Organizational Change Management Consultant

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.