IT Business Operations & Enablement Lead

Zendesk•Austin, TX

1d•$139,000 - $209,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Lead CIO operations and organizational enablement as a trusted executive partner to the VP, CIO Strategy, Operations & Architecture. The role brings structure to CIO priorities and operating rhythms, connects decisions across the CIO Staff, and turns strategy and change into coordinated execution plans, communications, and action across the organization. It combines executive operations, strategy execution, change management, and communications leadership, using AI and automation responsibly to improve quality, speed, coordination, and reach. The position supports the CIO and CIO leadership team across functions, geographies, and levels. It strengthens operating discipline and follow-through while helping leaders communicate consistently and teams understand what is changing, why it matters, and what to do next. The role owns CIO-wide communications strategy and supports change planning and enablement for CIO-wide and cross-functional initiatives, as well as communications for priority programs. Austin, TX is the preferred location. The role works across the global CIO organization and time zones, with flexibility for occasional early or late meetings and an estimated 10–15% travel to US and worldwide locations. Zendesk describes its working model as hybrid, with in-person collaboration at offices and flexibility to work remotely part of the week.

Requirements

Strong executive presence, discretion, judgment, and ability to build trust across levels, functions, and geographies.
Experience with executive meeting cadence, agenda and pre-read development, decision and action tracking, and complex calendar or event coordination.
Practical change management experience, including impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, readiness, adoption, and feedback measurement.
Excellent organization and project coordination skills, including the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities accurately and follow through dependably.
Demonstrated fluency with AI tools and automation, including designing useful workflows and responsibly validating outputs.
Comfort working with ambiguity, shifting priorities, sensitive topics, and a global, distributed workforce.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in communications, business, organizational change, or a related field.
Native or equivalent professional-level English communication skills.
Significant experience in executive communications, strategic communications, change communications, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated ability to write and edit clear, concise, high-quality executive communications in English, including nuanced, audience-sensitive material.
Experience advising senior leaders and translating strategy, technical subjects, and organizational change into actionable messages.
Willingness and eligibility to travel to US and worldwide locations; estimated travel is 10–15%.
Flexibility for occasional early or late meetings across global time zones.

Nice To Haves

Spanish language skills are an advantage.
Experience supporting senior executives in a complex technology organization is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Act as a trusted delegate and thought partner to the VP, CIO Strategy, Operations & Architecture, translating priorities into decisions, plans, and follow-through.
Prepare CIO leaders for key engagements with concise briefs, decision points, stakeholder context, meeting objectives, and follow-up actions.
Orchestrate CIO staff and leadership meetings, all-hands, AMAs, quarterly business reviews, offsites, and other leadership forums.
Develop meeting agendas with clear outcomes; coordinate pre-reads; capture decisions, owners, and due dates; and track follow-through.
Identify cross-functional dependencies, unresolved decisions, and emerging risks, and present concise options and recommendations.
Coordinate with executive assistants, operations leads, administrative partners, and leaders on schedules, materials, logistics, and handoffs.
Handle sensitive information discreetly and exercise sound judgment about what to escalate, share, or resolve independently.
Maintain organized executive materials, stakeholder context, decision records, and action tracking.
Own the CIO-wide communications strategy, calendar, narrative, and editorial standards, aligning messages with company direction, CIO priorities, business outcomes, and customer impact.
Advise the VP and CIO leadership team on audience, message, timing, channel, sequencing, and risks for sensitive or high-impact communications.
Draft, edit, and coordinate executive communications, including leadership messages, all-hands content, announcements, FAQs, talking points, presentations, pre-reads, and follow-ups.
Translate complex technical, operational, workforce, and portfolio topics into clear, accurate messages for technical and nontechnical audiences.
Coordinate communications across CIO functions to provide timely, consistent information with clear owners and actions.
Maintain a forward-looking communications calendar and intake process; identify collisions, gaps, dependencies, and opportunities to reinforce messages.
Gather feedback and engagement signals, assess understanding, and adjust content and channels based on evidence.
Lead change planning for CIO-wide and cross-functional initiatives, including stakeholder mapping, impact and readiness assessments, change narratives, engagement plans, and adoption measures.
Connect communications to practical enablement by explaining what is changing, who is affected, when it happens, where to get help, and what action is expected.
Coach leaders and change owners on sponsorship, sequencing, team conversations, and responding to questions or resistance.
Track change dependencies, risks, readiness, adoption, and feedback across concurrent initiatives, and recommend course corrections.
Coordinate with People & Places, Finance, business partners, and other functions when changes cross organizational boundaries.
Use approved AI tools for research, synthesis, drafting, meeting preparation, action tracking, translation support, and tailored content development while preserving human judgment and accountability.
Build repeatable AI-assisted workflows to coordinate communications, surface dependencies, summarize feedback, and maintain follow-through.
Verify AI-generated facts, tone, confidentiality, and audience fit; protect sensitive information and follow company policies and data-handling requirements.
Identify opportunities to reduce manual administrative work through automation and measure improvements in quality, cycle time, reach, or capacity.
Partner with CIO program sponsors, program managers, and functional leaders to plan and deliver communications for priority initiatives from early planning through launch and sustained adoption.
Join program teams to clarify desired outcomes, affected audiences, needed decisions or behaviors, and how communications can remove execution barriers.
Develop or advise on audience-specific communication plans and materials, such as stakeholder maps, leader talking points, team updates, FAQs, milestones, launch messages, and feedback channels.
Coordinate communications across related workstreams so dependencies, sequencing, ownership, and calls to action are clear and consistent.
Monitor engagement, understanding, readiness, and adoption signals with program teams; use feedback and delivery data to adjust communications and help work stay on track.