Senior Innovation Program Manager

A career at CoBank can offer you the opportunity to make a personal impact on the people and communities where we do business. When you choose a career with CoBank, you make a difference by standing for something that matters. In order to be the best, we hire the best!

Remarkable Benefits Offered by CoBank

• Careers with a purpose. Stand for something!
• Time-Off Packages, 15 days of vacation, 10 paid sick days and 11 paid holidays
• Competitive Compensation & Incentive
• Hybrid work model: flexible arrangements for most positions
• Benefits Packages, including Medical, Dental and Vision coverage, Disability, AD&D, and Life Insurance
• Robust associate training and development with CoBank University
• Tuition reimbursement for higher education up to 10K
• Outstanding 401k: up to 6% matching and additional 3% non-elective contribution
• Community Impact: United Way Angel Day, Volunteer Day and Associate Directed Contribution
• Associate Resource Groups: creating a culture of diversity and inclusion
• Recognize a fellow associate through our GEM awards

The Senior Innovation Program Manager will leverage expertise and experience in Design Thinking and human-centered design to help multidisciplinary teams solve complex business problems. The Senior Innovation Program Manager will be the primary coach and interface to the innovation lab during an innovation engagement and will lead collaborative workshops using design thinking methodologies such as immersion events and ideation sessions to extract relevant data points. Using logical problem solving, innovative thinking and structure to transform ambiguous concepts into well-defined and data driven ideas with clear tactical deliverables. As the Senior Innovation Program Manager, you will empower teams to rapidly understand challenges, identify potential solutions and guide them toward an appropriate set of action-oriented outcomes.

• Leads Ideation sessions and workshops, act as an entrepreneur with a startup mentality.
• Consults project stakeholders to develop engagement plans and deliver workshops grounded in the core methodologies of Design Thinking.
• Engages with internal and external groups. Coordinates customer engagement and immersion events.
• Coaches Sprint team around roadblocks. Accountable for scope, resourcing and timely deliverables within the sprint objectives.
• Prepares and deliver Design Thinking artifacts derived from the workshops and sprints (such as Lean Canvas, Agile Scrum plans, Journey Maps, Prototype output etc.)
• Keeps team focused on north star deliverables.
• Mentors and trains CoBank associates on design thinking skills and methodologies.
• Designs and plans Design Thinking workshops.
• Continuously revises and improves the Innovation Framework.
• Engages with stakeholders to outline the primary goals and journey map initial approach. Exhibits strong ability to influence in a matrixed environment.
• Fosters an environment of iterative thinking, continuous learning and innovation.
• Supports internal growth, development and innovation programs.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, IT or HCI, or Product Design and Engineering required
• Design Thinking Certification and/or formal course work required
• Master's Degree in Business Administration or Design Thinking and Innovation preferred

• 5 years directly leading innovation engagements and ideation sessions required
• 5 years in Design Thinking, Agile, Lean Startup, and Lean Portfolio Management required
• Agile Scrum Master certification preferred
• Ability to capture datapoints and attention to detail, with a data-driven approach to understand customer requirements.
• Ability to structure workshop formats and agendas including pre-work consulting with stakeholders
• Understand human-centered design principles.
• Bridge the gap between technology, business and customers.
• Versatile in visual design skills, presentation development and preto/prototyping.
• Self-motivated and dedicated to continuous iterative improvement.
• Build trusting relationships across the organization
• Have strong facilitation and people skills to collaboratively lead workshops, ensuring the capture of diverse ideas and with a high level of participant engagement.

Occasional Travel occurs infrequently (typically, once a month or less).

The typical base pay range for this role is between $105,223 - $146,312. Compensation may vary based on individual job-related knowledge, skills, expertise, and experience. This position is eligible for a discretionary annual incentive program driven by organization and individual performance.

The listed salary, other compensation and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. This job will be posted for a minimum of five (5) business days or until the position is filled. CoBank reserves the right to adjust compensation for all positions and to modify or discontinue benefits programs at any time in its sole discretion, subject to applicable law.

CoBank is a cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 76,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country. CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

We are committed to ensuring that our online application process provides an equal employment opportunity to all applicants, including qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are an applicant with a disability, or are assisting an applicant with a disability, and require accessibility assistance or would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any aspect of the application process, including completing an application, interviewing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please submit a request by emailing recruiting@cobank.com. Include your contact information and specific details about your requested accommodation.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

CoBank is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.