Director Transformation

Atlas Air; City of White Plains (NY); On-site; USD 159,000 - 214,000; Full time

Job summary

Atlas Air Worldwide seeks a Director to own a pillar within the Value Creation Plan, delivering end-to-end initiatives with accountable EBITDA impact. You will lead a small team, drive governance, and ensure value realization across the portfolio.

You will partner with senior stakeholders to translate strategy into executable plans, manage dependencies, and intervene to recover value where needed. This is a high-visibility, transformational role in aviation logistics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• MBA or master's degree preferred.
• 7–10 years of experience in consulting, transformation, strategy, operations, or value creation roles.
• Experience operating within a formal Value Creation Plan, transformation office, or equivalent governance structure preferred.
• Aviation, logistics, or asset-heavy operations experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Direct complex, high-value initiatives within the pillar.
• Partner with functional leaders to translate strategy into executable plans with clear ownership and KPIs.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies and sequencing to ensure initiatives deliver coherently.
• Proactively intervene in underperforming or at-risk initiatives, diagnosing root causes and driving corrective actions to recover value.

Skills

End-to-End Ownership

Prioritization & Trade-offs

Leadership & Team Development

Strategic & Structured Thinking

Intellectual Honesty

Bias for Action

Financial Acumen

Stakeholder Influence

Communication

Governance Discipline

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or master's in business, finance, or economics

Job description

Join Atlas Air Worldwide. Move the World with Us!

At Atlas Air Worldwide, we're not just an airline, we're a global engine powering cargo, passenger, and leasing operations across more than 70 countries. As a leader in outsourced aviation logistics, we're built on a foundation of safety, service excellence, integrity, innovation, teamwork, and responsibility. With over 30 years of history, a modern all-Boeing fleet, and nearly 5,000 teammates collaborating across operations, technical, and corporate functions, we're driven by purpose.

If you're ready to grow, innovate, and help us deliver excellence every single day, you belong here.

The Director, Transformation & Value Creation plays a critical role within Atlas Air's Value Creation Office (VCO), owning the end-to-end delivery of a defined pillar within the Value Creation Plan (VCP), with accountability for realized EBITDA impact.

This role translates strategic priorities into a focused portfolio of executable initiatives and drives them through disciplined execution, rigorous governance, and measurable financial outcomes. The Director operates as the single point of accountability for value delivery within their pillar, ensuring initiatives progress from ideation through implementation to sustained value realization. In addition, the Director manages a small team to implement governance, value tracking, and reporting across the entire VCP.

The Director leads through influence across senior stakeholders, enforces prioritization and trade-offs, and ensures the organization remains focused on the highest-value opportunities.

This is a high-visibility, high-accountability role requiring pace, ownership, and the ability to deliver results in a complex, cross-functional, and performance-driven environment.

Major Job Accountabilities:

Pillar Ownership & Value Delivery

• Own a defined pillar of the Value Creation Plan, with accountability for end-to-end delivery and financial outcomes across a portfolio of initiatives.
• Develop and refine robust, investment-grade business cases, including value drivers, implementation roadmap, risks, and dependencies.
• Drive execution by mobilizing cross-functional teams, removing roadblocks, and holding stakeholders accountable to timelines and outcomes.
• Ensure sustained value realization by actively managing performance vs plan and intervening where delivery or value is at risk.
• Continuously re-underwrite initiatives, reallocating resources toward highest-return opportunities and stopping or reshaping underperforming efforts.

Initiative Leadership & Execution

• Directly lead the most complex, high-value, or at-risk initiatives within the pillar.
• Partner with functional leaders to translate strategy into executable plans with clear ownership and KPIs.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies and sequencing to ensure initiatives deliver coherently and without value leakage.
• Proactively intervene in underperforming or at-risk initiatives, diagnosing root causes and driving corrective actions to recover value.

Team Leadership & Portfolio Oversight

• Operate through a "player-coach" model, balancing direct initiative leadership with oversight of portfolio governance and value tracking.
• Directly manage and develop a Senior Manager responsible for portfolio management, value tracking, and reporting.
• Ensure portfolio governance outputs are decision-oriented, forward-looking, and directly inform prioritization, intervention, and resource allocation.
• Oversee the integrity of initiative tracking, ensuring:
• Accurate scope, timelines, and financial impact
• Clear and consistent value definitions
• Logical, non-overlapping methodologies across initiatives
• Ensure strong linkage between portfolio reporting and operational reality.

Value Tracking & Financial Integration

• Ensure all VCP value claims are audit-ready, with clear baselines, methodologies, and traceability to financial results, including assumption validation and variance reconciliation.
• Translate operational performance into realized P&L outcomes, ensuring no disconnect between execution and financial reporting.
• Define and monitor leading operational indicators that predict financial performance.
• Own the financial narrative for one pillar, ensuring all initiatives have defensible, Finance-aligned value tracking methodologies.

Governance, Reporting & Stakeholder Management

• Lead preparation of materials for Steering Committees, executive leadership, and Board meetings.
• Communicate progress, risks, and value delivery in a clear, concise, and decision-oriented manner.
• Clarify decision rights and escalation pathways across initiatives to enable speed and accountability.
• Drive prioritization and trade-off decisions to maximize enterprise value.
• Act as a trusted thought partner to senior leadership, constructively challenging assumptions and driving data-based decisions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Advanced degree (MBA or master's in business, finance, or economics) preferred.
• Minimum7-10 years of experience in consulting, transformation, strategy, operations, or value creation roles.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering measurable financial impact through complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience operating within a formal Value Creation Plan, transformation office, or equivalent governance structure preferred.
• Aviation, logistics, or asset-heavy operations experience preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• End-to-End Ownership: Operates as a true owner of outcomes, accountable for both execution and realized value.
• Prioritization & Trade-offs: Focuses the organization on the few initiatives that matter most, deprioritizing lower-value work.
• Leadership & Team Development: Ability to manage and develop high-performing team members while setting clear direction and expectations.
• Strategic & Structured Thinking: Breaks down complex problems into actionable plans with clear priorities.
• Intellectual Honesty: Willing to challenge assumptions, surface risks, and recalibrate when value is not materializing.
• Bias for Action: Drives progress with urgency, even in ambiguity, without waiting for perfect information.
• Financial Acumen: Deep understanding of value creation, EBITDA impact, and performance tracking.
• Stakeholder Influence: Effectively influences senior leaders and drives alignment without formal authority.
• Communication: Distills complex topics into clear, executive-ready messaging.
• Governance Discipline: Maintains rigor in tracking, reporting, and execution while enabling speed and flexibility.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship or employer immigration support either now or in the future.

The Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is our policy to afford equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, place of birth, age, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic or status protected by applicable in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

If you'd like more information about your EEO rights as an applicant under the law, please download the available EEO is the Law document by clicking "EEO Is The Law".

To view our Pay Transparency Statement, please click here: Pay Transparency Statement

Competitive compensation will be offered based on a variety of factors, including a candidate's experience, skills, education, geographic location, internal equity and other factors. In addition, a range of benefits to include medical, dental and vision insurance, employee assistance program, as well as generous paid time off, and 401K contributions are offered as a part of the total compensation package.

Pay Range

$158,500 — $214,000 USD

At Atlas Air Worldwide, we believe in the power of people, the promise of innovation, and the responsibility we hold to each other, to our customers, and to the planet. Join us and be part of a team that lifts more than cargo; we lift ambition.