Change Management Lead

The Newberry Group

3d•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a seasoned Change Management Lead to guide and oversee change control processes supporting the Application Sustainment and Production Support Operations team within the Rural Development mission area at the Department of Agriculture (USDA). This role plays a critical part in maintaining system stability and ensuring that all changes—technical, operational, and functional—are introduced in a controlled, documented, and riskware manner. The ideal candidate has deep experience in enterprise change management, excels at cross team coordination, and brings strong analytical and communication skills to a fast-paced environment with mission critical applications.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, or related field; or equivalent practical experience.
7+ years of experience in change management, IT service management, or production support within enterprise environments.
Strong understanding of application sustainment, production support processes, and cross‑functional IT operations.
Proficiency with ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, Remedy, Jira Service Management, or similar platforms.
Deep knowledge of change control frameworks, risk assessment, and impact analysis.
Ability to coordinate across teams and lead discussions involving technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and documentation skills.
Strong analytical and organizational capabilities with a keen attention to detail.
Demonstrated experience managing conflicting priorities and balancing operational needs with governance requirements.

Nice To Haves

ITIL Foundation or higher certification.
Experience supporting enterprise applications, integrations, or multi‑platform systems (Windows, Linux, cloud, etc.).
Familiarity with release management and DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines.
Experience working in environments with formal compliance, audit, or regulatory requirements.
Background in environments with application sustainment or large‑scale production support operations.

Responsibilities

Lead and manage the full lifecycle of the change management process, from request initiation to final implementation and closure.
Oversee and enforce governance around change requests, emergency changes, release planning, and deployment schedules.
Chair or support Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings, ensuring stakeholders are aligned on impacts, risks, and readiness.
Collaborate with application sustainment, production support, development, operations, security, and business teams to review, assess, prioritize, and schedule changes.
Monitor production environments for change‑related incidents and support root‑cause analysis and corrective actions.
Ensure documentation, approvals, and audit reporting are accurate and compliant with organizational and regulatory standards.
Track recurring change activities to optimize schedules, reduce conflicts, and enhance operational efficiency.
Support deployment planning and coordination, especially for high‑impact or cross‑functional changes.
Maintain dashboards and reporting on change KPIs, including success rates, failure rates, incident correlations, and SLA compliance.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen change governance, reduce risk, and improve communication across teams.
Serve as a central point of contact for all change activities related to application sustainment and production support.