Director of IT Strategy and Value Realization

Role Summary

Horizons is hiring a Director, IT Strategy and Value Realization to ensure our highest-priority, IT-enabled initiatives deliver measurable business outcomes-on time, on budget, and with sustained adoption. This leader will run the operating system for transformation: portfolio governance, financial discipline, vendor performance, executive communications, change enablement, and benefits realization.

This is a highly cross-functional role partnering with business leaders, Finance, IT, and external vendors to translate strategy into executable roadmaps and measurable results.

What You'll Own (Core Responsibilities)

1) Overall team cadence

• Establish and run enterprise review forums (KPI/metrics, contract and vendor performance, portfolio health, and post-initiative value realization).
• Design and maintain the executive operating cadence across weekly, monthly, and quarterly touchpoints-town halls, leadership reviews, steering committees, and executive readouts-driving timely decisions, accountability, and follow-through.
• Produce executive-ready scorecards and briefings that synthesize progress, risks, decisions required, and cross-team dependencies.

2) Strategy, Business Partnership, and Roadmap Translation

• Partner with Finance and HR business leaders to translate business goals into sequenced roadmaps (what changes, why now, expected outcomes, and what it costs).
• Shape and challenge demand: ensure initiatives are properly sized, prioritized, and resourced based on enterprise capacity and ROI.
• Create crisp executive narratives for decisions: options, tradeoffs, risks, investment asks, and expected benefits.

3) Financial Management & Value Realization

• Own end-to-end OPEX and CAPEX budget management for the portfolio: annual planning, in-year reforecasting, funding allocations, and spend governance.
• Partner with Finance to manage CAPEX governance (capitalization alignment, timing, and reporting) and ensure consistent treatment of costs across initiatives.
• Track actuals vs. budget/forecast across OPEX and CAPEX, including commitments and accruals; explain variances, surface risks early, and recommend course corrections or reallocations.
• Connect spend to outcomes by maintaining a consistent value tracking approach-KPIs, measurement plans, validation of realized benefits, and identification of value leakage.

4) Vendor Management & Commercial Discipline

• Manage performance across strategic vendors (SIs, SaaS providers, managed services): KPIs, deliverables, SLAs, and escalation.
• Lead contract and renewal support with Procurement/Legal: scope clarity, pricing protection, change orders, and performance remedies.
• Establish vendor governance: quarterly business reviews, scorecards, and accountability for outcomes (not activity).

5) Communications & Change Management

• Build and execute change plans for major programs: stakeholder mapping, communications plans, training approach, readiness checks, and adoption metrics.
• Ensure "go-live" includes adoption enablement and business process changes-so value is realized, not just delivered.
• Drive transparent executive communication: what's on track, what's at risk, and what decisions are needed.

Outcomes & Measures of Success (First 6-12 Months)

• Portfolio health: % initiatives with clear scope, owner, timeline, and measurable KPIs; on-time/on-budget delivery improvement.
• Value delivery: quantified benefits realized vs. committed, with Finance validation; reduction in "benefits leakage."
• Cost discipline: improved run/change visibility; reduced vendor spend waste; fewer change orders and delivery surprises.
• Business satisfaction: improved stakeholder confidence and clarity (predictability + transparency).
• Adoption: usage/adoption KPIs met for key platforms; measurable process compliance improvements post-launch.

What You'll Bring (Qualifications)

• 8-15+ years leading transformation programs, PMO/portfolio governance, or strategy execution: ideally in services, distributed operations, or complex multi-stakeholder environments.
• Demonstrated ability to run executive governance and deliver measurable outcomes, not just project artifacts.
• Strong financial fluency: business cases, ROI models, run/change, cost transparency, and value tracking with Finance.
• Proven vendor management capability: commercial discipline, performance management, and executive-level vendor governance.
• Change leadership: ability to drive adoption through communications, training, and stakeholder engagement.
• Executive-ready communication: crisp writing, clear storylines, confident facilitation, and structured problem-solving.

Preferred / Differentiators

• Experience in field operations, multi-location service businesses, or high-velocity operating environments.
• Background partnering closely with IT leadership (applications, data, cyber) and translating technical delivery into business outcomes.
• Familiarity with modern portfolio tools (Jira/ADO/Smartsheet/Planview), financial tracking, and KPI dashboards.

Operating Principles (How We Work)

• Outcomes over activity: value realized beats milestones achieved.
• Truth over comfort: early escalation and clear tradeoffs.
• Simple and repeatable: lightweight processes that scale.
• One team: business, IT, finance, and vendors aligned to shared goals.

Reporting & Scope

• Reports to: CIO
• Partners closely with: Finance, Operations, Marketing, Sales, and IT delivery leaders
• Scope: enterprise portfolio of IT-enabled initiatives and vendor delivery performance