Chief Strategy Officer

The Chief Strategy Officer is a senior level position that serves as a member of the City Manager’s Cabinet. Performs complex professional and administrative work with responsibility for demonstrating the innovative, empowering, and collaborative workplace culture desired in a fast-paced, challenging environment. This position, and designated analytics team, use evidence-based insights to analyze issues important to the service delivery and effectiveness of the city organization. The body of work aims to catalyze innovation to positively impact the lives of the Charlottesville community.

The position requires considerable initiative, judgment, and independent decision-making to develop, execute, and evaluate citywide initiatives aimed at implementing the Council’s strategic priorities.  The work will be carried out with transparent decision-making and accountability, ensuring that priorities are set and communicated openly, and that staff and partners understand not just outcomes but the process behind them.

The Chief Strategy Officer will be an openly disciplined, empathetic, strategic advocate, and empowering leader who models the organizational excellence performance standard. This role reliably visions, ideates, and strategizes with the City Manager to produce and deliver results as an engaged and accountable team and serves as a trusted advisor to and analyst for the City Manager.  Reports to the Assistant to the City Manager.

The hiring amount for the Chief Strategy Officer is not to exceed $140,000.00 annually. Starting offer is based on applicable education, experience, and internal equity. This is a full-time, exempt, position which provides excellent benefits including 13 paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday, paid vacation and sick leave, health insurance options with employer contribution, employer-paid life insurance, City's retirement options, gym membership reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, and continuing education/training opportunities. This position is eligible to receive 80 hours of discretionary leave per calendar year. 

• For a general summary of benefits offered by the City, please visit https://www.charlottesville.gov/1047/Employee-Benefits.
• The City of Charlottesville manages its own retirement system which offers both a defined benefit and a defined contribution option.  While the City does not participate in VRS, the City has a Portability Agreement with VRS and there are certain provisions that must be met.

Learn more about our community, city government, and this opportunity please visit: https://www.charlottesville.gov/DocumentCenter/View/14971/Chief-Strategy-Officer-Recruitment-Brochure-FY26-?bidId= 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations will be considered to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The essential functions of the job are not limited to those listed in the job description.  The City retains the discretion to add to or change the duties of the position at any time.

• Leads a performance management effort within the City Manager's Office by fostering a culture where feedback is seen as growth, not criticism, and where data insights are shared openly across teams.
• Supports the operations of City departments through collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing measurements that support routine dashboard analytics reporting.
• Supports the facilitation of the strategic planning tracking process through the engagement of City Council, City Manager’s Office, LEADTeam, and city staff identified as City Strategists.
• Supports City department managers and other key decision-makers in regular meetings to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and to track the implementation of improvement plans by clarifying when to guide, when to decide, and when to collaborate to avoid assumptions in authority and execution.
• Builds systems and capacity within departments to streamline processes and help constituent-facing staff work more effectively in delivering work to positive impact lives daily while equipping staff with tools, independence, and safe spaces to innovate, not just comply with systems.
• Coordinates the Biennial Community Survey, a longitudinal study of the broad sentiment of the respondent community citizens; provides assessment and presents results to LEADTeam for performance improvement planning and ensures results are communicated transparently to both staff and community, building trust in how feedback informs strategy.
• Provides leadership and management direction to planning and executing team building, professional development and annual retreats for executive and senior level staff that emphasize curiosity, dialogue, and reflection to strengthen trust and respect across executive teams.
• Works collaboratively with staff in the City Manager’s Office and key personnel performing critical functions in support of the City Manager’s vision for organizational excellence.
• Works as a strategic partner with executive management team to assist with defining action plans and developing ideas/strategies to fill business process gaps that impact the organization's mission and strategic plan.
• Manages and monitors annual action plans of departments and offices in support of Council's strategic priorities; ensures that departmental goals are incorporated into performance objectives and provides direction and oversight for department-level work plan reporting.
• Highlights process transparency in decision-making.
• Uses feedback and data as growth tools, not as criticism.
• Clarifies roles of guide/decide/contribute in performance management.
• Connects surveys, analytics, and advocacy to long-term community outcomes.
• Responsible for appropriate use and maintenance of City equipment, tools and other resources, including work time.
• Regular and reliable attendance.

Other Duties

• Performs additional duties to support operational requirements as apparent or assigned.

Education and Experience: Candidates may qualify by demonstrating the required knowledge and skills outlined for the job through experience(s) other than formal education such as college.

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in Sociology, Public Administration, Political Science, or a closely related field. AND a minimum of 4 years in a managerial, supervisory, or program administration capacity.

OR

• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of the specific requirements listed above.

Certifications/Licenses/Other Requirements:

• Required to successfully pass a pre-employment background check and pre-employment drug screen.

Preferred:

• A Master’s degree is strongly preferred.
• Five (5) years of increasingly responsible professional experience in two or more of the abovementioned areas (sociology, public administration, political science) are preferred.

Application Deadline: Thursday, November 6, 2025 by 5:00 PM

To Apply: To view the complete job information and to apply, visit our employment website listed. Applications are only accepted online through the City of Charlottesville employment page, www.charlottesville.gov/jobs, and must be submitted prior to the listed closing date and time. USE THE FOLLOWING URL TO APPLY ONLINE: 

• https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/charlottesville/jobs/5109779/chief-strategy-officer 

The City of Charlottesville is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values diversity at all levels of its workforce. 

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• City of Charlottesville