Senior Organizational Change Management Consultant

Job Title: Senior Organizational Change Management Consultant

Job Location: Sacramento, CA (Hybrid/Remote)

Duration: 12+ Months Contract with possibility to Extension

Job Description:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Organizational Change Management (OCM) Consultant to lead change management activities supporting large-scale transformation initiatives within 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.

Higher education and community college or community college district experience are required. Direct ERP implementation experience is not 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.

Required Qualifications:

• 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 Qualifications:

• 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.