DFF - Associate Strategy Manager - Strategic Opportunities and impact
Dubai Government
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Job summary
Dubai Future Foundation is seeking an Associate Strategy Manager, Strategic Opportunities and Impact to shape Dubai’s future by identifying bold opportunities, sizing impact, and translating them into strategic roadmaps and executive-ready cases for leadership and the board.
The role blends top-tier strategy consulting rigor with economic analysis, financial modelling, and investment thinking, working across horizons and embedding with project teams when needed.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Finance, Economics, or related field.
- 2–4 years in a top-tier multinational consulting firm; exposure to economic impact assessment is a plus.
- Strong quantitative and storytelling abilities with financial modelling and business-case development.
Responsibilities
- Identify high-value opportunities and size potential impact with quantitative analysis.
- Develop business cases, discounts, DCF, and scenario modelling for investments.
- Define strategic direction and roadmaps and support boards with executive-ready deliverables.
- Embed with project teams to provide strategic guidance and analysis.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) was established in 2016 to institutionalize future-shaping for Dubai and strengthen the city’s position as a leading global city of the future. The Foundation works in partnership with government and private-sector entities to imagine, design and accelerate Dubai’s future. Its work spans five strategic areas: future foresight, knowledge dissemination, capacity building, future design and future acceleration. At the heart of DFF’s mandate is turning future-focused ideas and opportunities into tangible outcomes. The Foundation embraces risk-taking, agility and foresight as key attributes in navigating emerging opportunities and challenges. DFF is guided by a core belief that leading in the present is not enough; the future must be actively imagined, designed and executed.
Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) aims to realize the wise vision of Dubai’s leadership to keep Dubai 10 years ahead, institutionalizing future-oriented thinking and forward-looking methodologies that position Dubai as the leading city of the future.
In collaboration with government entities, global institutions, startups, and innovators, DFF drives collective efforts to imagine, design, and execute the best possible future for humanity.
Under the supervision of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of DFF, the Foundation oversees a portfolio of initiatives that include the Museum of the Future, Area 2071, Dubai Future Accelerators, Dubai Future Labs, Dubai Future Academy, Dubai Future Forum, Dubai Centre for AI, and the Dubai RDI Program.
Through these platforms, DFF institutionalizes foresight, enables innovation, builds talent, and designs the systems and industries that will keep Dubai 10 years ahead in every dimension of its future.
For more information on the initiatives, projects, and programs of Dubai Future Foundation, please visit: www.dubaifuture.ae
The Associate Strategy Manager, Strategic Opportunities and Impact reports directly to the Director of Strategy, within the Strategy and Strategic Capital Department at DFF.
This vertical sets DFF’s strategic direction and futures agenda, identifying and sizing high-value opportunities, shaping corporate strategy and governance, and embedding strategic and analytical firepower across the organisation’s most important initiatives.
As the Associate Strategy Manager, Strategic Opportunities and Impact, you will help define where DFF aims next, identifying bold, high-value opportunities, sizing their potential impact, and translating them into strategic direction, transformative roadmaps, and executive-ready cases for leadership and the board.
The role blends the toolkit of a top-tier strategy consultant with the rigour of an economist: structured problem-solving and compelling storytelling on one side, and quantitative impact assessment, financial modelling, and investment thinking on the other.
You will work across multiple horizons, from long-term strategic vision to near-term execution, and embed directly with project teams when the hardest strategic questions need to be addressed.
- Scan global trends, technologies, and futures signals through environmental scanning, competitive benchmarking, and horizon analysis to identify high-value opportunities, white spaces, and emerging strategic opportunities for DFF.
- Define what qualifies as a high-value opportunity for DFF, including the criteria, ambition threshold, and strategic fit, and build a structured pipeline of opportunities for leadership consideration.
- Assess the potential impact of each high-value opportunity both qualitatively — strategic significance, transformative and societal potential, and contribution to keeping Dubai 10 years ahead — and quantitatively, including economic value-at-stake, sizing, return on investment, and measurable impact metrics.
- Support investment thinking on high-value opportunities, strategic partnerships, new initiatives, and programme expansions by contributing to business-case development, DCF and payback analysis, and scenario modelling.
- Build the evidence base behind each high-value opportunity, bringing an economist’s rigour to sizing impact, modelling scenarios, and turning bold ideas into quantified, defensible cases for investment.
- Lead and contribute to defining DFF’s overall strategic direction, long-term vision, and annual corporate priorities in close collaboration with senior leadership.
- Translate identified high-value opportunities into bold strategic targets and transformative roadmaps that challenge conventional thinking and reflect DFF’s position as a global futures institution.
- Design and facilitate executive strategy workshops, strategic planning cycles, and board-level presentations.
- Track and report on organisational KPIs, OKRs, and strategic milestones to ensure accountability at all levels.
- Oversee and ensure adherence to DFF-wide strategic frameworks, policies, and operating procedures across business units and initiatives.
- Develop governance structures, decision-making frameworks, and escalation protocols that improve organisational agility and accountability.
- Act as a strategic liaison between the Corporate Strategy team and internal stakeholders, identifying misalignments early and driving corrective action.
- Monitor implementation of approved strategies, flagging deviations and recommending course corrections with supporting analysis.
- Embed directly with project teams on complex, high-priority initiatives to provide strategic guidance, structured problem-solving, and analytical support.
- Define project scope, hypothesis trees, and issue-based workplans in the style of top-tier management-consulting engagements.
- Synthesise qualitative and quantitative findings into executive-ready deliverables, including memos, briefings, and recommendations, and craft compelling strategy decks that translate complex analysis into clear narratives for leadership and board audiences.
- Support DFF’s broader portfolio of initiatives in sharpening their strategic narratives and impact metrics.
- Support the identification and assessment of digital transformation opportunities across DFF’s operations, programmes, and stakeholder-engagement models.
- Support the development of digital strategy roadmaps, leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, data platforms, and automation to unlock efficiency and amplify DFF’s impact.
- Collaborate with technology and operations teams to help define digital use cases and translate them into prioritised, executable initiatives.
- Stay at the forefront of global trends in govtech, smart cities, and emerging technology to inform DFF’s innovation agenda.
This role is where DFF’s biggest bets are found, sized, and shaped. By identifying high-value opportunities, quantifying what they could deliver, and turning them into clear strategic direction, you help leadership make informed decisions on strategic pathways and keep Dubai 10 years ahead.
DFF offers a dynamic and mission-driven environment that values collaboration, excellence, and measurable impact.
You will work alongside multidisciplinary teams passionate about execution, innovation, and the future of Dubai. Expect diverse challenges, high-level exposure, and the opportunity to contribute directly to shaping Dubai’s readiness for the future.
- Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Business Administration, Engineering, Finance, Economics, or a related discipline; an advanced degree (MBA, MSc) is a plus. A strong economics background and the ability to quantify economic and strategic impact are particularly valued.
- 2–4 years of experience in a top-tier multinational consulting firm (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Accenture Strategy, or equivalent); exposure to economic impact assessment, futures/strategy, or government innovation is an advantage.
- Demonstrated ability to identify high-value opportunities and assess their potential impact both qualitatively and quantitatively, including sizing economic value-at-stake, return on investment, and strategic significance.
- Exceptional structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to break down ambiguous and complex challenges into clear hypotheses and actionable insights.
- Strong financial and economic acumen, with fluency in business-case development, investment analysis, economic impact assessment, and financial modelling.
- Proven ability to think in systems and across multiple horizons, from long-term strategic vision to near-term execution priorities.
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling executive narratives and influence senior audiences.
- Excellent PowerPoint and Excel skills, with the ability to translate complex analysis into compelling, well-structured presentations with strong visual storytelling, and to build robust models and analyses in Excel. Familiarity with BI, data-visualisation, and digital productivity tools is an advantage.
- Experience in or exposure to digital transformation, AI strategy, or technology-driven business change.
- Ability to work natively with AI tools and emerging technologies, and to develop or meaningfully contribute to new AI-enabled tools and solutions that enhance how DFF operates.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity with a strong bias for action, able to move quickly with incomplete information and iterate toward the right answer.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills across diverse teams, cultures, and levels of seniority. Arabic is an asset.
- High attention to detail, strong ownership, and accountability.
- Emirati candidates are preferred.
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