About Protect Life Michigan

Thousands of lives are on the line every day due to abortion. Are you ready to stand up and change hearts to stop it? We are defenders on a mission to recruit, equip, and deploy students around Michigan to become passionate and professional social reformers. We won’t stop until abortion is unthinkable. Since 2005, we have grown from a group of volunteers to a team of dozens of powerhouse activists. Each team member is bright, strategic, and dedicated to protecting the unborn. 

About the role

The Strategic Initiatives Director advances the mission of Protect Life Michigan (PLM) by leading the Strategic Initiatives (SI) Department, ensuring strong leadership, management, and accountability, and executing organization-wide innovation through the implementation of high-impact initiatives. This role owns PLM's agile methodology, ensuring it is used effectively within the SI Team and across the entire organization. The Strategic Initiatives Director oversees all SI projects, leads the solution-design process for major initiatives, and assists in resolving organizational roadblocks that hinder the team's ability to achieve its goals. The Strategic Initiatives Director reports to the Senior Director of Strategic Execution.

What you'll do

Leadership, Management and Accountability

• Provide strong leadership, management and accountability to the Strategic Initiatives Managers
• Lead the SI Department with clear expectations, coaching, accountability and regular 1:1's
• Conduct bi-annual performance reviews and support team members' professional development
• Uphold PLM's culture and values within the SI team

Agile Methodology Ownership

• Own the implementation, consistency and improvement of Agile Methodology across PLM
• Ensure the SI team uses agile practices (planning meetings, sprint cycles, huddles, reviews, etc.) effectively
• Train, coach and support other departments to adopt appropriate agile processes, as needed

Strategic Direction and Project Leadership

• Lead the creation and prioritization of the SI project slate, in collaboration with the Senior Director of Strategic Execution
• Maintain a high-level view of all SI Initiatives, identifying risks and removing obstacles
• Serve as a core member of PLM's Leadership Team:
• • Participate in strategic planning rhythms
  • Assist in setting organizational short and long-term goals
  • Represent the SI department in cross-departmental planning, discussions and decision-making
• Aid Strategic Initiative Managers in setting project scopes, deliverables, timelines and success metrics.
• Ensure project outputs are high-quality, cohesive and aligned with organizational strategy
• Manage departmental resources, timelines and budget

Qualifications

• Commitment to the pro-life movement and the mission of Protect Life Michigan
• Positive, mission-minded approach to support-raising; Prior support raising experience preferred
• Management experience strongly preferred, especially supervising managers or multiple staff
• Experience in project leadership, innovation or strategic planning
• Agile project management experience strongly preferred
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong problem-solving, strategic thinking and solution-design abilities
• Ability to work collaboratively across teams in a dynamic environment
• A self-starter with the ability to work independently and lead effectively
• Valid driver's license and ability to travel throughout Michigan
• Flexible work schedule
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and/or Google Suite

Salary/Benefits

Salary and benefits are determined by the needs of the individual, commensurate with education and experience. Benefits include: 

• After completing 1 year of work, eligibility for employer-matched Simple IRA.
• Ample professional development opportunities.
• Protect Life Michigan is a support-raising organization. The salary and all expenses associated with this position will be fundraised by the candidate. Protect Life Michigan will provide excellent training and coaching in order to help the candidate reach full support and will pay the candidate while they raise support. We have an excellent track record of helping job candidates reach full support: 85% of our candidates have reached full support within 2-3 months.
• You will complete support raising prep work over the first 1-3 weeks, then you will attend a support raising bootcamp around week 4 of your employment with PLM. Subsequently, you will spend the next 6-13 weeks support raising before beginning your job duties.
• All applicants must be supportive of this approach and open to engaging in it.
• Ample paid vacation time, holidays, and sick days.
• Semi-flexible schedule to be set with the employee and supervisor
• Dependent Care Reimbursement Program for childcare and/or babysitting costs
• Ability to work from home.