The Texas Tribune is seeking a Director of Strategy to help shape and execute the organization’s long-term strategic direction. This role partners closely with the CEO and leadership team to translate vision into measurable priorities, lead cross-functional strategic initiatives, and ensure smart and scrappy disciplined execution in a resource-constrained nonprofit environment.

We have big ambitions, a swiftly changing market and a highly important mission. The Director of Strategy pairs bold thinking with practical execution: designing initiatives that can demonstrate traction quickly, iterate within limited resources, and scale when proven.

This position sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and executive leadership.

This is a full-time, in-office based in the Texas Tribune in Austin, TX.

The role serves three primary functions:

Organizational Strategy Oversight

Leads development and plans practical execution of the Tribune’s long-term strategy, translates it into annual OKRs, and ensures measurable progress across the organization and throughout the year.

Cross-Functional Strategy & Innovation Leader

Owns major initiatives that cut across editorial, revenue, product, and operations — including local news expansion and enterprise innovation (e.g., AI transformation).

CEO Strategic Partner / Chief of Staff

Serves as senior thought partner to the CEO, translating vision into structured strategy, board-ready materials, and disciplined execution.

The salary range for this position is $150,000-$175,000.

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Scope

Strategic Planning

• Maintain a bias toward action, ensuring strategy work results in clear decisions, experiments, or execution steps.
• Lead long-term strategic planning process
• Own organization-wide OKR design and alignment, run quarterly measurement and OKR reviews, and rack against multi-year strategic plan goals
• Work with CFO to align budget and resource allocation to strategic priorities and OKRs, fully considering tradeoffs and opportunities

Lead / Supervise Cross-Functional Strategic & Innovation Initiatives

• Design new initiatives to demonstrate traction quickly through experiments, pilots, and measurable early outcomes – and define when and how to take them to scale
• Lead high-priority, cross-department initiatives from ideation to execution
• Define goals, metrics, timelines, and decision points, and align executive team around trade-offs, resourcing and sequencing
• Define and oversee execution and go-to-market planning in a world of limited resources
• Integrate innovation efforts (including AI) into core strategy — balance the “factory and the lab” and how the Tribune can do both

Local News Experimentation

• Measure performance against our clearly defined hypotheses and goals for audience, revenue and impact
• Define long-term model(s) for local news growth and investment
• Iterate on structural approach based on measurable traction

Measurement & Board Reporting

• Own enterprise-level strategic dashboard, and standardize reporting tied to strategic priorities
• Develop (CEO owns) board-level strategy updates and materials
• Translate performance into clear strategic narrative for internal, board  and external reporting

CEO Strategic Partnership

• Key confidant and partner for the CEO as she charts the next 5 years of the Texas Tribune
• Draft or update strategy memos and strategy execution plans, while maintaining a bias toward action, ensuring strategy work results in clear decisions, experiments, or execution steps.
• Pressure-test and refine strategic direction
• Support prioritization and sequencing decisions with smart use of resources
• Ensure follow-through on CEO-level priorities

What This Role Is Not

• Not a COO, not responsible for day-to-day operations, not a lot of direct reports (indirect supervision ok)
• Not the functional leader of editorial, revenue, product, finance, or HR
• Not a project manager for all company initiatives
• Not an internal consultant producing strategy decks without ownership or implementation
• Not a substitute for executive accountability within departments
• Not solely an AI or innovation lead

Qualifications

Core Capabilities

• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategy, translating big ideas into measurable plans and real-world outcomes
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that require alignment across multiple teams or stakeholders
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with data, metrics, and performance measurement
• Ability to operate in ambiguous environments and bring clarity to complex organizational challenges
• Proven bias toward action — able to move from idea to pilot to execution quickly
• Experience making resource tradeoffs and prioritizing effectively in constrained environments
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear strategy memos and board-ready materials
• Strong collaboration and influence skills; able to drive progress without formal authority

Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant experience 
• This role does not require an MBA, consulting background or media experience, but this role will likely appeal to those who have thought about those paths
• Experience working closely with senior executives or founders is a plus
• Experience launching or scaling new initiatives, products, or programs preferred

Mindset & Working Style

• Strategic thinker who is equally comfortable executing
• Energized working with creative partners and debating strategic approaches
• You won’t just apply frameworks – you’ll create them
• Comfortable working in resource-constrained nonprofit environments
• Entrepreneurial and creative problem solver
• Strong curiosity about the future of journalism, media, and civic information
• Able to balance vision, experimentation, and disciplined execution

We recognize that great candidates may come from many different paths. This role may be a strong fit for someone coming from strategy consulting who wants to build and execute inside an organization, a startup operator who enjoys tackling complex strategic problems, or a creative leader with experience launching new initiatives in mission-driven organizations.

We know some great candidates won’t check all of these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. 

Location

The Texas Tribune office is located in downtown Austin, steps away from the Texas Capitol. This position is based in Austin, and is required to be in-office. 

Benefits

This job is full-time and has the following benefits:

• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• Monthly cellphone stipend
• 20 days of paid time off each year
• 12 paid holidays
• Up to 16 weeks of paid family leave plus four weeks of additional job protection
• Annual 401(k) match
• Support for professional training and career development
• Remote working flexibility

How to apply

Submit your application here by April 15, with 

1. a resume, 
2. a cover letter detailing your vision for this position and how you would approach the work, and
3. three short answer questions describing what you see as a strategic opportunity for the Tribune, what you’d want to know before exploring it, and how you approach projects with limited resources.  

The Texas Tribune is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We encourage applicants of all identities, backgrounds, ages, and abilities to apply. We can’t wait to hear from you.

About The Texas Tribune

Here’s what you should know about the Tribune. From day one, we’ve had disruption, innovation and risk-taking in our DNA. We’re ambitious as all get out but still have the punch-above-your-weight mentality of a scrappy start-up. We believe we can meet the demands of our audience and our own expectations for excellence without breaking the bank — or our staff. We understand not everything is a story for us — we have to make choices — but we’re always looking to expand our boundaries. 

We’re nonprofit because the challenging economic reality for media these days obligates us to find a different way, reliable and sustainable, to fund serious journalism. We’re nonpartisan because we live in the United States of Confirmation Bias — and we don’t need to be part of the problem. We don’t need to be yet another source of information affirming the voices and perspectives that are already in people’s heads. At the same time, nonpartisan is not non-thinking. We call B.S. when B.S. needs to be called.

The Texas Tribune seeks to ensure that its newsroom and its news coverage reflect Texas by including a wide range of perspectives from people of different backgrounds, ideologies and experiences.

Learn more about The Texas Tribune here.