Principal Strategic Planning Specialist

Columbia Brands USA; Portland (OR); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Columbia Sportswear Company seeks a Principal Strategic Planning Specialist to shape high‑impact growth strategies from insight to execution. You’ll work with the Strategic Planning Director and leaders across functions to translate priorities into actionable plans and compelling narratives.

Based at our Portland, OR headquarters, this hybrid role focuses on structured roadmaps, executive communications, and cross‑functional alignment to drive growth and go‑to‑market effectiveness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in strategic planning, business strategy, or related fields.
• Ability to structure complex problems and synthesize inputs.
• Strong analytical skills with market, consumer and financial data.
• Excellent written, verbal and visual communication for executive audiences.
• Understanding of go-to-market processes and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Strategic Planning Director to set priorities and structure initiatives.
• Lead strategic workstreams and develop business cases from insights to actions.
• Create roadmaps linking strategy to execution with milestones and outcomes.
• Develop executive-ready narratives and presentations to drive alignment.
• Collaborate across product, brand, commercial functions to align priorities.
• Bring external perspective to challenge assumptions and identify growth opportunities.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Storytelling

Collaboration

Curiosity

Builder

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Job description

This position is designated as a hybrid role based out of our headquarters near Portland, Oregon. The current expectation is for employees to work onsite four days per week, subject to change based on business needs. This in‑office requirement may be adjusted at the discretion of the company.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Principal Strategic Planning Specialist helps shape and advance high‑impact strategies that support the Columbia Brand's growth and go‑to‑market effectiveness. Working closely with the Strategic Planning Director and cross‑functional leaders, this role translates business priorities, consumer insights, and market dynamics into strategic recommendations, actionable plans, and compelling narratives that drive alignment and action.

HOW YOU'LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Partner closely with the Strategic Planning Director to establish priorities, structure strategic initiatives, and focus efforts on the opportunities that will have the greatest impact on the business.
• Lead strategic workstreams and develop business cases, translating consumer, market, competitive, and financial insights into clear recommendations and actionable plans.
• Develop structured plans and roadmaps that connect strategic priorities to execution and clarify key actions, milestones, and outcomes.
• Create compelling, executive‑ready narratives and presentations that simplify complexity, communicate what matters most, and drive alignment and decision‑making.
• Partner across product, brand, commercial, and other functions to integrate perspectives, navigate tradeoffs, and advance shared priorities.
• Bring external perspective and structured thinking to strategic challenges, using consumer insights, analytics, trends, and best practices to challenge assumptions and identify growth opportunities.

YOU ARE

• Strategic Thinker: Sees the bigger picture and connects the dots to identify what matters and what it means for the business.
• Storyteller: Turns complex information into clear, compelling narratives that build understanding and drive action.
• Collaborator: Builds strong relationships across teams, seeks diverse perspectives, and creates alignment to move work forward.
• Curious: Asks thoughtful questions, explores new ideas, and digs beneath the surface to develop a deeper understanding of the business, consumer, and marketplace.
• Builder: Brings structure to ambiguity, translating strategic direction into priorities, plans, and roadmaps that enable execution.

YOU HAVE

• Bachelor's degree, applicable certification, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of professional experience, preferably including strategic planning, business strategy, management consulting, brand strategy, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to structure complex or ambiguous business problems, synthesize multiple inputs, and develop clear strategic recommendations.
• Strong analytical capability with experience interpreting consumer, market, competitive, and financial information to inform decisions.
• Strong written, verbal, and visual communication skills, including the ability to develop executive‑ready presentations that carry a clear narrative from insight to recommendation.
• Working knowledge of go‑to‑market processes and how product, brand, and commercial functions come together to drive business outcomes.
• Experience working across functions and organizational levels to influence decisions and advance strategic initiatives.

This job description is not meant to be an all‑inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company.

Columbia Sportswear Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. Columbia Sportswear is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12.pdf. If you need reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please notify your recruiter.

At Columbia Sportswear Company, we're proud to offer regular full‑time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding. Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well‑being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well‑being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community. Benefits that can protect your family's financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match. Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness,