Vice President, Strategy & Chief of Staff

Executive Leadership Position At Vans

Vans is the original brand rooted in the authentic lifestyle of skateboarding. We are driven by our mission to inspire and empower everyone to live "Off The Wall" embracing the youthful spirit of freedom, non-conformity, and relentless progression. Yesterday's "Off The Wall" moment is today's new normal, and at Vans, we believe in constantly outdoing ourselves. Together with our communities across the globe, our vision is to push culture forward because we believe that the pursuit of progression never ends. We are constantly inspired by the future generation of positive catalysts within our community.

Reporting directly to the Global Brand President, you are a key member of the Executive Leadership Team. You set the tone for how we operate as a brand leading the Global Go-to-Market (GTM) team, co-creating brand strategy, leading consumer insights & analytics, and driving operational excellence across functions.

Your focus is to ensure organizational clarity and understanding of the brand strategy, so that our teams are aligned around its execution. Adjacent to this, is ensuring our GTM process runs smoothly from concept to consumer. You do this by leading with influence, not authority convening the right people, facilitating decisions, and keeping the organization focused on what matters most.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Global GTM Process: Set the standard for how we go to market globally, ensuring cross-functional collaboration and operational discipline from product creation through consumer fulfillment.
• Facilitate the Operations Squad: Lead the cross-functional GTM and operations team, creating clarity on priorities, solving bottlenecks, and maintaining momentum on key deliverables.
• Co-Create Brand Strategy: Partner with the Brand President and executive team to refine and focus our strategy, translate it into actionable priorities, and ensure alignment across regions and functions.
• Clarify and Align Priorities: Turn the brand's strategy and V2MOM into a clear operating plan, keeping teams focused on the highest-impact work and making trade-offs visible.
• Enable Smart Decisions: Provide insight and analytical rigor to support resource allocation, timing, and sequencing when priorities compete.
• Drive Operational Excellence: Identify inefficiencies in the operating model, recommend improvements, and embed ways of working that are simple, scalable, and repeatable.
• Steer Consumer Insights & Data: Lead the global consumer insights and data strategy, turning insight into action that drives commercial impact.
• Foster Collaboration and Accountability: Model transparent communication, align stakeholders across the matrix, and ensure commitments turn into results.
• Support President on Quarterly Brand Deliverables: BoD prep, learnings meetings, and investor presentations

What do you need to succeed? We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundational skills you'll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your 15+ years of experience and professional achievements.

The foundation skills you will need in this position are:

• Strategic Prioritization: Sees the full enterprise picture and relentlessly clarifies what matters most, ensuring teams are focused on the highest-impact work.
• Complex Problem Solving: Turns ambiguity into clear paths forward, framing challenges as opportunities and creating practical solutions that drive progress.
• Executive-Level Communication: Serves as a clear, trusted voice for the Global Brand President, translating vision into actionable priorities and aligning stakeholders.
• Influence & Collaboration: Navigates a highly matrixed organization with ease, builds strong partnerships across functions, and drives alignment without formal authority.
• Disciplined Action: Balances speed with strategy moves initiatives forward quickly while staying grounded in enterprise priorities and long-term outcomes.

What do we offer you? At Vans, we know you expect as much from us as we do from you. That is why we make a commitment to support and grow our people. We offer extensive development and growth opportunities, a competitive compensation package, and a strong benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).

Our commitment extends beyond this and into your daily work life. We strive to foster a diverse and inclusive culture based on respect, connection, and authenticity. Our focus on DEI is at the foundation of who we are and what we do.