Senior Manager of Corporate Strategy

The Molex Corporate Development and Strategy team is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategy to join our team. The Strategy team is responsible for collaborating with Molex leadership to set the organization's strategic priorities and supporting teams through execution. They are focused on assessing new market opportunities, identifying the key spaces where Molex should compete, defining the capabilities needed for Molex to succeed, and driving flawless execution against the vision. This role is based out Molex's Chicago or Lisle offices.

You will lead strategic projects and initiatives across the organization but with a primary focus on Molex's Datacom Division which is helping drive innovation and advancement in AL and Machine Learning datacenter applications. You will successfully define potential opportunities, develop workplans, execute primary and secondary research, assess existing and potential new market spaces, and interface with key business leaders to organize Molex's response to critical strategic opportunities. You will be responsible for creating partnerships and driving collaboration with Molex business leaders and evaluating potential external partnership opportunities to drive strategic decisions and execution against strategic plans. In particular, this may include:

New market assessments: define, lead, conduct analyses to assess the attractiveness of existing, adjacent, and white-space markets, plus potential inorganic opportunities within those markets

• Perform primary and secondary market research
• Leverage existing databases, work across organization to understand internal expertise, conduct subject matter expert interviews to gain valuable insight into market dynamics
• Develop fact-based, economically driven, 'outside-in' perspectives on potential new market spaces; update and refresh points of view on market segments where Molex has existing presence
• Identify key market trends, dynamics, value chain participants and translate into actionable insights for Molex leadership
• Attend trade shows, industry conferences and interface with industry experts
• Define implications and outline action plans for Molex

Market specific strategic projects: execute key efforts for Molex's Division or Business Unit leadership teams

• Outline problem statements, develop research plan, execute analysis to support strategic direction for Molex's Divisions, Business Units, and Segments, with a primary focus on the Datacom market

Support execution of Molex's commercial excellence agenda: lead targeted projects and engagements to identify profit-improvement opportunities across commercial execution levers and partner with business teams to drive execution and implementation

Support project execution and linkage of projects to operational teams: proactively support high-value commercial opportunities and new product launches to win with customers in the Datacom, AI, and Machine Learning market spaces

• Help ensure clarity of Vision, adherence to timelines, alignment of requisite people / talent to key activities
• Drive initiatives related to speed-to-market
• Support project management and operational teams regarding footprint strategy, operational execution, and product launches
• Partner with Strategy Team, Molex senior leaders and cross-functional executional teams to drive consensus around priority opportunities and key execution requirements

Executive influencing: interface with and champion initiatives across a broad array of markets and business units. The ability to build alliances and influence Molex's market-driven decision process will be important to the success of this Senior Manager

• A minimum of two years of post-MBA (or equivalent) professional experience, ideally with a top-tier strategic consulting firm or corporate strategy / corporate development team
• Interest in and a passion for technology markets (e.g., hardware, software, componentry, silicon)
• Structured and logical thinking with an ability to identify core business problems and demonstrate a 'nose for value' to discern what is most critical and important
• Analytical rigor and proven capability managing quantitative portfolio growth analysis; experience with financial modeling is a plus
• Powerful written communication skills and a proven ability to succinctly articulate key elements of complex topics in written form
• Strong verbal communication and experience expressing and defending a point of view (with data) in front of c-suite executives
• Proven track record as an individual contributor driving market landscape assessments, strategy-making skills, and demonstrated commercial excellence capabilities
• Proven ability to manage execution of major cross-functional strategic programs, at a higher level than day-to-day project manager.

• A modest and humble demeanor
• Utmost respect and dignity in all manners
• Prior experience in or deep knowledge of data center architectures, machine learning / AI hardware applications
• A thirst for learning and desire to continually increase one's own knowledge and a willingness to share that knowledge with others
• A strong bias for action and a proven ability to drive projects through execution
• Proven managerial skills and a mentorship mindset to build and grow the Corporate Development Associate team
• An ability and understanding for how to delivery on short time frames and be committed to meeting deadlines at all times