Senior Manager, Strategic Transformation Communications
Job ID 1665
Description
Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.
About Heifer International
In 1944, Heifer International’s founder, Dan West, began outlining a simple but groundbreaking plan to tackle hunger around the world. West, a farmer from the Midwest and Church of the Brethren member, had recently returned from feeding weary refugees during volunteer service in the Spanish Civil War.
He had seen firsthand that giving people food was a short-term solution, whereas providing them with animals offered a steady supply of nutritious food for an entire family. His philosophy still inspires Heifer’s work today. Partnering with farmers across a range of different livestock and crops, we create unique solutions to local challenges.
Today, Heifer International has operations in 19 countries around the world, working alongside local farmers, business owners and their communities, as they mobilize and envision their futures. Together, we build inclusive, resilient economies, so communities can develop effective ways to end global hunger and poverty in a sustainable way.
To date, we have supported more than 42 million farming families across Africa, Asia and the Americas and in the past five years alone. We have worked alongside 2.7 million families to close the living income gap or set them on a path to doing so. Between now and 2030, we will support an additional 10 million people to reach a living income by scaling up our signature programs. To achieve this, Heifer International relies on its passionate, committed, and highly skilled staff.
ROLE FUNCTION
Heifer International is in the middle of a transformation—moving from a traditional hierarchy to a Regenerative Networked Organization driven by a living systems mindset. This shift touches how we design programs, make decisions, operate globally, and live our values.
We are seeking a Senior Manager of Strategic Transformation Communications to lead the communication & engagement strategy that enables this transformation to take root across Heifer International. This role serves as a steward of how the organization makes sense of its transformation — ensuring that the shift in how we work is felt and understood, not just announced. The Senior Manager of Strategic Transformation Communications will operate as a ‘narrative steward’ to identify opportunities for collaboration, partnership, and opportunity. This role serves as the strategic bridge between our Transformation Design (the "what") and our global staff adoption (the "why"), while simultaneously positioning Heifer as a thought leader in the sector. You will be responsible for translating complex organizational shifts—such as new program model, operating logic, and the behavioral shifts required to make them real —into clear, human-centric narratives. Crucially, you will also look outward, helping to package our journey as a credible, learnable model for partners and funders, directly enabling resource mobilization for the transformation itself. This is a role for a strategic sense-maker. You will treat communication as a User Experience—helping the organization and the sector understand not just what is changing, but why it matters to our mission.
THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE
You are a strategic storyteller who can take dense technical or organizational design concepts and turn them into simple, inspiring language. You are comfortable with ambiguity and thrive in an environment where plans evolve. You can communicate progress even when the final destination is still coming into focus. You move seamlessly between modern digital tools, understanding that how we communicate is just as important as what we say. You understand that "communication" is a two-way street; you are as good at listening and synthesizing feedback as you are broadcasting messages. You are empathetic, proactive, and committed to helping staff navigate change with clarity and confidence.
RESPONSIBILITIES & DELIVERABLES
Strategic Internal Communications & Change Management Operations (40%)
- Narrative Ownership: Develop and execute a comprehensive internal communications strategy that supports the Transformation Agenda. Craft the "Transformation Narrative" that connects discrete initiatives into a cohesive story about Heifer’s future.
- Adaptive Sense-Making & Change Communication: Treat communication as a living, iterative process — not a one-time rollout. Continuously read how change is landing across the organization: surface patterns of confusion, resistance, or momentum; listen for what staff need to hear next; and adapt the Transformation Narrative in real time. Design communication cycles that test, learn, and evolve as the transformation unfolds — ensuring that understanding deepens and engagement grows across the network rather than plateauing after an announcement.
- Transformation Content: Design, write, and co-create high-quality strategic transformation content across all internal channels and formats — including town hall scripts, email communications, intranet articles, video scripts, and presentations. This is not content production. It is strategic sensemaking at scale: knowing what the organization needs to hear at each stage of the transition, crafting it with precision and empathy, and adapting it as the transformation evolves. You will hold the narrative thread that connects discrete initiatives into a coherent story about who Heifer is becoming and why it matters.
Transformation Positioning & Resource Mobilization (25%)
- Transformation Positioning: Facilitate the articulation of Heifer’s transformation architecture and journey for external audiences—partners, funders, and sector peers—positioning it as a credible, learnable example of integrated programmatic, operational, business, and cultural transformation.
- Learning & Resource Mobilization Enablement: Contribute and co-create to materials and narratives that demonstrate the implications and impact of the transformation, opening pathways for learning partnerships and catalytic funding that support long-term transformation capacity. This includes briefs, donor-ready slide decks, case studies from early adopter contexts, learning summaries, and concept notes.
- Thought Leadership Assets: Translate internal lessons learned into external-facing white papers, case studies, or presentation decks that elevate Heifer’s profile in the International Development sector.
Knowledge Flow & "Sense-Making" (20%)
- Active Sense-Making: Go beyond surveys. You will design and facilitate dialogue forums (e.g., listening circles, sensing sessions) that allow the organization to process change together.
- Network Weaving: Actively break down silos by identifying stories in one part of the network (e.g., a pilot in Kenya) and sharing them with the wider organization to foster a culture of peer-to-peer learning.
- Tooling & Knowledge Flow: Manage the digital platforms used for transformation updates, ensuring information is accessible, organized, and supports a cohesive transformation.
Stakeholder Engagement & Visual Storytelling (20%)
- Values in Practice: Work with various working groups to ensure that the tone, framing, and content of all communications reflect the behavioral shifts the transformation requires — not just the structural changes. The Living Systems mindset should be evident in how we communicate, not just what we communicate about.
- Event Design: Support the design strategy and facilitation of key transformation events (e.g., Global Workshops, leadership presentations, and alignment sessions), ensuring materials are clear, visual, and foster genuine engagement rather than passive listening.
- Visual Translation: Translate complex diagrams (Operating Models, workflows, network maps) into digestible infographics and slide decks that make the complex simple.
- May peform other job-related duties as assigned.
Minimum Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree required plus 10 years of experience in internal communications, corporate strategy, or change management roles. OR 14 years of relevant experience without a degree.
- Minimum 7 years managing communications projects.
- Proven experience supporting organizational change initiatives or complex transformation projects.
- Strong portfolio demonstrating complexity reduction (e.g., specific examples where you took a complex strategy, data set, or change initiative and turned it into clear, engaging content for an internal audience).
Preferred Requirements:
- Experience in the Non-Profit or International Development sector.
- Familiarity with "Systems Thinking" or "Networked Organization" concepts.
- Proficiency with visual collaboration platforms (e.g., Miro, Mural) and modern communication tools (video software, Canva, etc).
- Familiarity with using AI tools for content ideation and drafting is a plus.
- Fluency in languages other than English (Spanish or French highly preferred).
Most Critical Proficiencies:
- The "Translator" Skill Set: Proven ability to take dense technical or strategic source material and turn it into simple, inspiring language for a diverse global audience.
- Cultural Intelligence (CQ): You have a deep sensitivity to cultural nuances and power dynamics, ensuring our communications empower rather than extract.
- Network & Agile Mindset: You move away from rigid hierarchies and understand how to influence networks. You are comfortable working in sprints, pivoting quickly, and connecting people across silos (Nodes) rather than just reporting a chain of command.
- Visual Thinking: You don't just use words; you understand how to use visuals (diagrams, flowcharts, infographics) to help people "see" the strategy.
- Empathic Communicator: You write for the reader, not just for the writer. You anticipate anxiety during change and communicate to settle it.
Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands:
- Ability to handle multiple tasks and deadlines, establish priorities and make sound judgments often in a fast-paced environment, and the flexibility, energy, and attention to detail needed to manage a heavy workload and rapidly changing contexts.
- Proofread correspondence for correct punctuation and grammar and produce documents in a well-designed, attractive format.
- May require constant sitting and moving; working at a computer for extended periods.
- Occasional bending and lifting/carrying of up to 20 pounds (9 kilograms).
- Ability to work with sensitive information and maintain confidentiality.
Salary Information:
- The U.S. salary range for this position is $96,799 - $125,000 annually. Placement within the range will be based on the experience and competency level of the candidate.
- This is a global position, accepting candidates from the 19 countries Heifer operates in. The expected range for candidates outside of the U.S. will align to Heifer’s pay scales for the individual country the candidate resides in. Please share your salary expectations in your application. In addition, please submit a cover letter with your application to be considered for this role.
What We Offer:
- Heifer International offers a variety of benefits for U.S. based employees working 30 or more hours per week.
- Health and wellness benefits including Flexible Spending Account and/or Health Saving Account
- Employee assistance program
- 403(b) retirement plan (match 1% employee to 2% employer up to a maximum of 4% match +3% employer discretionary contribution regardless of employee contribution)
- 22 vacation days in addition to 12 statutory and discretionary holidays, and 10 sick days per year
- Employer-paid life insurance and accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D)
- Professional development and annual merit increase opportunities
- Optional critical illness insurance, legal assistance plan and pet protection
- And more!
Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with some form of disability.