<p>You are someone who thrives in a high-performance environment, bringing a growth mindset and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle meaningful challenges that have a real impact.</p> <p>In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities to help you quickly broaden your expertise, grow into a well-rounded professional, and contribute to work that truly makes a difference.</p> <p>When you join us, you will have:</p> <ul> <li>Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey. </li><li>A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You'll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes. </li><li>Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm's diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences. </li><li>Exceptional benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family. </li></ul> <p>You will be part of Optimize, McKinsey's global third-party center of excellence, enhancing and protecting the firm's resources and reputation by making responsible buying easy and creating leading solutions and experiences across our third-party ecosystem.</p> <p>Our department plays a key role in enabling the firm to set the standard for accountability and compliance in the profession.</p> <p>You will report to the Director of Global Purchasing Operations,and be based out of the Philadelphia / Atlanta / New York / Miramar office.</p> <p>As the Director of Optimize Planning and Culture, you will lead Optimize's enterprise planning and culture transformation, advancing performance and enabling world-class third-party outcomes for the firm. In this role, you will oversee the One Optimize System, aligning leaders around shared priorities, goals, and execution. You will outline business needs for Optimize's talent agenda in partnership with the Talent function, ensuring a high-performing and engaged community through disciplined planning, leadership modeling, and a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence.</p> <p>In your day-to-day responsibilities, you will align Optimize's goals with the firms priorities by translating firm and functional objectives into clear goals, budgets, and investments. You will cascade these priorities into actionable efforts across planning, talent, engagement, and community-building initiatives. By convening Optimize leaders and driving the leadership agenda, you will ensure alignment and focus across the function. Additionally, you will shape and align Optimize's ways of working by partnering with other firm functions to embed shared goals, drive enterprise-wide execution, and accelerate both strategic and cultural transformation. You will serve as the thought leader for best practices and consistency with the enterprise integration.</p> <p>To enable strategic transformation, you will help define and track key transformation goals, metrics, and third-party health indicators. You will foster accountability by providing updates, identifying issues early, and leading targeted analyses to address challenges and course-correct efforts as needed. Acting as the main point of contact with other functions, you will draft senior-facing content, shape third-party learning programs, manage information flow, represent Optimize in new initiatives, support organizational design and talent needs, and oversee operations, including budgets and accounts.</p> <p>As the owner of the One Optimize System, you will set and uphold standards for how Optimize plans, tracks progress, and drives results. This includes leading the planning calendar, performance rhythm, and initiative reviews. You will integrate communication and engagement efforts, guiding community connections and events to foster collaboration and alignment across the function.</p> <p>You will also secure the people agenda by translating Optimize's business needs into leadership and talent strategies that attract, grow, and retain high-performing, adaptable leaders. By connecting firm, function, and department planning, you will guide strategies that ensure the continuation and evolution of a strong talent pipeline. Finally, you will coach and empower team members by leading and growing a team of 4-7 that delivers operational excellence while influencing cultural and strategic outcomes across Optimize.</p> <p>Your work will lead directly to the ability of the Function to achieve the firm's goals and simultaneously build capable and motivated colleagues who feel valued, connected, and committed to achievement.</p> <p>The deadline to apply for this role is September 5th.</p> <ul> <li>15+ years of corporate and/or professional services experience, including more than 5 years of experience with McKinsey & Company (with specific experience in strategic planning, driving changing, shaping successfully implemented systemic solutions, designing learning, and/or coaching senior leaders and colleagues to grow and have impact). Experience with Optimize a plus. </li><li>B.A. or B.S. college degree required; advanced degrees strongly preferred </li><li>Strategic Vision and Execution: Ability to create and execute global strategic initiatives, with a strong mix of strategic and execution skills </li><li>Operational Impact: Demonstrated results in driving operational impact across teams and making effective trade-offs to accomplish priorities </li><li>Collaborative Style: Exceptional collaborative skills to work across various firm functions and capabilities, effectively challenging conventional wisdom. </li><li>Leadership and Influence: Ability to build strong relationships, establish trust, and influence senior leaders and stakeholders across a global firm. </li><li>Change Management: Experience and knowledge in driving large change management programs and implementing new processes/structures. </li><li>Problem Solving and Adaptability: Proven ability to work in a fast-paced, ambiguous, and rapidly changing environment, driving towards clarity and solutions. </li><li>Communication and Risk Management: Outstanding communication skills and the ability to anticipate, identify, and mitigate issues affecting the firm's image and reputation. </li><li>Ability to work in-person in accordance with the firm's guidelines and travel as needed (team schedules and office locations may vary) </li></ul>