Executive Transformation and Strategy Officer

Heifer International

2d

About The Position

Heifer International is hiring an Executive Transformation and Strategy Officer, internally titled Transformation, Strategy and Communications Steward, to provide executive stewardship of the next phase of its organizational transformation. Heifer is a global nonprofit working with smallholder farmers to address hunger and poverty sustainably. Its transformation aims to develop an agile, adaptive, farmer-centered, locally led, and globally connected Regenerative Network Organization (RNO), moving from a design-focused phase toward shared language, experimentation, learning, and activation.

The role protects the integrity and coherence of the transformation while enabling it to evolve through experimentation, learning, and adaptation. Working closely with the CEO, Transformation Stewardship Committee, Board of Directors, and distributed transformation capabilities, the Steward maintains a whole-system view across the RNO, organizational design, governance, human and cultural systems, and the broader transformation portfolio. The role leads the Sr. Director, Integration and Adaptation and the Communications Team (Node), and helps ensure interconnected dimensions evolve coherently with the conditions, resources, relationships, and decisions needed for operationalization.

The Steward does not own or execute all transformation activities. Instead, the role cultivates distributed capability, shared stewardship, participation, and co-creation so people across Heifer can experiment, learn, adapt, make decisions, and activate the emerging model in context. Decisions are made jointly with the SC and TSC core teams, with the Steward facilitating decision-making with those teams and key stakeholders.

The position is global, with a flexible base location, preferably in a country where Heifer has an office. Remote or hybrid work is possible. International travel of up to 30% is required, including time at Heifer’s head office in Little Rock, Arkansas, and in countries where it operates. Compensation depends on the candidate’s location, experience, and qualifications, and is intended to reflect local market standards and the value of the role. Employment is contingent on satisfactory references and background checks.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in MBA, strategy, public policy, organizational development, or a related field.
• At least 15 years of experience in strategic leadership roles, including transformation and organizational change, strategy, and operating-model evolution.
• At least 8 years of people-management experience and experience working with senior executives and governing bodies in complex organizational environments.
• Experience leading or stewarding major transformation across distributed, international, networked, or federated organizations.
• Experience working in global, multicultural contexts; international development, philanthropy, networks, or federated systems are preferred contexts.
• Background or knowledge in enterprise-level communications.
• Demonstrated record of collaborating with senior leaders and stakeholders to build strategic alignment and lead major organizational transformation.
• Strong grasp of systems thinking, adaptive strategy, organizational design, strategy development and execution, and shared and distributed leadership models.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills.
• Commitment to locally led development, equity, and regenerative systems.
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally, potentially up to 30%.

Nice To Haves

• Experience or familiarity with living system principles.
• Experience working with local communities and front-line employees.
• Proficiency in other languages.

Responsibilities

• Steward the integrity and evolution of Heifer’s transformation architecture and overall transformation portfolio, maintaining a whole-system view across the Program Model, Operating Model, Business Model, culture, governance, organizational capabilities, and other streams.
• Identify interdependencies, tensions, gaps, competing signals, and implications that require collective stewardship and decision-making.
• Enable translation of the emerging RNO operating logic into organizational practice and maintain coherence across organizational designs, structures, meta-systems, policies, processes, decision roles, governance, and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Connect emerging design choices with the capabilities, conditions, and safeguards needed for responsible activation and operationalization.
• Work with the Transformation Stewardship Committee, TSC and Node Leads to support healthy governance, shared stewardship, and collective decision-making, while preserving appropriate distributed authority.
• Surface enterprise-level choices, tensions, and barriers; mobilize the decisions, relationships, resources, and conditions needed for transformation to progress.
• Synchronize organizational transformation with the evolution of Board governance while respecting the distinct roles, authority, and responsibilities of each.
• Build conditions for transformation to be carried across countries, networks, ecosystems, functions, and capability communities rather than concentrated in a central team.
• Enable participation, facilitation, co-creation, experimentation, and shared stewardship, ensuring countries receive resources, connections, support, and continuous feedback.
• Strengthen Heifer’s internal capacity to transform continuously and reduce dependency on individual transformation leaders.
• Ensure culture, mindsets, behaviors, leadership practices, capabilities, and ways of working evolve alongside structural and operating-model changes.
• Partner with the People Department, Human Potential & Culture, and other capabilities to embed transformation readiness as an ongoing organizational discipline.
• Help create conditions for distributed leadership, agency, accountability, and regenerative ways of working.
• Integrate learning, sensing, and adaptation into transformation stewardship; co-create meaningful indicators of transformation progress and organizational health.
• Use evidence and learning to challenge assumptions, inform adaptation, identify where stewardship or intervention is needed, and share how learning has influenced decisions.
• Help shape the long-term ecosystem of capabilities needed for Heifer to continuously adapt and transform, connecting transformation, organizational development and design, culture and human systems, governance, learning, and other enabling capabilities.
• Lead the Sr. Director, Integration and Adaptation and the Communications Team (Node).
• Make decisions jointly with the SC and TSC core teams and facilitate decision-making with those teams and key stakeholders.
• Travel internationally, potentially up to 30%.

Benefits

• Competitive, locally relevant benefits tailored to each country’s context.
• Total Rewards package supporting diverse employee needs and long-term engagement.
• Reasonable adjustments for any stage of the recruitment process, if needed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive