Fasken is a leading international business law and litigation firm, and was voted one of Canada’s Best Employers for 2024. Our firm’s 900 lawyers are located across offices in Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City, London and Johannesburg and an office in the professional and retail district known as Taza (/Ta-Zah/) on Tsuut’ina lands. Providing strategic and thoughtful advice in all areas of business law, our broad range of clients include close to half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as corporate clients, government agencies, regulatory authorities, non-profit bodies and individuals.
Our clients’ interests are paramount in all that we do and we take pride in supporting our communities. We are a place where bright, talented, and collegial people want to work together and we work hard together to achieve our goals in a collaborative and efficient way.
Position Overview
Fasken is seeking a Director, Strategy & Execution to serve as a strategic partner and internal consultant to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Firm Managing Partner (FMP). This role is designed to add meaningful leverage to firm leadership by independently defining strategic frameworks and rapidly exploring emerging opportunities. The Director will operate with delegated authority to act as a primary sounding board for firm leadership, combining rigorous strategic analysis with the authoring of complex, cross-functional initiatives. This role requires high-level strategic gravitas, sound judgment, and the ability to hold productive tension with senior leaders and Board members when priorities compete, or alignment is not yet achieved.
The individual will synthesize external consultant insights into Fasken-specific narratives, translate strategy into action, and ensure firmwide strategic initiatives are delivered with clarity and impact.
This is a highly visible role that works closely with the Partnership Board, senior business executives, and stakeholders across the firm.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Analysis & Advisory Support
- Independently define and author strategic analyses, research, and benchmarking to drive senior leadership decision-making.
- Proactively identify enterprise-wide strategic gaps and structure complex or ambiguous issues into clear problem statements and recommendations.
- Develop and propose business cases and implementation approaches for new or evolving strategic initiatives.
- Synthesize and challenge insights from external management consultancies, translating high-level concepts into practical, decision-ready materials for executive audiences.
Strategy Execution & Initiative Leadership
- Own and lead a portfolio of firmwide strategic initiatives from concept through implementation.
- Establish initiative charters, governance structures, milestones, and success metrics.
- Exercise delegated decision-making authority on behalf of the CAO in steering committees and leadership forums to maintain momentum.
- Own the development and maintenance of the Firm’s Strategy Dashboard and non-financial KPI reporting to the Partnership Board.
- Drive follow-through and accountability across teams, navigating resistance and surfacing trade-offs at the highest levels of the partnership.
Stakeholder Engagement & Coordination
- Act as a senior sounding board to Practice Group Leaders and Regional Managing Partners to align priorities.
- Facilitate working sessions, steering committees, and decision forums with independent authority.
- Act as a connector across functions and regions to reduce duplication and improve execution discipline.
- Navigate complex stakeholder dynamics across leadership forums, balancing diverse perspectives while maintaining an enterprise-level focus.
Executive Communications
- Author high-impact presentations, updates, and briefing materials for Board-level and leadership forums.
- Translate complex work into clear, authoritative narratives that support high-stakes decision-making.
Continuous Improvement
- Architect opportunities to strengthen strategy execution practices, governance, and ways of working.
- Share leading practices to improve strategy and initiative delivery.
Qualifications & Experience
- Master’s Degree (MBA or equivalent) is a preferred requirement to exhibit strategic rigor and analytical depth.
- 8+ years (ideally 10-15 years) of progressive experience in strategy, management consulting, transformation, or strategy execution roles.
- Deep experience in professional services, legal, consulting, or similarly complex matrixed environments.
- Proven track record of operating with high autonomy and leading large, cross-functional initiatives with senior stakeholders.
Required Skills and Abilities
What We’re Looking For
- A Director-level thinker with the strategic gravitas to move comfortably between ideation, high-level theory and enterprise-wide execution.
- Someone who operates with significant independence, discretion, and delegated authority.
- A practical, outcome-focused leader who thrives in a partnership-based environment and can influence at the C-Suite and Board levels.
- An individual who independently identifies risks and helps senior leaders make and stand behind difficult decisions.
- An individual who exercises leadership through influence, setting the standard for how cross-functional teams work together.
Reporting Structure
This role reports to the Chief Administrative Officer.
What we offer:
Join our friendly, collaborative and rewarding work environment where your professional development is supported, and your contributions are encouraged and valued. In a full-time, permanent role, we offer the following:
- A competitive total compensation package
- Flexible medical and dental benefits, including telemedicine services
- Hybrid work flexibility
- Short and long term disability insurance
- Employee and family assistance program (EFAP)
- Group retirement savings plan with matching contributions
- Paid vacation and sick days
- Personal days
- Wellness Subsidy and educational reimbursement
- Maternity/parental leave top up
- Employee referral program
- Firm paid professional memberships related and required by role
- Opportunities to give back to your community through Firm initiatives
Diversity and Inclusion
At Fasken we believe a diverse workplace comprises individuals with unique backgrounds, characteristics and qualities. An inclusive workplace creates an equitable environment where individuals are respected and where they are welcome. Fasken is committed to diversity and inclusion in all that we do.
Accessibility and Accommodation
It is important to our Firm that all its members, including those with disabilities, find our workplace to be welcoming and supportive. Reasonable accommodations are available on request for candidates with disabilities taking part in all aspects of the selection process.
Compensation
The typical salary range for this position is $150K - $195K annually; the base pay offered is based on location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, internal and market equity.
Background and Reference Checks
Any offer of employment may be conditional upon full background checks including a criminal record check, a credit check, employment and educational verification.
Your Application
The successful candidate will be detail oriented, a team player and will have excellent organizational & communication skills, both written and oral and the ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced and superior client service environment. We provide a collegial work environment, competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package.
Please submit your resume and cover letter in confidence through our candidate applicant portal on www.fasken.com (http://www.fasken.com).
We thank all candidates for applying, however, only qualified applicants will be contacted for an interview.
NO AGENCIES, PLEASE
