Senior Manager, Strategy & Innovation

Company Overview:

Headquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Artivion, Inc. is a medical device company focused on developing simple, elegant solutions that address cardiac and vascular surgeons' most difficult challenges in treating patients with aortic diseases. Artivion's four major groups of products include: aortic stent grafts, surgical sealants, On-X mechanical heart valves, and implantable cardiac and vascular human tissues. Artivion has over 1,400 employees worldwide with sales representation in over 100 countries. The Company has manufacturing facilities located in Atlanta, Georgia, Austin, Texas and Hechingen, Germany. Additionally, it has sales and distribution offices in various countries throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. For additional information about Artivion, visit our website, www.artivion.com.

Position Overview:

Partners with executive leadership to define, refine, and activate enterprise strategy across functional areas and regions. Supports long-range planning, prioritization of initiatives, and analysis of emerging opportunities in alignment with corporate goals. Ensures the organization maintains focus on high-impact objectives and responds effectively to market, operational, and regulatory changes. Works cross-functionally to support decision-making with data, lead strategic planning cycles, and partner with transformation, finance, and business leaders to ensure alignment between strategy and execution.

Responsibilities:

Enterprise Strategy Development

• Facilitate development and refinement of company-wide strategies, business models, and investment priorities in collaboration with executive leadership.
• Translate strategic vision into actionable goals, targets, and multi-year roadmaps.

Strategic Planning & Prioritization

• Lead or support annual strategic planning and portfolio prioritization cycles, ensuring cross-functional alignment and resource focus on highest-value initiatives.
• Define tiering criteria, strategic scoring models, and alignment frameworks to guide investment decisions.

Business & Market Analysis

• Conduct structured assessments of internal capabilities, market trends, competitive positioning, and strategic risks.

Decision Support

• Provide insights and recommendations to guide leadership decisions on investments, divestitures, partnerships, and operational strategy.
• Develop executive-ready materials for board meetings, operating reviews, and investor communications.

Strategic Initiative Sponsorship

• Act as strategy sponsor for select enterprise programs, ensuring they are aligned with strategic intent and monitored for value realization.
• Partner with the Transformation and PMO teams to transition strategic concepts into structured execution plans.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate across departments (e.g., Operations, Quality, HR, R&D, Commercial) to ensure strategic alignment and integrated planning.
• Facilitate working sessions, executive workshops, and strategic offsites.

Metrics and Value Tracking

• Define KPIs to measure strategic impact and enterprise performance.
• Create dashboards and reporting to monitor progress toward long-term objectives.

Voice of the Business

• Gather input from business unit leaders to inform strategic priorities and organizational capabilities.
• Serve as an advocate for business needs in enterprise-level decision-making.

Integration of Tools and Practices

• Leverage project and portfolio management tools, collaboration platforms, and AI-enabled enablement technologies to streamline execution and communication.

Financial Alignment & Vendor Strategy & Management

• Establish standardized processes for purchase order creation, approval, and reconciliation to ensure fiscal accuracy.
• Differentiate and track capital versus operating expenses to improve forecasting and budget compliance within programs and department function.
• Implement vendor performance reviews and spend analytics to drive cost optimization and strengthen supplier relationships.

Qualifications:

Educational Background:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, or related field. MBA strongly preferred.
• Certifications in strategy, analytics, or business model innovation a plus.

Professional Experience:

• 7-10+ years of experience in corporate strategy, strategic consulting, or business planning roles.
• Experience supporting strategy development in a regulated or manufacturing industry preferred.
• Proven ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate complex topics to senior audiences.

Skills and Competencies:

• Strong analytical and structured thinking skills.
• Excellent storytelling and presentation skills.
• High business and financial acumen with comfort navigating ambiguity.
• Experience with strategic frameworks (e.g., SWOT, Porter's 5 Forces, BCG Matrix, OKRs).
• Skilled at stakeholder engagement and managing upward communication.