Associate Director - Corporate Strategy

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Position Title: Associate Director, Corporate Strategy

Function: Enterprise Strategy

Location: San Diego, California (Hybrid). This is a full-time role, Monday through Friday, with an expectation of 2–3 in-office days per week and additional on-site presence as needed. The individual must reside in the San Diego area and be able to commute to our corporate offices. Relocation assistance is available and should be completed within a twelve (12) month period or a mutually agreed upon time.

Reports To: Director, Corporate Strategy

FLSA Status: Exempt

Position Summary:

The Associate Director, Corporate Strategy is an experienced enterprise strategist who leads major analytical workstreams and selected, bounded strategy engagements that inform Illumina’s long-term direction and priority decisions. Working with a Director or Senior Director, the Associate Director translates an agreed strategic question into hypotheses, analyses, alternatives, and a clear synthesis; builds a trusted fact base; and turns complex findings into recommendations for senior leaders.

The role operates across R&D, Product, Commercial, Finance, Corporate Development, Medical, Operations, and regional leadership in a global, science- and technology-driven environment. The Associate Director is an individual contributor who is expected to exercise substantial judgment over methods and analysis, identify when the initial framing is incomplete, and lead cross-functional contributors to an integrated answer without relying on formal reporting authority. The role contributes to executive decisions but does not ordinarily serve as the sole owner of Illumina’s most ambiguous cross-enterprise questions or the final enterprise recommendation.

Essential Functions:

The following are the essential functions of the role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

• Lead major strategy workstreams and bounded engagements. Own analytically complex workstreams within cross-enterprise projects and independently lead selected strategy engagements with a defined sponsor, decision, and scope. Deliver work from hypothesis and analysis through synthesis, recommendation, and decision support.
• Structure the problem and analytical approach. Translate an agreed strategic question into testable hypotheses, decision criteria, required analyses, data needs, and a practical workplan. Identify missing questions or weak assumptions and recommend changes to the Director or Senior Director when the evidence warrants reframing.
• Build and validate the fact base. Integrate market models, customer insights, competitive intelligence, scientific and technology perspectives, internal performance, and financial analysis. Distinguish evidence from opinion, document assumptions, and ensure that analyses can withstand senior review.
• Develop alternatives and implications. Build credible options, quantify implications for growth, investment, risk, capabilities, and opportunity cost where possible, and synthesize the evidence into a recommendation within the agreed project mandate.
• Integrate functional expertise. Work with functional, domain, product, and regional partners to gather relevant expertise, reconcile inconsistent inputs, surface unresolved disagreements, and maintain an enterprise lens in the analysis.
• Develop executive-ready communication. Create concise presentations and pre-reads that make the decision, evidence, alternatives, and trade-offs clear. Present findings to senior leaders and contribute to ELT materials and discussions under the direction of the Director or Senior Director.
• Lead project contributors and raise analytical quality. Direct analysts, managers, external advisors, and cross-functional contributors on assigned strategy work; manage the workplan; review outputs; provide project-based coaching in structured problem solving and synthesis; and escalate risks that threaten the quality or timing of the answer.
• Support decision handoff and learning. Document approved choices, implications, assumptions, owners, milestones, and measures of value. Support a disciplined handoff to accountable business or functional leaders and flag changed assumptions without taking ownership of day-to-day implementation.

Role Interfaces and Boundaries:

• Corporate Strategy determines and clarifies enterprise direction and leads major enterprise strategic questions; this role is accountable for the quality of its assigned strategic work, not for enterprise execution.
• Domain Strategy translates enterprise direction into coherent strategies for strategically critical domains, while Product teams develop and execute the initiatives needed to deliver those strategies.
• Portfolio Strategy provides analysis and governance that help the ELT make investment and prioritization trade-offs; this role contributes enterprise context without owning the portfolio operating cadence.
• Corporate Development leads transaction evaluation and execution. The Associate Director partners with Corporate Development when inorganic options are relevant to a broader strategy question.
• Transformation, business functions, and operating leaders own implementation and enterprise execution. The role may contribute to strategic planning but is not primarily a planning-calendar, governance, or internal PMO role.

Decision-Making and Impact

The Associate Director determines methods, analyses, and day-to-day workstream choices within an agreed strategic question and sponsor mandate. The role is accountable for the integrity of the fact base, the quality of the synthesis, and the reliability of recommendations within assigned work. It influences senior leadership decisions through evidence and clear trade-offs, while material reframing of an enterprise mandate and final accountability for the most consequential enterprise recommendation remain with the Director, Senior Director, or Vice President. The role has no unilateral P&L, capital-allocation, transaction, product-roadmap, or implementation authority.

Key Competencies:

• Structured problem solving: Breaks complex questions into testable hypotheses, identifies the highest-value analyses, and recognizes when the initial framing is incomplete.
• Analytical and financial rigor: Builds and validates market, business-case, scenario, and value analyses and clearly separates facts, assumptions, and uncertainties.
• Strategic synthesis: Connects findings across workstreams, develops meaningful alternatives, and converts detailed analysis into a clear recommendation.
• Executive communication: Produces concise, decision-ready materials and presents findings credibly to senior stakeholders.
• Scientific and technology fluency: Learns complex science- and technology-driven markets rapidly and translates technical developments into commercial and strategic implications without needing to be a practicing scientist.
• Project-team leadership: Directs contributors on assigned strategy work, manages interdependencies and quality, provides practical project-based coaching, and escalates issues with sound judgment.
• AI-enabled strategy development: Applies AI directly to accelerate research, analysis, synthesis, scenario development, and executive communication while validating outputs and using sound judgment.
• Influence and working style: Builds trust across a matrix, challenges assumptions respectfully, and demonstrates curiosity, pragmatism, resilience, and low-ego collaboration.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This is an individual-contributor role with no standing direct reports. The Associate Director may lead cross-functional strategy project teams or major workstreams by structuring work, coordinating contributors, assigning project analyses, reviewing quality, and providing project-based coaching. Formal performance management and career-development accountability remain with each contributor’s people leader.

Minimum Qualification:

All minimum qualifications are job-related and consistent with business necessity.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, engineering, life sciences, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience profile: Typically requires 13-15 years of cumulative relevant experience. This range reflects the expected career stage rather than a rigid minimum or maximum; selection will be based primarily on the depth and relevance of the experience below.
• Top-tier strategy consulting apprenticeship: 3+ years in a top-tier global strategy consulting firm, such as McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, or a directly comparable firm. Experience must include progression to senior consultant, manager, or major-workstream leadership; hypothesis-driven problem solving; exposure to senior executive sponsors; and responsibility for the quality of others’ work.
• Directly relevant strategy depth: Demonstrated experience addressing market, growth, portfolio, business-model, or capability questions through corporate strategy, top-tier strategy consulting, or equivalent strategic roles.
• Senior executive decision support: Within that experience, 2+ years directly supporting C-suite executives or equivalent senior decision-makers through analysis, recommendations, and decision-ready materials, including opportunities to present or defend findings.
• Complex workstream leadership: 2+ years leading analytically complex strategy workstreams or bounded projects from hypothesis and fact-base development through synthesis and recommendation.
• Project-team leadership and coaching: 1+ year directing or coaching analysts, associates, consultants, or cross-functional contributors on strategy projects, with accountability for work quality; direct-report management is not required.
• Practical AI application: Demonstrated direct use of AI-enabled approaches to accelerate strategy development, with compelling proof points such as reusable skills, plugins, agentic workflows, or equivalent solutions applied to research, analysis, synthesis, scenario development, or executive communication. Experience must reflect responsible handling of confidential information, validation of outputs, and sound human judgment.
• Analytical and communication capability: Strong structured problem-solving, quantitative analysis, financial modeling, scenario development, synthesis, presentation, and matrixed collaboration skills.
• Commercial and technology judgment: Sound commercial and financial judgment and the ability to understand complex scientific and technology-driven markets and translate them into strategic implications.

Preferred Credentials:

• Advanced degree: MBA, master’s degree, or other relevant advanced degree.
• Sector experience: Experience in genomics, life sciences, diagnostics, healthcare, or another technology-intensive industry.
• Perspective breadth: Exposure to both external advisory and in-house strategy environments, or equivalent breadth across multiple industries, functions, or business models.
• Executive exposure: Experience contributing to ELT-level analyses or presentations in a public-company or similarly complex environment.
• Inorganic strategy: Experience evaluating partnerships, acquisitions, or other inorganic options as part of a broader strategy, without requiring transaction-execution specialization.

Other Requirements:

• Travel: Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 20%, based on business needs.
• Executive cadence: Flexibility to support time-sensitive executive decision cycles across global time zones.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

#LI-HYBRID

The estimated base salary range for the Associate Director, Corporate Strategy (San Diego / Hybrid) role based in the United States of America is: $170,600 - $255,800. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. The range reflects long‑term growth in the role; therefore, most candidates are hired between the minimum and middle of the range. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.
We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact [email protected]. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants.