Project & Change Management Lead (Innovation)

Location: Johnston, RI Salary: Not Specified by Client Description: Our client is currently seeking

• This role will be leading projects within our innovation objective.
• Projects are still in early phases so experience with business strategy and development in addition to executing in various execution methodologies (agile, waterfall, business projects, etc.) is needed.
• Experience working in innovation is required.

• Establish a strong program/project structure that has clear ownership and accountabilities; expedites decision making; enables effective communication within and across components; and aligns the team and organization on the timeline, key deliverables, progress, and impediments
• Orchestrate effective execution to deliver in alignment with either iterative/agile or sequential/waterfall methodologies
• Build strong relationships and act as a strategic advisor for leadership and PPM; lead conversations to define, clarify and control project scope, objectives and resolve conflicts
• Build and own a project and change plan that drives alignment, provides transparency, and enables coordinated execution across all components within the project
• Continuously communicate the project status and serve as key point of contact for progress, changes, risks, issues, and escalation
• Facilitate, coordinate, and arbitrate cross-workstream dependencies and issues
• Lead, support, coach, inspire and motivate project team and provide direction by prioritizing focus areas, defining deliverables, and ensuring measurable results
• Proactively anticipate, identify, track and resolve project risks and issues; ensure leadership and key stakeholders are aware of status and impediments
• Apply a structured approach to design and execute a change strategy and plan that drives the readiness and adoption required for the project
• Lead change management activities and create actionable deliverables for the five change management levers: communications plan, sponsor roadmap, coaching plan, training plan, resistance management plan
• Ensure successful execution of the change management plan, including stakeholder engagement, successful change communication and support for training and development planning
• Ensure Prosci and other industry change management best practices are leveraged for execution and standards are utilized throughout execution
• Develop innovative communications approaches and tactics that will drive audience engagement and adoption aligned with corporate objectives, brand messages and company standards
• Continually measure the success of our project execution, change adoption efforts, communications strategies and tactics using analytics
• Work with key stakeholders and subject matter experts to develop communications, including email announcements, presentations, articles, talking points, website copy, video scripts, basic video editing, etc.
• Conduct and execute on research to ensure messages are relevant, accurate and targeted appropriately
• Create, organize, and update content in our central repository to ensure it is easily accessible
• Support the buildout and improvement of Project & Change Management standards and practices to ensure better outcomes

• 5+ years of experience in project management and change management roles with successful track record of leading large-scale change efforts over multi-year time frames
• Bachelor's degree: MS or MBA a strong plus
• Change Management qualifications (e.g., ADKAR certification) a plus
• Experience operating within a structured PMO environment and building out new approaches, artifacts, and strategies to improve program implementation
• Experience with driving large enterprise level programs (requiring large scale change management) and demonstrated strength as an enterprise change agent a plus
• Experience working with global teams

• Knowledge of standard documentation tools (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, ADO) and able to learn and adapt effectively to new operational tool
• Excellent communication skills (including written and oral presentation skills) with ability to communicate and adapt communication to all levels of the organization - Executives to front line employees
• Ability to multi-task and partner effectively with different types of stakeholders (Core Insurance, Support Functions and Business Enablement.)
• Strong networking and influencing skills, especially in terms of navigating client organization to coordinate across a large and varied set of stakeholders
• Ability to quickly develop understanding of new operating model concepts and drive change
• Strong attention to detail - systematic and strategic thinker who can foresee long term implication and challenges in implementing change through the PMO
• Willing to challenge the status quo, confident in own ideas while willing/able to take stakeholders' perspectives; not deterred by executive opposition.