Innovation Engagement Manager

Benefits Overview

A career at CoBank can offer you the opportunity to make a personal impact on the people and communities where we do business. In order to be the best, we hire the best! Benefits Offered by CoBank:

• Careers with a purpose
• 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 per year
• Outstanding 401k: up to 6% matching and additional 3% non-elective contribution & Student Loan Match
• Community Impact: United Way Angel Day, Volunteer Day and Associate Directed Contribution
• Associate Resource Groups: creating a culture of respect and inclusion
• Recognize a fellow associate through our GEM awards

Job Description

Do you enjoy working in early concept definition, discovering user requirements, solving complex business problems and thrive in a start-up mindset? Does a fast-paced, collaborative, inclusive, and iterative delivery environment appeal to you? At CoBank's Forge Innovation Lab, you will be part of an innovative technology environment and develop solutions for customer needs. The Innovation Engagement Manager will leverage expertise and experience in Design Thinking and human-centered design to help multidisciplinary teams solve complex business problems. Focused on the execution and delivery within innovation engagements, you will assist with organizing and leading 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 Innovation Engagement Manager, you will support customers to rapidly understand challenges, identify potential solutions and guide them toward an appropriate set of action-oriented outcomes.

Essential Functions

• Facilitates ideation sessions and workshops, applying creative thinking and structured innovation methods.
• Delivers engaging, hands-on workshops using Design Thinking principles and established innovation frameworks.
• Coordinates with internal teams and external partners to ensure smooth execution of customer engagements and immersion events.
• Manages sprint logistics, including backlog grooming, daily standups, and tracking deliverables. Proactively identifies and escalates blockers.
• Produces and organizes workshop outputs such as Lean Canvases, Journey Maps, and prototypes, ensuring clarity and accessibility for stakeholders.
• Keeps teams aligned with project goals and timelines, reinforcing priorities and maintaining momentum.
• Contributes feedback and insights to improve innovation tools, templates, and processes.
• Captures stakeholder goals and maps initial journeys to support alignment and clarity at the start of engagements.
• Encourages a culture of experimentation and iteration, helping teams adopt a mindset of continuous learning.

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Product Design, Communication, Marketing, Education, or similar relevant field required
• Design Thinking Certification and/or formal course work preferred

Work Experience

• 2 years of experience in planning, facilitating and leading internal/external ideation workshops required
• Prior Experience in Design Thinking, Agile, and Lean Startup required
• 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
• Understanding of human-centered design principles.
• Ability to bridge the gap between technology, business and customers.
• Versatile in visual design skills, presentation development and prototyping.
• Self-motivated and dedicated to continuous iterative improvement.
• Ability to build trusting relationships across the organization.
• Strong facilitation and people skills to collaboratively lead workshops, ensuring the capture of diverse ideas and with a high level of participant engagement.

Travel Requirement Details

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

About CoBank

The typical base pay range for this role is between $89,600 - $110,160. 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.