EY is seeking a seasoned Associate Director to serve as Chief of Staff & Strategic PMO within the GDS Strategy & Transformation function. This pivotal role supports the GDS Strategy & Transformation Leader in translating strategic objectives into an actionable leadership agenda. You will provide crucial oversight for strategic priorities, transformation efforts, and key leadership commitments, ensuring the leader has the necessary insights and follow-through capabilities to drive success.

This is a senior individual contributor position designed to amplify the GDS Strategy & Transformation Leader's impact. You will bring structure to complex challenges, anticipate leadership needs, connect disparate initiatives, and maintain clear visibility of critical decisions, actions, and potential risks. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of business dynamics, the ability to critically analyze information, and the skill to consolidate multiple workstreams into a unified leadership perspective.

Partner closely with the GDS Strategy & Transformation Leader to structure and advance the function’s strategic and transformation agenda. Serve as a trusted thought partner, shaping leadership narratives, challenging assumptions, and preparing for critical discussions. Translate leadership priorities into clear workstreams, milestones, and accountability frameworks. Maintain an integrated view of strategic priorities and matters requiring intervention. Anticipate leadership requirements and coordinate necessary analysis and materials. Prepare executive briefings, presentations, and decision papers. Synthesize complex information into concise, leadership-ready narratives. Support preparation for critical leadership forums, ensuring message consistency. Design and maintain the operating rhythm for the Strategy & Transformation function, including reviews and decision forums. Maintain an integrated portfolio view of strategic and transformation initiatives, tracking outcomes, risks, and decisions. Monitor execution against priorities and proactively surface exceptions. Drive disciplined closure of leadership actions and commitments. Identify and resolve interdependencies and conflicts across workstreams. Develop concise dashboards and executive reporting focused on outcomes and decisions. Assess progress toward strategic outcomes and surface emerging risks or opportunities. Act as a central coordination point across Strategy & Transformation and key stakeholders. Build trusted relationships with senior leaders to facilitate alignment across teams.

A minimum of 15 years of relevant professional experience, with significant exposure to strategy, transformation, business management, enterprise PMO, consulting, operations, or leadership-office roles. An MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification in business, strategy, finance, management, or a related discipline. Demonstrated experience working directly with or supporting senior executives and leadership teams. Experience coordinating complex, cross-functional strategic or transformation agendas. Strong experience developing executive presentations, leadership briefings, and decision materials. Proven ability to drive outcomes through influence across stakeholders without direct reporting relationships. Strong analytical capabilities and advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel. Experience overseeing governance, leadership actions, risks, dependencies, and decision points across a portfolio of priorities. Demonstrated ability to move seamlessly between strategic thinking and execution discipline.

Ideally, prior experience in a Chief of Staff, Strategy, Transformation, CEO/CXO Office, Business Management, or enterprise PMO role would be beneficial. Experience within a large global professional services, consulting, shared services, or global delivery organization, along with exposure to enterprise transformation or large-scale strategic programs across multiple geographies and stakeholder groups, is also advantageous.