Strategic Projects and Initiatives Lead

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.

The incumbent provides strategic leadership, advisory support, and portfolio-level planning capacity within the Office of the Registrar (RO). Reporting directly to the University Registrar, the role advances portfolio coherence, organizational effectiveness, and strategic implementation across the office by translating institutional and portfolio priorities into integrated plans, frameworks, decision supports, and measurable outcomes.

This position works closely with senior RO leadership to identify emerging issues, assess organizational impacts, strengthen governance and planning practices, and enable consistent execution of high-priority initiatives. The role is intentionally strategic rather than operational, with a focus on portfolio integration, capability development, change leadership, policy and governance research and recommendations, and evidence-informed decision support.

A key contribution of the role is to build the systems, frameworks, and leadership tools that allow the RO to operate with greater alignment, accountability, and adaptability in a demanding and complex institutional and external environment.

Strategic Portfolio Leadership and Integration

• Advise the University Registrar and senior leadership team of the Registrar’s Office on strategic priorities, implementation risks, sequencing, dependencies, and opportunities for alignment across the portfolio in alignment with RO goals, the Student Experience Action Plan and the University’s Strategic Plan.
• Develop integrated implementation roadmaps for high-priority initiatives, including decision points, accountabilities, milestones, risks, mitigation strategies, dependencies, and measures of success.
• Lead the development of portfolio-level planning frameworks that connect Registrar’s Office priorities to institutional strategy, governance cycles, and emerging operational pressures.
• Demonstrates a broad understanding of the internal and external context in which the University operates. Identifies and evaluates University-wide implications when considering proposed solutions to issues. Incorporates a longer-term perspective into project/program development and problem solving

Organizational Effectiveness and Capability Development

• Develop an organizational capability framework for the Registrar’s Office that identifies the competencies, knowledge, behaviours, and leadership capacities required across organizational levels and key functional areas, informed by portfolio needs, institutional priorities, and sector-based communities of practice such as ARUCC, AACRAO, and related professional networks.
• Translate the framework into strategic professional development priorities, learning pathways, and capability-building approaches that strengthen leadership readiness, service excellence, policy literacy, change management, and strategic execution.
• Advise senior leadership on targeted development opportunities, including communities of practice, mentoring models, stretch assignments, external programs, and other learning approaches aligned with identified capability gaps.
• Establish approaches to assess the impact of professional development investments on organizational performance, employee growth, leadership capacity, and service outcomes.

Strategic Initiative Implementation and Change Leadership

• Design implementation plans for strategic initiatives that require cross-portfolio collaboration, process change, stakeholder engagement, or sustained organizational change.
• Develop practical tools and progress updates that help senior leaders understand risks, decisions, outcomes, and barriers to implementation of strategic initiatives. Provides clear and understandable advice and recommendations based on experience and knowledge to support informed decision making by leaders.
• Identify opportunities to improve how work is planned, connected, delivered, and reviewed across the Registrar’s Office.
• Develop practical ways to assess whether strategic initiatives are achieving their intended outcomes and supporting broader institutional goals.
• Help leaders move from reactive problem-solving to proactive planning, continuous improvement, and evidence-informed decision-making.

Issues Management

• Support the Registrar in providing strategic advice and information and respond to various current and emerging issues. As such, the Strategic Projects and Initiatives Lead is regularly entrusted with confidential information and must be flexible to respond to changing priorities in a challenging and dynamic environment.
• Raise urgent and/or sensitive issues while assessing options, implications and risks and provide recommendations to the Registrar for consideration and/or decision-making.
  Support senior leaders in moving from issue identification to structured options analysis, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation.
• Consider multidimensional problems, situations or issues, where no precedents may exist.
• Identifies trends, generates ideas and tests solutions. Evaluates alternative responses systematically before making a recommendation. Assesses all possible risks and implications of recommendation.
• Synthesizes complex ideas for all levels of users. Provides briefings, presentations or reports on findings, including interpretations.

Strategic Governance, Policy, and Implementation Advice

• Provide strategic review and analysis of projects and proposals requiring Registrar’s Office input, including governance-related matters, with attention to student impact, implementation feasibility, systems implications, policy and process alignment, operational readiness, timelines, and resource requirements.
• Facilitating timely reviews of academic and non-academic proposals in advance of governance committee meetings and for requests for advice on implementation impacts with insights from from subject matter experts across the RO.
• Identify where pan-institutional and/or Registrar’s Office policies, regulations, procedures, or frameworks require development, revision, or clarification, and lead or support this work through sector research, environmental scans, internal consultation, and evidence-informed recommendations.
• Advise leaders of key portfolios on how governance decisions, policy changes, and institutional priorities translate into operational realities, including implications for business processes, systems, communications, roles, service delivery, and ongoing process improvement.
• Develop briefing materials, options analyses, implementation plans, and decision-support documents that support the Registrar’s participation in institutional governance, senior decision-making, and portfolio-level planning.
• Strengthen internal governance and implementation practices within the Registrar’s Office by clarifying roles, decision rights, escalation pathways, consultation expectations, documentation standards, accountability mechanisms, and approaches to managing emerging policy, process, and operational risks.

• Undergraduate degree in business, public administration, higher education administration, or a related field; Graduate level education preferred.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to work effectively with senior leaders and confidential information.
• 5-10 years of progressive experience direct experience in strategic planning, project management, portfolio management, governance support, or organizational planning.
• Experience shaping business strategy, developing plans, analyzing data, and aligning goals to achieve objectives.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical and problem solving skills, and market research experience are essential with the ability to develop innovative and concrete solutions to complex institutional problems.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, relationship management and issues management skills with demonstrated experience in conflict resolution with the proven ability to work with diverse stakeholders at all organizational levels to provide advice and guidance on strategic issues.
• Ability to maintain flexibility and adaptability within a demanding and ever-changing work environment including the ability to work with individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• Highly developed level of political acumen with proven ability to successfully collaborate with key campus constituencies including students, faculty, staff and community partners.
• Proven ability to be innovative, creative and passionate in developing and advocating for new policies, programs, administrative structures and/or modifying existing policies and practices.
• Extensive knowledge of the University of Alberta, its strategic plan, key initiatives, structures, systems, policies, procedures and values is considered an asset. In all facets of this role, this position endeavors to integrate and advance the University’s commitments to Access, Community and Belonging.
• Experience working in a complex institutional or post-secondary environment is considered an asset.

Application Instructions

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This position has a comprehensive benefits package and an annual salary range of $78,194 to $130,331.

The terms and conditions of this appointment are governed by Schedule F of the collective agreement between the Board of Governors of the University of Alberta and the Association of Academic Staff of the University of Alberta.