HHMI is focused on supporting and moving science forward in a variety of different ways ranging from conducting basic biomedical research, empowering educators, inspiring students, developing the next generation of scientists – even stretching into film and media production. Our Headquarters is in the greater Washington, DC metro area and is home to over 300 employees with expertise in investments, communications, digital production, biomedical sciences, and everything in between. The work housed here supports and augments the groundbreaking research conducted in HHMI labs across the nation. As HHMI scientists continue to push boundaries in laboratories and classrooms, you can be sure that your contributions while working here are making a difference.
Role Overview:
The Office of the President drives strategic alignment and operational execution across HHMI. Within this office, the Strategic Projects team partners with senior leaders to translate the Institute’s highest priorities into clear plans and sustained results, working across departments including People & Culture, Technology & Systems Management, Finance, Marketing & Internal Communications, Facilities, and Campus Operations.
The Strategic Initiative Lead owns and drives complex, cross-functional initiatives from concept through implementation and stabilization. This is not a traditional project management role. The work spans institutional priorities that are often still taking shape: a strategic benefits transformation one quarter, a compensation and performance management overhaul the next, followed by a major communications campaign or technology rollout. The role requires someone who can operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, comfortable both framing decisions for leadership and managing the detailed work required to deliver results.
Why This Role Matters:
This role regularly supports the President, Chief Operating Officer and senior leadership on the Institute’s highest-priority operational initiatives. That means being in the room when priorities are set, understanding the context behind decisions, and translating leadership direction into actionable plans that teams can execute. The Strategic Initiative Lead builds trust with leaders across the organization, creates shared accountability among teams that do not share reporting lines, and ensures that the Institute’s most important work moves forward with clarity and discipline.
HHMI supports scientists tackling some of humanity’s most complex challenges. The more effectively the Institute operates, the more impact that science can have. This role strengthens the connective tissue that makes that possible. This is a hybrid position based at HHMI Headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD, reporting to the Senior Manager, Strategic Projects.
What This Role Will Do:
Strategic Initiative Leadership
Lead end-to-end execution of complex, cross-functional initiatives from concept through implementation and stabilization, including efforts spanning people strategy, enterprise systems, operational redesign, and Institute-wide engagement.
Translate broad strategic objectives into clear scope, timelines, deliverables, and measurable success criteria.
Develop and manage detailed project plans aligned with cost, scope, schedule, and quality expectations, applying systems thinking to anticipate cross-functional impacts.
Identify and manage risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs proactively, developing mitigation strategies and escalating issues before they become blockers.
Drive disciplined scope management while maintaining the flexibility required to operate in dynamic, evolving environments where priorities shift as institutional needs change.
Senior Leadership Support
Serve as an operational partner to the COO and other senior leaders on the Institute’s most complex initiatives, providing analytical support, strategic framing, and execution management for work that directly advances institutional priorities.
Prepare materials, analyses, and recommendations that help leadership make well-informed decisions, including briefing documents, options analyses, and presentation materials for Cabinet, and other senior forums.
Anticipate leadership needs and take initiative to advance work between formal touchpoints, reducing the burden on senior leaders to direct day-to-day execution.
Stakeholder Engagement and Influence
Build coalitions and create shared accountability across teams that do not share reporting lines, navigating organizational complexity to drive coordinated action across HQ and Janelia Research Campus.
Facilitate workshops, working sessions, and decision forums that move initiatives forward, ensuring the right people are in the room and that discussions lead to clear outcomes.
Provide clear, concise, and audience-appropriate communication across all levels of the organization, from working-team updates to executive-ready materials.
Progress Visibility and Reporting
Design and maintain reporting cadences that give leadership clear visibility into initiative status, risks, outcomes, and interdependencies across the operational portfolio.
Tailor reporting to different audiences, from executive dashboards to working-team updates, ensuring the right level of detail reaches the right people.
Proactively surface risks, blockers, and emerging issues rather than waiting for scheduled check-ins, ensuring leadership is never surprised.
Change and Adoption
Develop and implement stakeholder engagement and change adoption strategies that account for the unique culture and operating rhythms of a research-focused institution.
Partner with leaders and teams to prepare for and sustain change, promoting transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement across initiatives.
Innovation in Delivery
Use AI-assisted project management tools and digital capabilities to enhance planning, analysis, communication, and decision support. HHMI is actively deploying AI across operations through its EverydayAI initiative, and this role is expected to be both a practitioner and an advocate for modern tools.
Experiment with modern, adaptive approaches to improve speed, clarity, and collaboration across teams, bringing new methods and tools to bear on institutional challenges.
Qualifications
Required Education
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Required Experience
Five or more years of experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives from planning through implementation in matrixed or similarly complex organizations.
Proven experience leading or playing a significant role in enterprise-wide system implementations or comparable large-scale transformation efforts spanning people, process, and technology.
Demonstrated experience supporting C-suite or senior executive leaders on high-priority strategic and operational initiatives, including preparing materials, framing decisions, and managing execution on their behalf.
Experience in strategy execution, operational transformation, process redesign, or organizational change initiatives.
Skills and Abilities
Strong knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid project management methodologies.
Demonstrated systems thinking and ability to manage cross-functional interdependencies across multiple concurrent initiatives.
Strong financial and business acumen, including the ability to manage scope, tradeoffs, and resource constraints.
Ability to design clear, audience-appropriate executive and portfolio reporting.
High comfort operating in ambiguous environments and shaping emerging concepts into executable plans.
Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills, including creation of executive-ready presentations and materials.
Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and influence skills, with a track record of aligning teams that do not share reporting lines.
Comfort with and curiosity about generative AI tools and their practical application to project planning, analysis, and communication.
Experience implementing and scaling digital planning and project management tools such as Asana or comparable platforms.
Preferred Skills and Qualifications:
Experience implementing ERP systems such as Workday, SAP, Oracle, or similar enterprise platforms.
Experience working in higher education, research, nonprofit, or mission-driven institutions.
PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project management certification.
hhmi