Director, Marketing and Communications Strategic Transformation (Chicago/Hybrid)
Description
Work. Serve. Thrive.
Imagine a place where your talent can make a meaningful difference in peoples' lives. Working at Feeding America is a uniquely rewarding experience in which our employees work together as vital parts of a much larger mission. We are innovative, mission-focused, diverse, collaborative, values-driven and focused on results.
Feeding America is the nation’s largest charity and the leading domestic hunger-relief charity in the United States. Our mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.
This is a hybrid position based out of Feeding America’s Chicago office location. At Feeding America, we believe in offering a flexible work environment. Employees must be in the office an average of 2 days a week (when not travelling for work) and can work from home on other days. Employees also have access to a 30-day “work anywhere” program during the course of each calendar year that can be combined with PTO and/or holidays.
Learn more about Feeding America here.
The Opportunity
The Director of Strategic Transformation supports the CMCO and the MarCom Leadership Team in embedding adaptive ways of working, advancing operational maturity, and accelerating innovation across the Marketing and Communications (MarCom) department. The position plays a key role in translating strategy into systems, routines, and learning initiatives that improve how work gets done and enhance MarCom’s overall performance, agility, and cross-functional integration in service of Feeding America’s 2030 strategy.
This role facilitates initiatives that enhance capability deployment, cross-functional collaboration, and innovation in ways of working. It also surfaces and coordinates high-value external opportunities—such as strategic partnerships, speaking engagements, and cross-sector collaborations—for the CMCO to expand Feeding America’s visibility and brand influence within the mission-aligned marketing community.
Compensation
Here at Feeding America national organization, equality is central to our mission and is an integral part of our compensation policies and structures. As such, we maintain transparent salary ranges and clearly defined practices for how our team, including new hire salary offers, moves through these ranges. You can expect us to offer the best salary up front based on these clearly defined pay practices with little room for negotiation. We make exceptions for highly experienced (multiple years of at-level experience) new hires in accordance with our pay practices. Once hired, employees have the opportunity to progress through salary ranges via regular merit increases and step promotions.
Salary Range: $127,000 - $132,000 Based on Experience.
Here at Feeding America national organization, equality is central to our mission and is an integral part of our compensation policies and structures. As such, we maintain transparent salary ranges and clearly defined practices for how our team, including new hire salary offers, moves through these ranges. You can expect us to offer the best salary up front based on these clearly defined pay practices with little room for negotiation. We make exceptions for highly experienced (multiple years of at-level experience) new hires in accordance with our pay practices. Once hired, employees have the opportunity to progress through salary ranges via regular merit increases and step promotions.
Salary Range: $127,000 - $132,000 Based on Experience.
Benefits: A comprehensive list of benefits available to full-time employees can be found here.
Responsibilities:
Responsibilities:
Support Strategic Execution and Organizational Agility
- Support the alignment of systems and processes to the IMPACT framework and 2030 priorities and lead and/or support project management and tracking of these initiatives.
- Implement project management discipline—including project charters, timelines, KPI tracking, and communications—to ensure clarity, accountability, and coordinated execution across MarCom initiatives.
Advance Operational Excellence
- Partner across Marcom Teams to standardize and optimize workflows, resource planning, and knowledge management to reduce friction and accelerate delivery across campaigns.
- Act as MarCom’s operational liaison to ensure enterprise systems and processes are fully leveraged and aligned with departmental needs.
Manage a Portfolio of Innovation Experiments
- Identify, consolidate, and structure a portfolio of innovation pilots across all MarCom functions (e.g., AI tools, audience personalization, digital storytelling, donor journeys) to build organizational learning and accelerate impact.
- Track outcomes and codify learnings to inform capability roadmaps, investment cases, and decisions on scaling or sunsetting initiatives.
Enable Capability Evolution (via Coordination, not Ownership)
- Coordinate and implement learning pilots and skills mapping focused on MarCom’s evolving capability needs (e.g., digital, data, analytics, creative tech, AI)..
- Provide synthesis and planning support focused on processes, tools and project management—to inform strategic capability-building efforts across the department.
Support a Values-Aligned, High-Impact Culture
- Drawing on organization resources and leveraging outside best practices, support CMCO and Marcom with facilitation tools, diagnostics, and team rituals that reinforce values-aligned collaboration, psychological safety, and team effectiveness.
- Apply these practices within defined efforts—not as a substitute for people leadership responsibilities.
Provide Strategic Analysis and Trend Integration
- Provide structured analysis, insight synthesis, and planning coordination to enable strategic decision-making by the CMCO and DLT.
- Translate emerging trends and internal insights into use cases and implementation roadmaps for operational and programmatic transformation.
Coordinate CMCO Visibility and Influence Initiatives
- Identify, evaluate, and support implementation of high-value opportunities for the CMCO (e.g., speaking engagements, strategic partnerships, cross-sector collaborations) that elevate Feeding America’s external profile, brand positioning and media donations.
- Maintain and manage a pipeline of strategic opportunities and platforms aligned with MarCom’s influence strategy.
Required Experience and Qualifications:
- Minimum 8–10 years of experience in marketing, strategic planning, operations, or organizational transformation roles, preferably within complex matrixed organizations.
- Proven track record of leading change initiatives that resulted in measurable impact.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and partner cross-functionally across leadership levels.
- Experience designing and leading capability-building programs or learning & development strategies.
- Strong project management, facilitation, and data-driven decision-making skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfort presenting to executives and large groups.
- Experience with agile methodologies, performance management systems, and digital transformation is a plus.
- Passion for social impact and alignment with Feeding America’s mission to end hunger.
- Bilingual and multicultural campaign experience preferred.
Required Leadership Competencies:
- Fosters an Enterprise Mindset
- Fosters an Open and Supportive Environment
- Leads with Accountability
- Collaborates Internally and Externally
- Focuses on People and Teams
- Manages Organization and Business Complexity
- Communicates with Impact and Influence
Feeding America’s goal is to attract, develop, retain, and promote a talented diverse workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging and contribute to a culture that values differences, ideas, and experiences. We intentionally seek out diverse perspectives and skills on our teams, knowing that it makes us stronger as an organization and better equipped to serve our neighbors in need. We encourage all individuals, including those from historically under-represented communities and individuals with lived experience of hunger, to apply.
Feeding America participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.