When you join Sallie Mae, you become a champion for all students.

We’re on a mission to power confidence as students begin their unique journey. To help them plan their higher education, successfully finish, and prepare for life after school. To help them Start smart. Learn big.

Students need guidance navigating this important time in their life. They need someone who acknowledges that their education path is unique. They need a partner willing to evolve and not only meet but surpass their expectations. We’re changing. Because students need a better way.

We’re looking for people who are excited to drive this transformation. To break barriers and think of new ways to adapt, help, and create better experiences for students—and for each other.

This is where diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives matter. It’s where you’re empowered to bring your authentic self to work.

Feeling your best allows you to do your best. Our benefits take care of the whole you—from physical and mental to financial and professional. You’ll get opportunities to further your education and career, support for you and your family (including your pets!), paid time off to volunteer for the things that matter to you, and more.

We’re obsessed with impact and making a real difference. For us, that means putting relationships first, asking “why not?” when tackling challenges, and continuously learning new skills.

Come do more than join something, change something. For students, for future generations, for the future of education.

What You'll Contribute

The Director of Business Strategy will support our flagship Private Student Loan & Retail Deposits Businesses to drive broad transformation. The candidate will operate as an internal strategy consultant within Sallie Mae collaborating across multiple functional teams to solve complex business problems. The Director will serve as a thought leader within the organization managing a wide scope of projects across strategic, financial, operational, and technical parameters from ideation through delivery.

As one of the functions of this role, you will serve as the business liaison interfacing with the Information Technology and Business Capability organizations. In this capacity, you will be a thought leader ensuring the tight alignment of IT initiatives with core business objectives and help prioritize the book of work based on objective business criteria. That said, you will also have an opportunity to work across a range of other strategic initiatives, including business transformation, innovation, commercial growth, risk mitigation, and several other areas of the business. This role will leverage your strength and experience in the Technology space while also offering the opportunity to grow as a generalist strategic leader.

As a proven leader, you will leverage your strong commercial acumen, relationship management prowess, technical expertise, and structured thinking to inspire followership in a matrixed organization to drive change at scale. You will demonstrate an innate intellectual curiosity to question all aspects of the business, and proactively identify optimization opportunities. You will conduct extensive research, both internal and external, to inform the different aspects of the strategies you will develop. You will have the tenacity and resilience to attack business problems from several different angles and not be daunted by roadblocks or headwinds. In essence, you will play an integral role in creating an archetype for thought leadership, business alignment, and operational excellence at Sallie Mae.

W hat You'll Do:

• Serve as a thought leader and collaborative problem solver to drive performance improvement across a broad set of business initiatives and priorities.

• Be a proactive self-starter who will seek to gain in-depth knowledge across all aspects of the business and develop strong hypotheses around business optimization.

• Represent the core business and interface with the IT organization to create a robust strategic framework holistically connecting the IT body of work with core business priorities, and directly impacting prioritization of IT initiatives.

• Develop strong working relationships with executive leaders, business partners, and stakeholders to learn the business and partner to drive performance improvement.

• Perform internal, market, macroeconomic, and competitive research to develop a view of potential risks and opportunities and formulate a mitigation plan.

• Develop financial models and sensitivity analyses to size the economic impact of business alternatives.

• Develop and deliver compelling presentations to all levels of the organization to drive support for business alternatives.

• Conduct due diligence activities and analyses in collaboration with key stakeholders across the organization.

• Design and facilitate collaborative and effective ideation sessions which include participants from all levels of the organization.

• Engage external parties and conduct due diligence for large strategic partnership opportunities.

• Demonstrate superior influencing skills and lead by example, acting as a coach for direct and indirect reports creating agents of change within the business.

The above information is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this job; it is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees in this role.

What You Have:

Minimum education, skills and experience required.

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline such as Engineering, Information Systems / Computer Science, or Economics required. Master’s or MBA degree strongly preferred.

• 10+ years of relevant industry experience within Management Consulting, IT Consulting, IT Leadership, or Corporate or Business Strategy roles in Financial Services required.

• Direct experience in corporate IT roles such as Engineering, Architecture, or Data Management, is required to be successful in this role.

• Superior business and financial acumen; able to think end-2-end across multiple functional areas including Product, Marketing, Risk, Operations, Technologies, and Finance.

• Ability to break down complex problems to their root cause drivers and leverage quantitative analysis to prioritize categories of work to move towards target-state.

• Ability to form and influence relationships across a matrixed organization to gain buy-in and alignment towards a common direction.

• Intellectual curiosity with the ability to learn fast and drive results in the right way.

• Ability to operate independently and work with a sense of urgency.

• Strong attention to detail but can also elevate up and see the big picture.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office products

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination by employers, in compensation and employment opportunities, against qualified individuals with disabilities who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the “essential functions” of a job. A function may be essential for any of several reasons, including: the job exists to perform that function, the employee holding the job was hired for his/her expertise in performing the function, or only a limited number of employees are available to perform that function.

Feeling your best helps you do your best:

Our benefits take care of the whole you—so you can build your work around your life (not the other way around!).

• Competitive base salaries

• Bonus incentives

• Generous PTO, Floating Holidays and 12 Federal Holidays observed

• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 401k with employer match

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance and more

• Employer paid short-term/long-term disability and basic life insurance

• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.

• Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs

• Free access to on-site staffed fitness centers (in Delaware) and gym subsidy (for locations outside Delaware)

• Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services and Wellness program with financial incentives

• Tuition Reimbursement and Family Scholarship Programs

• Career development and training opportunities

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Sallie Mae is proud to be an equal opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, gender identity, disability, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Click here (https://salliemae.com/legal/pay-transparency-policy/) to view the U.S. Pay Transparency Policy, here (https://mandatoryview.com/productview) for federal job applicant notices, and here (https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A5637b18d-10f3-4877-a3fe-481683f1eb1c) to view the California Employee Privacy Notice.

Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation please call (855) 756-2007 and choose option 9. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

Sallie Mae is proud to be an equal opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, gender identity, disability, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. If you'd like more information about your EEO rights as an applicant, please click https://https/www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants. https://https/www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/OFCCPEEOSupplementFinalJRFQA508c.pdf. Click https://https/www.salliemae.com/legal/pay-transparency-policy/ to view the U.S. Pay Transparency Policy.