Director Strategy & Ops PIM (Chief of Staff)

About us:

Target is an iconic brand, a Fortune 50 company and one of America’s leading retailers.

Fueling the continued success of one of the world’s most beloved and recognized brands is a distinctly capable, creative and innovative Marketing organization. Target Marketing is well known for inspiring and surprising guests, and we pride ourselves on connecting them to the products and experiences they expect and deserve from Target. We study our guests to discover new needs and insights, and then craft every interaction to build brand love. We are market experts who insist on a clear and cohesive understanding of our business objectives, guest segments and behaviors, strategies and tactics, overcoming obstacles and measuring success. Our commitment to partnering both internally and with external agencies gives us a wide range of capabilities, from award-winning creative work to exciting and unique promotional marketing. Leveraging our collective assets and fostering a healthy, supportive and open team culture, we deliver a holistically gratifying experience that guests can only get at Target. 

As Director Strategy & Ops PIM Reporting directly to the SVP, Planning & Inventory Management, this role serves as a strategic partner, execution leader, and trusted advisor in driving the Planning and Inventory Management functions forward. The Director ensures day-to-day activities align with overall strategic goals, including mid- and long-term plans that enhance guest purchasability, operational efficiency, inventory efficiency, trade compliance, and transportation reliability.

This role also plays a critical leadership function in standing up the newly integrated Planning and Inventory Management operating model, driving clarity, capability, and connection across Planning and Inventory Management and broader Roundtable partners and Operations partners.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serves as a key thought partner and decision-making proxy for the SVP, ensuring leadership focus on the most critical business priorities.

• Proactively anticipates issues, synthesizes insights, and provides full context to facilitate effective decision-making.

• Aligns cross-functional initiatives with the overarching business strategy to drive measurable impact.

• Establishes a sustainable operating rhythm across the team, ensuring efficiency in decision-making, strategic planning, and execution.

• Leads and coordinates pyramid-wide strategic meetings, ensuring clarity on objectives, deliverables, and follow-through.

• Drives consistency, connection, and accountability across business reviews, including WBR, MBR, and strategic planning cadences.

• Acts as a trusted, objective channel between the SVP, senior leadership team, and key stakeholders, ensuring seamless communication and execution.

• Represents the organization internally and externally in a clear, compelling, and enterprise-minded way.

• Works closely with Strategy & Operations across the enterprise to align priorities, optimize resources, and drive execution against business objectives.

• Oversees and drives execution of cross-functional and cross-pyramid initiatives, ensuring alignment with the SVP’s strategic agenda.

• Leads issue resolution efforts, identifying root causes and proactively addressing operational challenges.

• Ensures major projects are executed with clear ownership, measurable impact, and sustained momentum.

• Leads execution of Planning and IM and Roundtable Evolution integration roadmap, including org design alignment, capability mapping, and visibility across planning cycles.

Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About You

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, ever-changing, highly interactive environment interfacing with senior executives and throughout the organization to accelerate work that matters most.

• High personal accountability and comfort with ambiguity.

• Exceptional communication skills - active listening, written and verbal. An ability to listen for and filter robust inputs to make quick connections and communicate the most critical points in a clear, simple and actionable way.

• Trusted partner, ability to take in a lot of information, work in confidence and remain objective in decision making to advance the organization and work.

• Strategic thinking with an ability to develop and translate strategy to action and adjust strategy based on capabilities. Includes, ability to ruthlessly prioritize effort vs. impact.

• Demonstrated ability to navigate and lead complex cross-functional initiatives - leading (vs. just influencing) without authority at all levels.

• Active roundtable peer leader who identifies how to enable, empower and build confidence through coaching, development and alignment.

• Active roundtable strategy leader who leads with a guest mindset and with a keen understanding of and ability to apply an operational lens.

• Ability to be comfortable in the uncomfortable - pushing strategy development, prioritizing, questioning when things don't make sense. Ability to stay objective and calm in the face of complexity and opposing viewpoints.

Qualifications:

• College degree or equivalent experience, combined with 10+ years work experience in related field

• Cross-functional leadership beyond direct scope of role or function

• Excellent collaboration and relationship-building skills, including ability to influence and align cross-functional and global teams

• Familiarity with and understanding of business metrics, insights and marketing constructs

• Understanding of Target's operating structure and how work gets done

• Experience managing large or complex projects and comfort with ambiguity

• Actively and boldly fosters inclusivity

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ MN location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota.