OCM Lead / Change Lead (Contract) at Blue Star… · Chicago

Job Title: OCM Lead (Change Lead) Location: Merrillville, IN initially; transition to Indianapolis, IN as program phases progress Work Model: Remote with travel to client sites when required Rate: $85-$100/hour Hours: 40 hours through 3-4 months; schedule may flex based on project phase Initial Contract Duration: 11/1/2026-1/31/27 Potential Extension: Yes — strong potential to continue as part of a multi-year transformation program Program Duration: Approximately 3 years, contingent on performance, business needs, and continued program funding Travel: Regional travel within Indiana required; potential future travel to manufacturing sites in Poland and other locations Employment Type: 1099 preferred Work Authorization: U.S. Citizens only

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced OCM Lead / Change Lead to support a multi-year transformation program within a global specialty materials manufacturing organization. The company operates in an advanced manufacturing environment focused on engineered, water-soluble polymer materials and related sustainable technologies.

This role will lead organizational change management efforts across a complex portfolio of operational, technology, workforce, and manufacturing transformation initiatives. The program includes approximately 11 interconnected workstreams focused on areas such as technology infrastructure modernization, manufacturing resiliency and redundancy, automation and robotics, operational visibility, and new control-room capabilities that provide leaders with greater insight into production-line performance and support needs.

The OCM Lead will be responsible for assessing organizational impacts, developing the overall change strategy, identifying stakeholder and workforce risks, defining resourcing needs, and creating the structure required to drive adoption across impacted manufacturing and corporate teams.

The role will initially support operations in Northwest Indiana, followed by work in Indianapolis, with the potential to expand into European operations, including manufacturing sites in Poland, in later program phases. Future phases may involve significant workforce and operating model changes, including changes to roles and responsibilities, new technology-enabled ways of working, potential labor agreement considerations, and broader impacts to both directly affected and interconnected sites.

The ideal candidate is a senior change practitioner who understands how transformation affects people in manufacturing and operational environments, can work credibly with executives and plant leadership, and is equally comfortable developing strategy and driving hands-on execution.

Key Responsibilities

Change Strategy & Transformation Planning

• Lead development and execution of the organizational change management strategy across the broader transformation program.
• Conduct change impact assessments to understand how technology, process, operating model, and workforce changes will affect employees and leaders.
• Develop stakeholder assessments and identify groups requiring targeted engagement, communication, training, or leadership support.
• Create an integrated change roadmap aligned to program milestones and transformation workstreams.
• Define change management priorities, deliverables, dependencies, and success measures.
• Translate program strategy into practical change interventions that support adoption at the site, functional, and enterprise levels.
• Continuously adapt the change approach as program priorities and implementation sequencing evolve.

Change Impact Assessment

• Lead detailed change impact assessments across operational, technology, workforce, and manufacturing workstreams.
• Assess impacts to roles, responsibilities, processes, systems, decision-making, reporting relationships, and ways of working.
• Identify differences between current-state and future-state operating models.
• Partner with program teams and business SMEs to validate identified impacts.
• Maintain a consolidated change impact view across approximately 11 transformation workstreams.
• Identify high-risk changes requiring additional leadership, communication, training, or workforce support.
• Evaluate downstream impacts to sites or teams that may not be directly implementing a change but are affected by new processes or dependencies.

Stakeholder Assessment & Engagement

• Identify key stakeholder groups across manufacturing sites, corporate functions, program teams, and leadership.
• Develop stakeholder assessments that evaluate influence, impact, readiness, and potential resistance.
• Create targeted engagement plans for senior leaders, managers, supervisors, frontline employees, and supporting functions.
• Build trusted relationships with site leadership and operational stakeholders.
• Facilitate stakeholder workshops, leadership sessions, and change-readiness discussions.
• Help leaders understand how to communicate transformation priorities and reinforce desired behaviors.

Change Network Development & Coaching

• Design and support a change champion or change network model to extend change leadership across impacted sites and functions.
• Identify appropriate change network participants and define expectations, responsibilities, and engagement cadence.
• Coach leaders and change network members on how to communicate, reinforce, and model the transformation.
• Partner with executive coaching resources where appropriate to strengthen leadership effectiveness.
• Develop tools, talking points, and guidance to help managers lead teams through significant operational change.
• Monitor the effectiveness of the change network and adjust the approach as needed.

Manufacturing Transformation & Operational Change

• Support change associated with modernization of manufacturing operations and supporting technology.
• Develop change strategies for initiatives involving automation, robotics, production-line technology, control-room capabilities, and operational monitoring.
• Help operational teams understand changes to workflows, responsibilities, decision-making, and required capabilities.
• Partner with manufacturing leaders to identify adoption barriers unique to plant environments.
• Ensure change activities account for production requirements, operational continuity, shift structures, and workforce realities.
• Support transformation efforts designed to improve manufacturing resiliency and reduce operational disruption associated with technology or production-line downtime.

Workforce & Operating Model Change

• Assess organizational impacts associated with changes to roles, responsibilities, structures, and operating processes.
• Support leaders as future-state responsibilities and workforce requirements are defined.
• Develop change approaches for potentially sensitive workforce changes.
• Coordinate closely with HR and leadership where transformation may involve role changes, redeployment, position elimination, or other workforce impacts.
• Support communication and engagement strategies that provide clarity while maintaining appropriate confidentiality.
• Help leaders manage employee concerns and resistance during periods of significant change.

Labor & International Change Considerations

• Support future transformation phases affecting European manufacturing operations, including potential sites in Poland.
• Adapt change approaches to local workforce, cultural, and operational requirements.
• Partner with HR, legal, and leadership where labor agreements, works councils, collective bargaining, or union-related requirements may apply.
• Support communication and engagement associated with changes to roles, responsibilities, processes, or contractual arrangements.
• Ensure international change approaches remain aligned with the broader program while accounting for local requirements and practices.

Communications & Leader Enablement

• Develop an integrated communication strategy supporting program awareness, understanding, readiness, and adoption.
• Define communication audiences, messages, channels, timing, and ownership.
• Create executive talking points, presentations, leader toolkits, FAQs, change updates, and employee communications.
• Partner with internal communications resources to ensure messaging is clear and consistent.
• Equip leaders and managers to communicate changes effectively to their teams.
• Support leadership meetings, town halls, site meetings, and other engagement activities.

Training & Capability Development

• Identify training and capability needs associated with new systems, processes, technologies, and ways of working.
• Partner with internal training teams and SMEs to develop an appropriate training strategy.
• Ensure training plans are aligned with change impacts and implementation timing.
• Coordinate training readiness across sites and stakeholder groups.
• Support reinforcement and post-implementation learning where needed.
• Help determine where formal training, coaching, job aids, or on-the-job support are most appropriate.

Change Resourcing Strategy

• Assess the level and type of OCM support required across program phases.
• Develop a resourcing strategy that may include Change Leads, Change Analysts, Communications resources, Training resources, Executive Coaches, and external consultants.
• Recommend resource deployment based on workstream complexity, timing, and organizational impact.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities across internal and external change resources.
• Help scale the OCM model as the transformation moves from Indiana operations into broader domestic and international phases.

Readiness, Adoption & Resistance Management

• Establish methods for assessing organizational readiness across sites and stakeholder populations.
• Develop readiness measures, adoption indicators, and feedback mechanisms.
• Identify resistance themes and underlying causes.
• Partner with leaders to develop targeted mitigation strategies.
• Monitor employee sentiment, leadership engagement, training readiness, and adoption risks.
• Provide leadership with clear recommendations when additional change interventions are required.
• Support post-implementation reinforcement and sustainment.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• Meet with program leadership and workstream owners to understand upcoming changes and implementation priorities.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and change impact discussions.
• Maintain stakeholder, impact, readiness, and risk assessments.
• Develop and refine the overall OCM strategy and change roadmap.
• Facilitate working sessions with manufacturing leaders, HR, IT, operations, and transformation teams.
• Coach leaders on communication and employee engagement.
• Develop presentations, leadership materials, communications, and change-network resources.
• Coordinate training and communication needs across workstreams.
• Monitor change risks and recommend mitigation actions.
• Provide leadership updates on readiness, resistance, impacts, and adoption.
• Maintain flexibility as program scope, sequencing, and organizational priorities evolve.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of organizational change management, business transformation, organizational effectiveness, or related consulting experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading OCM for complex, multi-workstream transformation programs.
• Strong experience developing:
  • Change strategies
  • Change impact assessments
  • Stakeholder assessments
  • Stakeholder engagement plans
  • Communications strategies
  • Readiness and adoption plans
  • Resistance mitigation strategies
• Experience working directly with executive and senior operational leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently and establish OCM structure in evolving or ambiguous program environments.
• Strong facilitation, executive communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to translate complex technology and operational changes into understandable people impacts.
• Experience supporting workforce, role, process, or operating-model changes.
• Ability to balance strategic OCM leadership with hands-on execution.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build credibility quickly across leadership and frontline organizations.
• Ability to travel between Merrillville, IN, Indianapolis, IN, and other manufacturing sites as program needs evolve.
• Willingness and ability to support potential international travel in later program phases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading change within manufacturing, industrial, specialty chemicals, specialty materials, or advanced materials environments.
• Experience supporting manufacturing automation, robotics, Industry 4.0, plant technology, or operational modernization.
• Experience with transformations involving production operations, plant infrastructure, or operational technology.
• Experience establishing and coaching formal change champion networks.
• Experience supporting executive coaching or leader enablement programs.
• Experience developing OCM resource and staffing strategies.
• Experience working with unionized or collectively represented workforces.
• Experience supporting transformation across international or European manufacturing environments.
• Experience working in Poland or Central/Eastern Europe is a plus.
• Experience supporting changes involving organizational restructuring or significant changes to roles and responsibilities.
• Prosci, CCMP, or comparable change management certification preferred.

Core Competencies

• Organizational Change Management
• Change Strategy
• Change Impact Assessment
• Stakeholder Assessment
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Change Readiness
• Adoption Management
• Resistance Management
• Change Networks
• Leader Enablement
• Executive Coaching Support
• Manufacturing Transformation
• Workforce Transformation
• Operating Model Change
• Communications Strategy
• Training Strategy
• Organizational Effectiveness
• Change Resourcing
• International Change Management
• Cross-Functional Leadership

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a senior OCM leader who combines strategic change expertise with a pragmatic manufacturing mindset. They should understand that successful transformation in a plant environment requires more than communications and training; it requires understanding how technology, equipment, production processes, workforce structures, leadership behaviors, and operational realities intersect.

The strongest candidate will be highly credible with executives and plant leaders, comfortable working directly with frontline stakeholders, and capable of building the change framework for a program that will evolve over several years. They should be adaptable, relationship-oriented, willing to spend meaningful time onsite, and capable of scaling the change approach from Indiana operations to a broader international manufacturing footprint.