Manager, Strategy and Transformation

AET; Saint Paul (MN); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

American Engineering Testing (AET) is seeking a Manager, Strategy & Transformation to drive the Road to 2030 program and keep annual planning on track. You will partner with initiative sponsors and cross-functional teams, ensuring disciplined execution and clear internal communications during a major organizational transformation.

The role blends program management with change enablement, requiring strategic thinking, risk mitigation, and the ability to influence without authority across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, organizational development, engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of experience in program management, transformation management, or strategy execution.
• Experience managing complex multi-workstream programs in small to mid-sized organizations.
• Change management expertise including adoption, not just delivery.
• Strong written and verbal communication for senior audiences.
• Ability to influence without formal authority and manage diverse stakeholders. On-site in St. Paul, MN.

Responsibilities

• Own governance structure for the transformation program, cadence and roadmap.
• Translate priorities into actionable execution plans with milestones and owners.
• Design and facilitate program meetings and maintain operating rhythm.
• Provide executive-ready updates and cross-initiative coordination.
• Serve as accountability layer across initiatives and track dependencies.
• Support strategic planning, annual planning, and long-term roadmap maintenance.

Skills

Program management

Change management

Executive communications

Cross-functional collaboration

Influence without authority

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or related field

Job description

American Engineering Testing (AET) is a growing professional services firm specializing in geotechnical engineering, environmental consulting, materials testing, and construction observation. With offices across the Midwest and a talented team of engineers, scientists, and technical professionals, AET serves clients across infrastructure, commercial development, energy, and government sectors.

AET is at an inflection point. We are executing a multi-year enterprise transformation designed to take us from a strong regional firm to a scaled, high-performing organization: standardizing how we deliver work, building the systems and processes that support growth, and developing the leadership capabilities that will define AET for the next decade. This transformation is active and moving. We are looking for someone to help us run it with discipline and precision.

Job Summary

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.

This role sits at the intersection of program management and organizational change management. The person who thrives here 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 resolve and when to mitigate risks. 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.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Reasonable accommodations or workable solutions may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

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 keeps 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.
• Hold multiple workstreams progress simultaneously, 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 who own each initiative helping 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, not as the project manager for any single workstream, but as the integrating force across all of them
• 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 the 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

Required Qualifications and Education 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

Pay Transparency

Base compensation is expected to be in the range of $100,000.00 – $140,000.00 per year based on skill set and experience. AET offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health benefits, insurance, Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), long term savings, paid time off, and professional development opportunities. The selected candidate must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. without requiring visa sponsorship now or in the future.

This job operates in professional work environment as well as work in locations that feature rough terrain typical of construction sites and 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. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands or finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. This position may work outside in various weather conditions. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Third Party Disclosure

Notice to Third Party Agencies: AET does not accept unsolicited resumes from third party recruiting firms. Absent a signed Service Agreement by AET’s Chief People Officer (CPO), AET reserves the right to pursue and hire these candidates without financial obligation to recruiters or agencies.