Senior Organizational Change Management (OCM) – Higher Education

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 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.

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

<>Required Skills</>

• 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 Skills</>

• 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.