Assistant Director/Senior Assistant Director, Office of Strategy Management - Bukit Merah

• Facilitating the University's strategic planning framework, which includes a cadence of short-term and long-term planning activities that departments undertake and support aligning departments' planning outcomes with the University's strategic objectives and priorities.
• Facilitating the University's senior leadership and management executive meetings and retreats focused on strategy formulation. This includes but is not limited to, engaging with colleagues for agenda planning, compiling materials, documenting key discussions, and consolidating insights to inform the development of long-range goals and strategic plans/ frameworks. Facilitating and coordinating the communication of these strategies across the University.
• Operationalising effective and efficient methods to monitor and analyse the progress and performance of the prevailing Strategic Plan and its strategic initiatives, including, but not limited to, regular progress updates and reviews to assess the strategic plan against SMU's strategic goals and provide insights to refine future strategies.
• As a planning business partner to SMU strategic plans/initiatives, advise the strategic initiative owners in identifying challenges, tracking performance, providing options and recommendations to resolve issues, and facilitating access to necessary resources to drive strategic initiatives success.
• Coordinating the compilation and presentation of reports on strategic initiatives, strategic plan reviews, and other key areas to support decision-making and institutional planning.
• Corporate Planning and Performance Management
• Supporting the University's performance management framework for continuous improvement.
• As a planning business partner, facilitate performance review sessions between the University management and key business units. Engaging the key business units to understand the drivers and causes of performance and highlight areas of achievement and opportunities for enhancement. Post-performance reviews, engage with the key business units for target revisions/confirmation and align proposed new work plans and annual budgets to desired performance and outcomes.
• As a planning business partner, advise assigned departments on conceptualising and implementing their business-level strategies and initiatives to align their plans with the University's strategic aspirations and performance objectives.
• Facilitating the compilation, analysis, and reporting of performance, budgeting, and business initiatives to support informed decision-making and institutional planning.
• Other tasks
• Overseeing the monitoring of higher education business climate, trends and developments, and government policies and activities, and analysing how these might impact the University's plans and progress
• Identifying and organising resources and processes to strengthen the planning capacities of departments; providing planning mentoring and advice to colleagues.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree in any field; postgraduate degree would be an advantage.
• 10-15 years of work experience within at least 8 years in strategic planning, preferably in higher education and/or consulting.
• Experienced in strategic/corporate planning and review, secretariat functions for strategic/ corporate planning processes and organisation/leading of strategic/corporate planning events.
• Experience in managing a team and leading projects.
• Background in supporting the development of education and research policies; experienced in managing higher education institutes, preferably in strategic/corporate planning, preparing major strategic planning and/or organisational reporting documents, and overseeing enterprise performance.
• Demonstrated strong analytical and critical thinking, problem-solving, ability to assess and evaluate issues and data, and present options and their corresponding pros and cons.
• Strong communicator, both written and spoken.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and engage with colleagues of all seniority levels to achieve objectives. Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or related software.

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Candidates who do not possess the stipulated qualifications but have relevant work experience may still apply. Remuneration and appointment terms shall commensurate with qualifications and experience. SMU reserves the right to modify the appointment terms where necessary.