Director, Implementation

Job Purpose
The Director, Implementation is responsible for aligning Liliʻuokalani Trust’s (LT) strategic processs improvement priorities with actionable plans, executing project milestones and critical action steps that drive project completion, and leads organizational integration. This role oversees a team of Managers and collaborates closely with the Managing Director, New Initiatives to ensure LT’s priority projects are executed seamlessly. By leading organizational alignment, managing resources, and fostering cross-departmental collaboration, this role ensures initiatives are effectively implemented and transitioned into sustainable operations. This includes strategizing from project origination to organizational integration, moving milestones, tasks, and discussions forward, identifying and solving for project challenges, monitoring project success, and general team support and development.

Essential Responsibilities
• Provides guidance and oversight for project implementation, promoting and fostering strong cross-departmental collaboration.
• Establishes and maintains best practices and process for the development and implementation of initiatives.
• Responsible for overall project success, quality, staff performance, and end-user feedback.
• Responsible for project research, data analyzation, understanding end-user needs, trends and best practices, and providing recommendations that will guide and inform Executive and Senior leadership.
• Meets with stakeholders to attain clear understanding of project vision, goals, and business needs.
• Partners with leadership to align strategic priorities and manage internal and external communications to ensure efficient progress, implementation and completion of projects, and overall business operations.
• Identifies barriers before and during propject implementation and provides recommended solutions that are data driven and tailored to the specific project purpose.
• Works in close partnership with the Research, Evaluation, and Data Science (REDS), Program Practice and Development (PPD), Risk, Facilities and Programs teams to coordinate efforts, align resources, and ensure seamless project execution.
• Seeks to regularly obtain cross-functional knowledge to understand issues, trends, and perspectives that may influence LT’s mission, programs, and business objectives.
• Leads and coordinates specific organization-wide projects and facilitates meetings to ensure successful progression of projects and stakeholder tasks are upheld in a timely manner and within budget.
• Considers and incorporates feedback from leadership and other project stakeholders and reevaluates and adjusts plans, as necessary.
• Ensures consistent feedback loops and process improvement strategies from all stakeholders for each project.
• Routinely coordinates and guides the project team on the organization of projects, scheduling and deadlines, budget, project updates, presentations, and training.
• Reviews plans and provides recommendations for direct reports for alignment with organizational goals, maintaining LT’s focus on kamaliʻi needs, and thoughtfully integrating deliverables onto LT’s operations.
• Prepares and maintains operational budgets and team capacities, carefully stewarding the Queen’s resources.

Other Duties:

• Develops activity and performance reports and project updates on a quarterly basis and/or as required by Managing Director, New Initiatives, Executive Leadership, and Trustees.
• Ensures direct reports receive coaching and participate in professional growth opportunities that enable them to provide excellent service in the present and future and that contribute to their job satisfaction.
• Supports programming, events, and special projects as needed.
• Contributes to the Trust’s success by accepting new assignments, helping team members, learning new skills, and striving to improve team and organization results.
• Leads and supports other work as needed and assigned.

Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is required. Certifications related to project management and process improvements are preferred.
• 10 years of managing complex, cross-functional projects from inception to delivery, including resource planning and budget management. Strong command of Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid methodologies is required.
• Experience establishing project management frameworks, governance, and project templates is a plus.
• 5 years of progressive leadership responsibility and people management.
• Demonstrated experience managing diverse stakeholders and briefing executives.
• Strong detail oriented writing, editing, and communication skills across complex projects.
• Ability to problem solve, think big, creatively, and turn ideas into re