IS Business Strategy Director

Job Summary

The Wilmington Trust Institutional Services (IS) division is experiencing rapid business growth and has initiated a strategic digital transformation program. The goals of the program are to grow revenue through new and transformed digital-first trust and agency service products, to move from a product-centric to client-centric operating model, to move from market-specific to global solutions, and to dramatically lower the cost to serve.

We seek an experienced strategist with a proven track record of leading high-performing strategy teams that deliver transformative, digitally focused strategies while proactively identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to improve competitive positioning, accelerate growth, and create long-term value.

Overview

The Business Strategy Director is a senior leadership role responsible for defining and shaping the Institutional Services’ long-term strategic direction, orchestrates the development of annual and multi-year strategic plans, and ensures alignment to enterprise priorities and market dynamics. The role is accountable for the division’s strategic stance and shapes a portfolio of strategic initiatives that advance divisional and enterprise objectives. This includes defining and cascading Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that translate strategy into measurable outcomes.

This leader oversees a team of strategy professionals with expertise across client acquisition, distribution, product portfolio, operating model, digital, and change initiative strategies. The role ensures that the division’s strategic priorities align with enterprise objectives, competitive market dynamics, regulatory expectations, operational capabilities, and the evolving needs of target client segments.

This position owns the divisional strategic planning and business architecture processes and provides insight-driven recommendations on where the business should invest, divest, modernize, or differentiate. Ultimately, the Business Strategy Director is accountable for articulating how the division—and each business service line—will compete, grow, and create long-term value, and for delivering tangible business architecture artifacts to articulate concrete business change initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Division Strategy

• Lead the development and articulation of the Institutional Services strategic agenda, including vision, strategic stance, competitive positioning, and multi-year strategic roadmaps.
• Translate enterprise priorities into a clear set of divisional strategic priorities, ensuring alignment with risk appetite, business objectives, and operational capabilities.
• Partner with senior leadership and business service line heads to define how each service line will compete, grow market share, and differentiate value propositions.

Strategy Development & Analytical Leadership

• Oversee creation of annual and multi-year strategic plans, incorporating:
  • Market and competitive analysis
  • Portfolio composition assessments using key performance indicators, profitability metrics, and growth outlook
  • Target client profiles and segmentation models
  • Analysis of emerging risks, opportunities, industry trends, and disruptive market forces
• Develop divisional Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that translate strategic plans into measurable outcomes. Consult with project and program owners to shape initiative-level OKRs to ensure cascading alignment between divisional and initiative OKRs.
• Lead development of portfolio strategy, including the criteria for investment, divestiture, and prioritization of business service offerings.
• Drive the creation of distribution, digital, and customer acquisition strategies that improve market penetration, mix optimization, and client experience.

Client Acquisition and Distribution Strategy

• Develops and executes strategies to acquire high‑value clients and optimize distribution channels for sustainable growth.

Product Portfolio Strategy

• Prioritizing, evolving, designing, and rationalizing business service line offerings to meet customer needs, strengthen profitability, and allocate capital toward the highest‑value growth opportunities

Digital Strategy

• Defines and drives the division’s digital strategy to enhance customer engagement, operational efficiency, and long‑term growth.

Operating Model & Organization Design

• Guide the team in evaluating organizational structures, decision-right frameworks, capability gaps, and workforce plans to ensure alignment with strategic goals.
• Recommend operating model changes that enhance scalability, efficiency, and client value.

Strategic Initiative Portfolio Management

• Provide oversight of a portfolio of strategic initiatives, ensuring prioritization, sequencing and execution progress align with both enterprise and divisional objectives.
• Ensure business cases clearly articulate value, benefits realization, risk considerations, and interdependencies.
• Provide executive-level reporting on strategic outcomes.

Business Architecture Management

• Lead a team of business architects to express business strategies in concrete architectural deliverables that drive well-structured change initiatives

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, inspire, and develop a high-performing team of strategy professionals.
• Establish a culture of analytic rigor, strategic thinking, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Provide coaching, performance feedback, and professional development pathways.

Key Competencies

• Strategic Thinking – Ability to see both the big picture and structural details.
• Executive Influence & Communication – Skilled at driving alignment across complex stakeholder groups.
• Analytical Rigor – Uses data to inform strategy and challenge assumptions.
• Leadership & People Development – Builds high-performing teams with a strategic mindset.
• Change Leadership – Able to drive clarity and momentum in ambiguity or transformation.
• Business & Financial Acumen – Understands financial performance drivers, risk dynamics, and client needs.

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor’s degree and minimum of 9 years relevant work experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 13 years higher education and/or work experience
• Experience leveraging current and emerging AI models as part of strategic analysis and insight generation.
• Formal experience in business strategy frameworks such as Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT/TOWS, Ansoff Matrix, BCG Growth‑Share Matrix, Value Chain Analysis, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Models, and Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD)
• Must have experience in large financial services institutions serving multiple client segments across multiple product lines
• Strong attention to detail; strong ability to lead teams; excellent project management skills
• Strong analytical ability and creative problem-solving skills; excellent interpersonal skills necessary for business partner relationships within and outside the organization; Strong written, and verbal communication skills; ability to communicate professionally at many different levels
• Self-motivated, results driven, and well organized; ability to handle multiple tasks and work under time constraints in support of various assignments
• Proficient with personal computers and spreadsheet, database, graphing, and presentation software

Education and Experience Preferred:

• Formal business architecture experience including TOGAF, Business Architecture Guild, or related disciplines
• Self-motivated, results driven, and well organized; ability to handle multiple tasks and work under time constraints in support of various assignments
• Proficient with personal computers and spreadsheet, database, graphing, and presentation software
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Math, Accounting, Engineering, or Business Administration; MBA or advanced degree
• Experience with financial analysis, regulatory analysis, process analysis and technical writing. Audit or Consulting experience.
• Experience with long range strategic planning in a complex business; balances tactical and strategic; incorporates holistic perspective; leads research; understands customer needs; shapes strategy; curious and innovative
• Facilitates cross-group engagement to achieve results; demonstrates emotional intelligence; ability to adapt message; reliable and authentic
• Promotes change and mobilizes others; challenges assumptions and ideas; balances divergent and convergent thinking
• Emotional intelligence; ability to adapt; helps team stay focused on desired results
• Develops and engages team; resolve issues; respectful to all; ensures opinions are heard; provides unfailing support

#LI-JB3

M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees. The pay range for this position is $141,800.00 - $236,400.00 Annual (USD). The successful candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, and experience will inform their specific compensation.

Location

Wilmington, Delaware, United States of America