What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Strategist position at TARGET?
Principal Strategist
About Us:
As a Fortune 50 company with more than 350,000 team members worldwide, Target is an iconic brand and one of America's leading retailers. Working at Target means the opportunity to help all families discover the joy of everyday life. Caring for our communities is woven into who we are, and we invest in the places we collectively live, work and play. We prioritize relationships, fuel and develop talent by creating growth opportunities, and succeed as one Target team. At our core, our purpose is ingrained in who we are, what we value, and how we work. It’s how we care, grow, and win together.
Insights, Strategy, and Growth Pyramid Overview:
Target is one of the best-loved and most recognized retail brands in the market. Our Insights, Strategy, and Growth team helps run the business today, while also focusing on the growing the business for the future. We do this by anticipating and effectively responding to challenges and fueling Target's growth—today, and into the future—regardless of the changes ahead. Here, you will work with internal partners and external agencies in a wide variety of roles. You will also have the opportunity to develop skills across our team superpowers, including consumer & industry insights, strategic problem solving, strategy activation, experimentation, and scaling new businesses. Do you love the idea of helping to shape Target’s long-term strategy grounded in guest and industry insights? Are you a champion for rigor and process to ensure successful strategic planning? Can you bring your energy and big ideas to the table in order to build momentum for new business opportunities? Then, bring your talent to the game and join us as we move Target forward.
Enterprise Strategy Development Team Overview:
Leading the retail revolution as Target’s champions of bold strategic thinking the Enterprise Strategy Development team seeks to drive profitable enterprise growth by exploring new opportunities (e.g., markets, formats, channels, and guest segments), driving strategic focus and accountability, and transforming Target’s business. We accomplish this through our values of building diverse and inclusive teams, connecting across the enterprise to foster relationships, and driving the organization towards bold strategic choices.
Position Overview:
As a Principal Strategist in Enterprise Strategy Development, you will lead project teams of business strategists, applying your strengths in project and stakeholder management, strategy development, and executive engagement to shape Target’s long term strategic direction.
This includes:
Day to day leadership of project teams on strategy consulting-like engagements that identify and seek to harness enterprise or business unit growth opportunities.
Build an understanding of retail trends, competitors, and consumers to develop new concepts and businesses that meet future needs in the fast-evolving multi-channel retail landscape.
Become a strategic thought partner to senior executives, influencing decisions in line with business unit and enterprise strategy.
Build relationships to collaborate cross-functionally and effectively influence without authority to drive business decisions and advance long-term strategic efforts.
Project manage the coordination and collaboration with partners across other Insights, Strategy and Growth teams to maximize strategic impact of work.
Provide day to day guidance, coaching, and development opportunities to project team members (Leads and Sr. Analysts).
Serve as a member of the Enterprise Strategy Development leadership team, proactively identifying and championing opportunities to improve team experiences, resources, and development.
Champion continuous team improvement including advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, fostering connections and relationships across the enterprise, and demonstrating individual drive and initiative.
About you (experience requirements):
4-year or advanced degree as well as post graduate degree (MBA preferred).
Minimum of 5 years of work experience after graduate school in strategic project leadership roles or equivalent of 7 years of strategic project management experience including assessing business strategies, leading advanced analysis and problem solving, and developing multi-year business strategies.
3-4 years of prior experience, inclusive of dedicated engagement/project leadership experience, with a top management consulting firm (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.) or in a Fortune 100-level corporate strategy group.
An understanding of industry practices and the competitive retail landscape across channels and segments.
Demonstrated ability to lead strategic project work, simultaneously managing working team, partner, and senior executive relationships.
Track record of developing critical stakeholder relationships (VP/SVP-level) across the enterprise to help influence and guide strategic recommendations.
Directly lead and/or coach project teams through a systematic approach to structured problem solving such as problem disaggregation, data and competitive analysis, financial opportunity sizing, and consumer research.
Ability to support a team culture of bold strategic thinking and Target’s values of Inclusivity, Connection and Drive; including team member coaching and leader influencing.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a strong ability to tell compelling business and result stories, including facilitating engagement with VP/SVP-level leaders.
Ability to take risks, challenge the status quo, and work under ambiguous circumstances.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Target will provide reasonable accommodations (such as a qualified sign language interpreter or other personal assistance) with the application process upon your request as required to comply with applicable laws. If you have a disability and require assistance in this application process, please visit your nearest Target store or Distribution Center or reach out to Guest Services at 1-800-440-0680 for additional information.
Qualifications: