Change Management Lead

Application Deadline: 30 September 2026

Department: Client Delivery

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Chicago

Description

About This Position
We are seeking an experienced change management professional interested in helping our clients navigate complex organizational, process, and technology transformations. As a Change Management Lead at Kenway, you will have the opportunity to shape how organizations move through change, from building the case for change through driving adoption on the ground. From day one, you'll lead change strategy, stakeholder engagement, and communications for some of Kenway's most complex client initiatives.

Change Management Leads at Kenway are responsible for owning the change management workstream on client engagements, assessing change impact, designing change strategy and communications plans, and driving the organizational change management (OCM) activities that ensure new processes, technologies, and ways of working are successful in adoption. Change Management Leads are also expected to build trusted client relationships, contribute to Kenway's OCM capability and thought leadership, and mentor team members applying change practices across engagements.

In addition to engagement-level delivery, Change Management Leads are expected to act as a thought partner to Kenway's broader Change practice, plugging into change portfolio processes and advising on OCM ways of working, templates, and methodology to help evolve Kenway's change capability across the firm. While this role spans all of Kenway's industry verticals, experience navigating change within the life sciences (Biopharma, Biotech, Medtech) and healthcare industry, including familiarity with the R&D, clinical trial, commercial, and manufacturing lifecycles, as well as the organizational realities of GxP, FDA/EMA regulations, and validated systems, is a strong plus.

Core Traits We Are Seeking

• Delivery Excellence: Change Management Leads are first and foremost consulting practitioners. Candidates must embrace and demonstrate the ability to deliver exceptional quality firsthand throughout Kenway's engagements, while leading, coaching, and enabling broader project teams to do the same.
• Accountability: Change Management Leads must demonstrate a deep sense of integrity, personal responsibility, and commitment to holding others to the same standards. Change Management Leads are the ultimate point of accountability for the health and quality of change activities within and across their engagements.
• Tenacity: Under all circumstances, dynamics, and conditions, Change Management Leads are expected to think, behave, and act proactively. Doing so is crucial for preemptively identifying, mitigating, and preventing resistance, while proactively driving progress and taking advantage of opportunities.
• Design Thinking: In addition to maintaining the integrity of their engagements, Change Management Leads are expected to demonstrate creativity, innovation, and intellectual fluidity, flowing between strategic thought leadership, conceptual problem solving, and executional rigor when designing change strategies and translating them into executable plans.
• Professionalism: Given the complexity, magnitude, visibility, and strategic importance of Kenway's projects, we consistently interface with a diversity of executive leadership. Change Management Leads are expected to demonstrate executive presence, poise, and cogency in all communications and interactions with client, prospect, and internal stakeholders.
• Aptitude: While Kenway possesses deep institutional expertise and proprietary frameworks, no two change journeys are the same. Change Management Leads are expected to demonstrate curiosity, climb learning curves quickly, and adapt change approaches to the uniqueness of each client and project.
• Change Acumen: Change Management Leads are expected to demonstrate deep fluency in change management methodologies, frameworks, and tools (e.g., Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step, LaMarsh Managing Change), applying the right approach to each client's culture, readiness, and context.
• Industry Acumen: While this role spans all of Kenway's verticals, Change Management Leads are expected to build a working understanding of the industry context in which they are delivering change, with life sciences and healthcare industry knowledge, including regulatory and compliance considerations, considered a valuable asset.
• Commitment to Kenway's Guiding Principles: As critical leaders influencing and interfacing with a breadth of internal and external stakeholders, Change Management Leads must steward Kenway's culture and demonstrate unwavering commitment to our Guiding Principles.

Responsibilities

• Change Strategy & Execution
  • Build the case for change, partnering with client sponsors to articulate the "why," the risks of inaction, and the benefits of the future state
  • Conduct change impact assessments, identifying affected stakeholder groups, processes, and systems, and the scale and scope of change required
  • Lead change readiness assessments tailored to regulated environments, accounting for validation milestones, SOP updates, and Quality/Compliance constraints
  • Design end-to-end change management strategy, including sponsorship model, stakeholder engagement plan, training approach, and adoption and sustainment plan
  • Develop and execute communications plans that inform, engage, and mobilize stakeholders throughout the change lifecycle
  • Drive the change out into the organization, coaching sponsors and leaders, running readiness assessments, and tracking adoption metrics to ensure the change sticks
  • Partner with business, technical, and regulatory stakeholders to design role-based training curriculums and adoption roadmaps for enterprise life sciences platforms (e.g., Veeva, CTMS, LIMS, Salesforce Health Cloud)
  • Establish measurable change adoption metrics (e.g., system utilization, process adherence, user proficiency) that satisfy both business outcomes and audit readiness
  • Lead working sessions, presentations, and executive discussions, communicating complex change concepts clearly and confidently
  • Proactively identify change risks and resistance, escalating and adjusting plans as needed to keep the change on track
• Client & Relationship Management
  • Build trusted, long-term relationships with client stakeholders, understanding their goals, culture, and appetite for change
  • Identify business problems and opportunities, facilitating discussions and connecting clients with Kenway expertise
  • Support account-level strategy by contributing to proposals, SOWs, pitches, and revenue forecasts
  • Expand and nurture client networks, driving engagement beyond immediate projects, and strategically leverage Kenway deliverables to broaden our footprint and influence
• Kenway & Change Practice Impact
  • Serve as a thought partner to Kenway's Change practice, plugging into change portfolio processes and contributing to the evolution of OCM ways of working, templates, and methodology
  • Develop mastery of client industries and change scenarios, documenting and sharing knowledge to grow Kenway's change management expertise
  • Coach and mentor team members on change management practices, preparing talent for future leadership opportunities
  • Contribute to initiatives and passion projects that drive Kenway's growth, culture, and capabilities
  • Leverage Challenger Sale behaviors to advance client outcomes, delivering insights, recommendations, and innovative solutions

Qualifications & Credentials

• 7+ years of experience leading organizational change management (OCM) initiatives, ideally within a professional services or consulting environment
  • Change management strategy consulting experience is preferred, but a combination of consulting and industry-side change management experience will be considered
• Bachelor's degree, with advanced degrees or certifications in organizational psychology, organizational development, or related fields preferred
• Deep expertise across the full change lifecycle, including but not limited to the following:
  • Case for Change: Articulating the business rationale, urgency, and risk of inaction to secure sponsorship and buy-in
  • Change Impact Assessment: Identifying affected stakeholders, processes, and systems, and sizing the scope of change
  • Change Strategy & Planning: Designing sponsorship models, stakeholder engagement plans, training approaches, and adoption and sustainment plans
  • Communications & Adoption: Building and executing communications plans and driving the change out into the organization to achieve lasting adoption
• Experience with change management methodologies and frameworks (e.g., Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step, LaMarsh Managing Change) and the judgment to tailor them to each client's context
• Proven experience serving as a change management thought partner at the organizational level, plugging into a Change Management Office (CMO) or change portfolio, and shaping OCM ways of working, templates, and governance
• Familiarity with the life sciences and healthcare industry, including FDA/EMA regulatory considerations, GxP practices, and the research, clinical trial, and manufacturing lifecycle, is a strong plus, though not required
• Deep knowledge of core consulting skills, including, but not limited to, stakeholder management, program governance, risk management, executive communication, and financial and resource allocation
• Proven experience in leading resources, preferably in a project-based model
• Demonstrated success in client business development, identifying new opportunities, and authoring impactful client proposals and SOWs
• Willingness to travel up to 50%