Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives

This position is eligible for telework, which is currently one day per week. New hires are eligible to apply 30 days after their effective date of hire.

Opening:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is North America's largest transportation network, serving a population of 15.3 million people across a 5,000-square-mile travel area surrounding New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. The MTA network comprises the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined. MTA strives to provide a safe and reliable commute, excellent customer service, and rewarding opportunities.

Job Summary:

Acting as a senior internal consulting leader, this role combines strategic judgment, rigorous problem-solving,disciplined implementation, and team leadership to drive lasting operational change and financial impact for oneof the world's most complex transportation systems.

This position supervises teams tackling complex, high-priority initiatives with significant organizational impact,partnering with senior leaders to develop strategic solutions and advance implementation across organizationalboundaries. Collaborating with and across operating agencies and headquarters functions to align stakeholdersand deliver measurable, sustained improvements in operational performance, financial health, or service quality.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the structured diagnosis of complex operational and financial challenges, guidingmanagers and analysts in framing issues, testing hypotheses, validating insights, anddeveloping recommendations grounded in rigorous data analysis and commercial judgment.
• Drive implementation of solutions across complex, cross-functional environments, mobilizingteams, setting a disciplined execution cadence, removing barriers, escalating issues early, andensuring changes are implemented and sustained.
• Serve as a trusted partner to key agency stakeholders in solving nominated problems andhelping translate priorities into executable plans.
• Help translate priorities into a focused work plan, allocating resources, removing blockers, andholding the team accountable to milestones and targets.
• Guide and support managers and analysts through their initiatives, helping structure work plans,clearing obstacles, quality-checking analysis, and ensuring pragmatic recommendations.
• Directly manage Senior Managers and Managers by setting goals, evaluating performance, andmaking decisions on hiring, development, and performance management. Build a high-performanceculture grounded in accountability, rigor, and continuous improvement, and astrong pipeline of future leaders.
• Lead additional enterprise projects that advance MTA’s strategic objectives, exercising soundjudgment, adaptability, and stewardship of MTA resources.

Required Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with a demonstrated ability to driveoutcomes through cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder alignment and effective leadership without direct authority.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with a proven ability to turncomplex business challenges into data-driven strategies and actionablerecommendations.
• Proven ability to develop, evaluate, or deliver commercially sound business cases,including assessing opportunities, evaluating trade-offs, quantifying value, andbuilding alignment among senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead implementation in complex organizations, navigatecompeting priorities, adapt approaches, and drive successful outcomes.
• Ability to prioritize among competing needs and opportunities and manage multipleinitiatives and teams.
• Ability to build trusted relationships, develop networks, and influence decision-makersacross functions and levels.
• Proven track record directly managing and developing teams, including hiring,performance management, coaching, and succession planning. Demonstrated abilityto build bench strength and retain top talent.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’sDegree inArts/Sciences(BA/BS);an equivalent combination of education and experience may beconsidered in lieu of a degree.
• Minimum 10yearsof progressively responsible experience, including significant experiencein management consulting, corporate strategy, enterprise transformation,strategic advisory roles, or senior product leadership roles within large,complex organizations. Candidates with 7+ years of experience at a top-tiermanagement consulting firm (i.e., McKinsey, Bain, BCG) withdemonstrated experience leading complex engagements and advisingsenior stakeholders may be considered in lieu of the full 10-yearrequirement.
• Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible people management experience, includingownership of hiring, performance management, coaching, and successionplanning.

The Following is/are preferred:

• Master’s degreein Arts/Sciences(MA/MS)or other relevant graduate degree.
• Direct experience with both private and public sector organizations
• Exposure to the transportation sector
• Strong data & analytics experience, including SQL, Power BI, Tableau, and advancedExcel modeling
• Demonstrated technical acumen and the ability to leverage AI and emergingtechnologies

Other Information

May need to work outside of normal work hours (i.e., evenings and weekends)

Travel may be required to other MTA locations or other external sites.

According to the New York State Public Officers Law & the MTA Code of Ethics, all employees who hold a policymaking position must file an Annual Statement of Financial Disclosure (FDS) with the NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (the “Commission”).

Equal Employment Opportunity

MTA and its subsidiary and affiliated agencies are Equal Opportunity Employers, including those concerning veteran status and individuals with disabilities.

The MTA encourages qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities, including military service members, to apply.