Senior Organizational Change Management (OCM) – Higher Education

We are seeking an experienced Senior Organizational Change Management (OCM) Consultant for a hybrid position with our Sacramento, California client, leading change management activities in large-scale transformation initiatives in a higher education environment.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned OCM professional with exceptional facilitation, communication, stakeholder engagement, and change leadership skills. This individual will work closely with executive leadership, faculty, staff, and cross-functional teams to establish organizational readiness, build stakeholder alignment, and drive successful adoption of new processes and ways of working.

Experience in both higher education and a community college or community college district is required. 

Key Responsibilities

Organizational Change Management & Strategy

*             Develop and execute comprehensive OCM strategies, roadmaps, and adoption plans supporting large-scale organizational transformation.

*             Partner with executive leadership to establish transformation objectives, sponsorship, stakeholder ownership, and accountability.

*             Conduct organizational readiness assessments, stakeholder analyses, and change impact assessments.

*             Identify organizational challenges, resistance, and adoption barriers, developing strategies to address them.

*             Integrate OCM activities with project planning, business process improvement, training, and implementation readiness.

Facilitation & Stakeholder Engagement

*             Lead and facilitate executive workshops, stakeholder meetings, discovery sessions, and cross-functional discussions to build consensus and drive decisions.

*             Engage institutional leadership, faculty, administrative staff, and technical teams to support transformation objectives.

*             Establish stakeholder engagement strategies and change champion networks to promote organizational alignment.

*             Navigate complex stakeholder relationships, competing priorities, and organizational resistance.

Communication & Change Adoption

*             Develop and execute strategic communication plans that clearly communicate transformation goals, impacts, and expectations.

*             Create and deliver executive presentations, leadership briefings, stakeholder updates, and organizational communications.

*             Translate complex transformation initiatives into clear, actionable messaging for diverse audiences.

*             Collaborate with project and training teams to support organizational transition, knowledge transfer, and adoption.

*             Establish change readiness and adoption metrics and provide regular progress updates to leadership.

Higher Education Transformation

*             Support organizational transformation initiatives across academic and administrative departments.

*             Collaborate with Finance, Human Resources, Student Services, Information Technology, and other institutional stakeholders.

*             Align change management activities with institutional priorities, governance structures, and operational needs.

*             Support transformation efforts involving multiple departments, campuses, and decentralized stakeholder groups.

Requirements:

*             8 years of experience leading Organizational Change Management initiatives for large-scale organizational, operational, technology, or business transformations.

*             5 years of experience developing OCM strategies, stakeholder engagement plans, communication strategies, readiness activities, and adoption plans.

*             5 years of experience conducting stakeholder analyses, change impact assessments, organizational readiness assessments, and change risk mitigation.

*             5 years of experience supporting complex transformation initiatives involving multiple departments, business functions, or decentralized stakeholder groups.

*             3 years of experience partnering with executive leadership to establish sponsorship, accountability, and stakeholder ownership.

*             Demonstrated OCM experience within higher education institutions.

*             Community college or community college district experience, particularly supporting institutional transformation or organizational change initiatives.

*             Exceptional facilitation, presentation, and communication skills, including the ability to lead executive workshops and influence diverse stakeholder groups.

*             Strong ability to build consensus, manage resistance, and drive organizational alignment and adoption.

Preferred

*             Experience within California higher education or public sector organizations.

*             Familiarity with higher education governance, institutional operations, and multi-campus environments.

*             Experience integrating OCM with business process reengineering (BPR), training, and implementation readiness.

*             Experience supporting enterprise technology modernization or ERP implementations (not required).

*             Prosci, CCMP, or comparable change management certification.