Senior Manager, Transformation Enablement
Job ID 1667
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 Overview
Heifer International is in the midst of a significant organizational transformation—shifting from a traditional hierarchical structure toward an agile, adaptive, farmer-focused, regenerative network organization guided by a living systems mindset. This shift is redefining how programs are designed, how decisions are made, and how teams collaborate across a globally distributed organization.
The Senior Manager, Transformation Enablement is a key member of the Transformation, Strategy & Communications (TSC) team, responsible for helping to steward this transformation from design into day-to-day practice across the organization. This role works across transformation efforts—helping teams stay aligned, connected, and progressing. You will partner with global teams, Regional Transformation Connectors, and other stakeholders to ensure priorities are clear, work is connected, and efforts are moving forward. A core part of the role is maintaining a system-level view of what is evolving—surfacing risks, identifying interdependencies, and translating emerging priorities into coordinated action. You will also partner closely with external consultants and internal teams to shape and maintain coordination systems (e.g., roadmaps and planning tools) and assume ongoing stewardship of these as the work transitions to internal ownership.
This role partners closely with the Director of Transformation Effectiveness, and other members of the TSC team. It is a highly collaborative role that relies on influence rather than authority and is ideal for someone who enjoys working across teams, making sense of complex work, and helping organizations turn strategy into coordinated action.
The Successful Candidate
You are a systems thinker who brings structure to complex, evolving work and helps teams move forward with clarity and momentum, even when structure is still emerging. You enable progress without relying on formal authority—building trust, facilitating alignment, and translating strategy into practical action across functions and geographies. You are comfortable working in networked, adaptive environments, supporting shared ownership and distributed leadership rather than traditional hierarchy.
You are skilled at sense-making—able to identify patterns, synthesize insights, and translate complexity into clear, actionable direction, including turning discussions and emerging thinking into concrete next steps and coordinated action. You build strong relationships and connect priorities across teams and functions—identifying overlaps, gaps, and opportunities for alignment. You operate as a strategic thought partner in complex transformation work to enable collaboration, culture, and strategic transformation.
RESPONSIBILITIES & DELIVERABLES
Transformation Enablement & System Alignment (40%)
- Partner closely with the Director of Transformation Effectiveness as a critical thought partner, contributing to the ongoing shaping of Heifer’s transformation—particularly the evolution of its operating logic and ways of working—and translating complex ideas into clear, high-quality, decision-ready materials.
- Lead and manage a defined set of transformation work—including assigned projects and cross-functional teams—establishing and maintaining structured plans (e.g., roadmaps, timelines, and tracking tools) to ensure alignment, visibility, and effective implementation across the organization.
- Maintain a system-level view of what is evolving—interpreting progress, surfacing risks, and identifying interdependencies across teams, functions, and geographies.
- Translate evolving work into clear, decision-ready insights, options, and recommendations that inform leadership discussions and decision-making.
- Act as a connective force across functions and regions—strengthening alignment, reducing fragmentation, and enabling more integrated ways of working across the system.
- Partner closely with Regional Transformation Network Connectors to co-drive implementation in countries—aligning global priorities with local execution realities and ensuring strong feedback loops across the system.
- Engage with global stakeholders and working groups to assess organizational readiness and capacity for change, and adapt approaches accordingly.
- Guide prioritization and sequencing across areas of work—helping determine what moves forward, in what order, and at what pace, while balancing ambition with organizational capacity.
- Enable alignment and forward movement across transformation work—identifying and advancing both near-term wins and longer-term progress across the organization.
- Take ownership of transformation project management systems and practices over time, including maintaining integrated plans (e.g., Gantt charts), tracking progress, facilitating regular update cadences, and producing reports that support alignment and decision-making.
Lead Change Enablement & Stakeholder Engagement (30%)
- Design and support stakeholder engagement and change enablement approaches.
- Co-lead and facilitate cross-functional sessions (workshops, working groups, retrospectives) that support alignment, learning, and forward movement.
- Support teams in adopting more networked, adaptive, and collaborative ways of working, including iterative planning and learning cycles (e.g., sprints, retrospectives) where appropriate.
- Build and maintain trusted relationships across functions and geographies.
- Partner closely with Regional Transformation Network Connectors to align global direction with regional realities and ensure strong two-way feedback across the system.
- Surface tensions constructively and use them as inputs to inform alignment, decision-making, and next steps.
Transformation System Stewardship & Continuity (20%)
- Partner with external transformation coaches during design and implementation phases to develop project management structures, templates, and reporting approaches, and transition ownership of these systems to internal leadership over time.
- Lead ongoing stewardship of these coordination systems—ensuring they remain useful, adaptive, and aligned as the work evolves, as assigned.
- Translate emerging work, discussions, and strategic direction into structured plans, milestones, and coordinated action across the system.
- Ensure continuity across phases of work, ensuring smooth transitions from design to implementation and from external support to internal ownership.
Learning, Insight & Strategy Support (10%)
- Design and co-lead organizational transformation activities and learning loops that capture insights from practice and feed them back into strategy and transformation efforts.
- Synthesize patterns, risks, and lessons emerging across the system to support leadership awareness and decision-making.
- Strengthen system-level awareness by identifying connections across teams, geographies, and areas of work.
- Translate insights into actionable recommendations that support adaptation and continuous improvement.
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree plus 8-10 years of relevant experience in transformation, strategy, change enablement, program/project management, or related fields (or equivalent experience).
- Experience leading or managing complex, cross-functional transformation or strategic initiatives, including working across multiple teams or geographies.
- Minimum 6 years managing change management projects
- Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous work, translating evolving priorities into clear plans, actions and deliverables.
- Proven ability to partner with senior leaders as thought partner, contributing to shaping direction and and influencing organizational strategies.
- Strong ability to develop high-quality, structured materials (e.g., presentations, summaries, decision-support materials).
- Experience using data, insights, or reporting to support sense-making, decision-making, and progress tracking.
Preferred Requirements
- Experience in management consulting or similar environments, with demonstrated ability to structure complex problem and translating into strategy execution.
- Experience working in global, cross-cultural, or distributed organizational environments.
- Experience using AI-enabled tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) to support synthesis, communication or workflow efficiency.
- Certification in change management methodologies (e.g., PROSCI, CMP) or equivalent experience.
- Certification in project management methodologies (e.g. Agile) or equivalent experience.
- Familiarity with collaboration and planning tools (e.g., Miro, Mural, Asana, Teams).
- Fluency in other languages highly preferred.
- Experience in nonprofit, international development, or mission driven organizations.
Most Critical Proficiencies
- Systems Thinking & Sense-Making: Ability to identify patterns across complex, evolving work and translate inputs into clear, actionable insight that informs decisions and direction.
- Strategic Communication & Synthesis: Ability to structure ambiguous work, synthesize insights, and translate complex concepts into clear, compelling materials that support alignment and decision-making.
- Change Enablement: Practical experience supporting organizational change, guiding adoption, and enabling progress across both planned and emergent work.
- Transformation Planning & Execution Discipline: Ability to build and manage structured plans (e.g., roadmaps, timelines), track progress across multiple workstreams, and ensure coordinated advancement of complex transformation work.Facilitation & Influence: Ability to guide complex conversations, navigate group dynamics, and build alignment without formal authority.
- Relationship & Partnership: Strong ability to build trust and work effectively across functions, geographies, and levels.
- Comfort with Ambiguity & Adaptation: Ability to operate effectively in evolving environments where structure is still emerging.
Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands
- Ability to work both as a team player and independently, managing multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- May require working in front of a computer for extended periods.
- 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.
- Comfortable with change and working with evolving department and organization
- Self-motivated, agile, and detail-oriented professional with exceptional organizational, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills
- Willingness to work outside of normal business hours as requested due to global team coordination.
- 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 - $120,000 annually. Placement within the range will be based on the experience and competency level of the candidate. In addition, please submit a cover letter with your application to be considered for this role.
- 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.