Manager, Strategy and Transformation

About the role

The Manager, Strategy & Transformation role sits at the operational core of AET's organizational transformation. This person will be the execution engine behind the Road to 2030 program, keeping strategic initiatives on track, making the annual planning cycle run smoothly, and ensuring the organization's internal communications are clear, consistent, and well-timed through a period of significant change. The role sits at the intersection of program management and organizational change management. The ideal candidate understands that a strategic initiative is not complete when a solution is built—it is complete when the people who need to work differently are actually working differently. They bring the same rigor to change adoption that they bring to milestone tracking: structured, proactive, and accountable to outcomes rather than activities.

The role reports to the VP of Strategy & Growth and collaborates closely with initiative sponsors, project leads, and cross-functional teams across every part of the organization. The ideal candidate is a highly adaptable, execution-focused professional with deep experience managing multi-initiative transformation programs in small to mid-sized organizations. They bring strong change management expertise, the ability to influence without authority, and the judgment to know when to escalate and when to resolve. This role requires both strategic thinking and operational discipline, the ability to frame an executive update in the morning and facilitate a cross-initiative coordination meeting in the afternoon.

Responsibilities

• Program Governance and Operating Rhythm
  • Own the governance structure that keeps the transformation program running—cross-initiative coordination cadence, integrated program roadmap, dependency and risk tracking, and the governance calendar across all active initiatives.
  • Establish and maintain the governance structure with full accountability, cadences, reporting, and decision-making forums that keep AET's transformation initiatives on track.
  • Translate strategic priorities into clear, actionable execution plans with defined milestones, owners, and dependencies.
  • Design and facilitate program meetings, prepare pre-work, follow through on decisions, and ensure the program maintains a consistent, reliable operating rhythm.
  • Facilitate cross-initiative coordination to resolve dependencies and conflicts between workstreams. Track complex interdependencies and maintain forward momentum across a long-horizon program.
  • Maintain and continuously update the RAID log and program dashboard.
• Initiative Project Management Support
  • Build trusted working relationships with senior leaders across the organization, influencing outcomes without direct authority.
  • Partner with business leads and executive sponsors to help them build realistic work plans, track against milestones, surface risks before they become crises, and drive decisions to closure on schedule.
  • Serve as the accountability and discipline layer across all initiatives, acting as the integrating force rather than the project manager for any single workstream.
  • Define and deploy project management templates, standards, and operating rhythms that initiative teams use to run their work.
• Executive and Leadership Communications
  • Prepare and deliver the monthly program update for the senior leadership team, maintain the integrated roadmap, and develop materials that support executive decision-making.
  • Synthesize complexity into clear, concise narratives for senior audiences, ensuring the right people have the right information at the right time.
• Decision Support
  • Prepare options papers, business case framing, and decision structures that enable leaders to make timely, well-informed decisions.
  • Track decisions and ensure follow-through after they are made.
  • Prepare leaders in advance for upcoming decisions and flag issues before they become blockers.
• Change Enablement Coordination
  • Coordinate change management and communication activity across initiatives, ensuring change readiness planning, training timelines, and stakeholder engagement are integrated with execution milestones.
  • Partner with the communications function to ensure employees receive consistent, timely messages tied to initiative progress.
  • Contribute to a culture of accountability, transparency, and disciplined execution.
• Capability Building
  • Actively develop the project management and execution skills of the business leads and sponsors working alongside this role.
  • Treat every governance forum and planning session as an opportunity to build organizational capability, not just to coordinate.
• Strategic Planning Support
  • Support the annual strategic planning process, translating confirmed priorities into execution plans, maintaining the multi-year roadmap, and managing future-phase work to ensure nothing falls through the cracks between planning cycles.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business, organizational development, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 7 or more years of experience in program management, transformation management, or strategy execution.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-workstream programs over multiple years in a small to mid-sized organization where success required building structure rather than inheriting it.
• Demonstrated change management expertise, including the ability to plan for and support adoption, not just delivery of operating model, process redesign, systems implementation, and culture change.
• Comfortable adjusting quickly when priorities shift or new constraints emerge without losing momentum on the broader program, along with demonstrated ability to create structure where it does not exist and make sound decisions with incomplete information.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to frame complex information clearly and concisely for senior audiences.
• Exceptional ability to influence without formal authority, engaging effectively with senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
• Experience working effectively across a wide range of stakeholders, from front-line teams to senior executives, without direct authority over any of them.
• Skilled at running productive meetings, surfacing real issues, and helping groups make decisions rather than talking around them.
• Experience in the architecture, engineering, or construction industry is a plus but not required.
• Ability to work on-site at AET's office in St. Paul, MN with potential, infrequent travel to regional office locations.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package, including health benefits and insurance.
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
• Long-term savings options.
• Paid time off.
• Professional development opportunities.

Pay

Base compensation is expected to be in the range of $100,000.00 – $140,000.00 per year based on skill set and experience.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional work environment as well as locations that feature rough terrain typical of construction sites. Must be able to enter and work in facilities that include limited accessibility, moving machinery, and other conditions typical of industrial facilities.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• Regularly required to talk or hear.
• Frequently required to stand; walk; use hands or fingers, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
• Occasionally required to sit; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• Must frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.
• May work outside in various weather conditions.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.