OCM Lead​/Change Lead

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

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 work streams 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.

• 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 work streams.
• 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.

• Lead detailed change impact assessments across operational, technology, workforce, and manufacturing work streams.
• 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 work streams.
• 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.

• Identify key stakeholder groups across manufacturing sites, corporate functions, program teams, and leadership.
• Develop stakeholder assessments that evaluate influence,…