Strategic Initiatives Enablement Lead (Hybrid - Buffalo, NY)

Who Are We: Customer Experience & The Way We Work Enablement (CXTW3E)

A high-impact team at the heart of M&T Bank’s most strategic and transformative efforts. We are the Customer Experience & The Way We Work Enablement (CXTW3E) team, a diverse group of professionals united by a shared purpose: driving meaningful change through The Way We Work.

The Way We Work is more than a framework-it is our operating system. It combines Agility, Experience & Process Design, Customer Research and Change Management into a cohesive approach that enables individuals, teams, and organizations to deliver better outcomes. It is built on the mindsets, behaviors, and practices that foster customer-centricity, collaboration, innovation, continuous improvement, and sustainable transformation.

Primary Responsibilities:

Drive Adoption of The Way We Work

• Assess adoption of The Way We Work mindsets, behaviors, and practices.
• Partner with initiative teams to develop and execute adoption plans.
• Help teams apply The Way We Work disciplines in practical, outcome-focused ways.
• Track adoption progress and identify opportunities for improvement.

Create Conditions for Success

• Partner with leaders to establish team practices, routines, and expectations that support adoption.
• Identify opportunities to improve ways of working, collaboration, and team effectiveness.
• Help teams address obstacles that may limit adoption.
• Support a culture of learning, continuous improvement, and shared accountability.

Identify Barriers & Enable Change

• Identify organizational, process, cultural, and operational barriers affecting adoption.
• Recommend practical solutions and partner with stakeholders to address challenges.
• Monitor adoption risks and trends and adjust approaches as needed.
• Capture and apply lessons learned to strengthen future efforts.

Partner with Teams & Leaders

• Collaborate with initiative leaders, stakeholders, and teams to support adoption and readiness.
• Provide insights on adoption progress, risks, and opportunities.
• Facilitate discussions that build alignment and strengthen ways of working.
• Reinforce key behaviors including customer focus, collaboration, continuous learning, transparency, and accountability.

Education and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 9 years’ higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience
• Strong attention to detail
• Strong ability to lead teams
• Excellent project management skills
• Strong analytical ability
• Creative problem-solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills necessary for business partner relationships within and outside the organization
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to communicate professionally at many different levels
• Self-motivated
• Results-driven
• Well-organized
• Ability to handle multiple tasks and work under time constraints in support of various assignments
• Proficient with personal computers and pertinent spreadsheet, database, graphing, and presentation software

Education and Experience Preferred:

• Practical application of one or more of The Way We Work disciplines, including Agile, Change Management or Experience and Process Design in a large scale transformation initiative.
• Financial services or other regulated industry experience preferred.

• Ability to influence without authority
• Systems thinking and organizational awareness

Location