporary assignments):

36

Job Family:

Business Strategy and Planning

# of Open Positions:

1

Faculty/Service - Department:

Office of Advancement - Advancement Services

Campus:

Main Campus

Union Affiliation:

N/A

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/01/15

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/01/26

Hours per week:

35

Salary Grade:

Non-Union Grade NM1

Salary Range:

$104,880.00 - $131,101.00

University Advancement plays a pivotal role in fostering meaningful connections between the University and its alumni, donors, and partners. Our team is dedicated to advancing the University's mission by securing philanthropic support, engaging with our vibrant alumni community, and building partnerships that drive innovation and excellence. Through strategic initiatives and collaborative efforts, we help shape the future of the University, ensuring that it continues to thrive as a leading institution of higher education and research. Together, we empower our students, faculty and researchers to make a lasting impact on the world.

Position Purpose:

Reporting to the Chief of staff, provides strategic and operational leadership in identifying, planning and implementing all aspects of strategic initiatives supporting key stakeholder engagement and campaign execution within the University Advancement Office. These include urgent and emerging projects and activities in support of priority stakeholders and segments of the alumni base and donors to enhance the strategic positioning, ranking and branding of the University of Ottawa for alumni, donors, partners and community.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Strategic Planning: Works closely with the Vice-President of Advancement and the leadership team on strategic planning. Makes recommendations to senior leadership on the best course of action required to meet the sector objectives.

• Operations Management: Defines the sector's direction with regard to operational priorities by setting objectives based on work priorities, project deliverables and deadlines. Develops an operational schedule and determines the resources needed to meet objectives and deadlines. Oversees operational activities undertaken as part of special projects under his or her purview. Acts as project lead and management liaison with other sectors, faculties or services whose contribution is key to the success of a program, project or initiative.

• Project Management: Leads assigned special projects and events, including but not limited to: defining the scope of assigned projects; organizing project timelines; tracking and monitoring all relevant progress and budget; setting up and organizing leadership meetings pertaining to projects to ensure they align with the current strategy. Adjusts project plans as needed. Reports and makes recommendations to senior leadership on future and potential projects.

• Human Resources Management: Supervises operations staff of the program. May oversee the work of additional staff assigned to specific projects to ensure alignment with overall program goals. Responsible for recruitment, professional development, performance management and conflict management for the staff under his or her responsibility.

• Communication and Liaison: Develops, implements and maintains effective working relationships and partnerships with all relevant internal and external stakeholders (e.g. Faculty/Deans, Advancement Leadership Team, Alumni Relations, Alumni Association Executive Committee). Executes effective program/process management by liaising with internal and external stakeholders to assess and identify their needs in terms of specific projects or initiatives.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in public relations, administration, or communications, or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience

• Knowledge of the principles of fundraising and engagement, and best practices

• 7 years’ experience in not-for-profit sector, public service and/or alumni relations, or advancement

• 5 years of related experience in project management

• Proven ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders

• Self-motivated, goal oriented, and strategic thinker with ability to work independently

• Experience leading complex and multi-stakeholder projects

• Demonstrated ability to write and produce high quality reports, plans and strategies

• Demonstrated ability to influence others, create alignment, generate commitment to goals and inspire others to action

• Experience in budget management and planning

• Bilingualism - French and English (spoken and written)

#Li-MP1 #LI-HYBRID

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact hrtalentmanagement@uottawa.ca to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.