Change Management SME

About the role

ECS is seeking a Change Management SME to lead a human-centered change management and customer experience (CX) capability in support of our National Security client. The scope of the program includes developing portfolio-level CX roadmaps, establishing Human-Centered Design (HCD) capability baselines, conducting qualitative and quantitative user research, and driving enterprise-wide change-management planning and communications across a diverse portfolio of programs. This position is located in Ballston, VA (Arlington) with the option for routine remote work.

What you'll do

• Lead a specialized team of change strategists and HCD practitioners driving organizational adoption and user-centric service delivery.
• Blend formal change management methodologies with Human-Centered Design principles in complex government environments.
• Establish evidence-based decision criteria, facilitate participatory co-design sessions, and ensure structured handoffs between design and engineering teams.
• Craft comprehensive journey maps, service blueprints, playbooks, and strategic communications to establish trusted partnerships and drive successful program transformation.

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in Change Management, Customer Experience (CX), or Human-Centered Design (HCD), including experience leading multi-disciplinary teams.
• Active Top Secret Clearance.
• Proven expertise in change-management planning, stakeholder engagement, organizational readiness, and strategic communications.
• Strong track record establishing portfolio-level CX roadmaps, HCD capability baseline assessments, and periodic progress evaluations.
• Hands-on experience directing customer/user research methodologies, including ethnographic interviews, usability testing, heuristic evaluations, tree-testing/card-sorting, focus groups, and surveys.
• Proficiency in establishing evidence-based decision criteria, feature prioritization, and portfolio-wide design standards and frameworks.
• Demonstrated success facilitating co-design and participatory design sessions with stakeholders, product teams, and end-users.
• Deep expertise creating core HCD artifacts, including journey maps, service blueprints, personas, playbooks, templates, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Preferred skills

• Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP), Prosci Certification, or specialized HCD/UX certifications (e.g., Nielsen Norman Group, LUMA Institute).
• Experience executing structured engineering handoffs to ensure user research findings directly inform technical development pipelines.
• Experience managing CX and Change Management initiatives for DHS or Federal National Security customers.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical/operational transformations into actionable communication and adoption strategies.