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Senior Director Change Management, FCS

Northwestern Mutual · Franklin, WI · Full time

Posted Sep 18, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about a time you told senior leaders that their decision would hurt adoption.

What they are checking: Whether they have the courage and credibility to advise leaders on change impact.

How do you develop a team of change management professionals?

What they are checking: Whether they can grow and lead a change team with a culture of trust.

How have you adapted a company's change methodology for a unique situation?

What they are checking: Whether they apply methodology with judgment instead of following it rigidly.

Tell me about a change that did not go well. What would you do differently?

What they are checking: Whether they learn from setbacks and can talk honestly about them.

What would you do

How do you manage a portfolio of change efforts so people are not overloaded?

What they are checking: Whether they think about change saturation across many initiatives at once.

A project team treats change management as just sending emails and training. How do you shift their thinking?

What they are checking: Whether they can show the value of real change work to skeptical partners.

How would you work with leaders who have to sponsor change but are not visible enough?

What they are checking: Whether they can coach sponsors to lead change actively and visibly.

About the work

Walk me through how you would build a change plan for a large initiative that touches many departments.

What they are checking: Whether they have a structured way to handle the people side of complex change.

How do you identify resistance early and what do you do about it?

What they are checking: Whether they can find people risks before they derail a project, as the posting stresses.

How would you measure whether a change actually stuck six months after launch?

What they are checking: Whether they track adoption and sustained results, not just launch activities.

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The full job description

As published by Northwestern Mutual.

Summary Leads and aligns large, highly complex, cross-functional change management plans across a broad portfolio of initiatives. Provides thought leadership and change management expertise and consultation to the business to meet department, cross-department and enterprise wide goals. Regarded as an expert in developing and implementing change management strategies to address complex and unique business objectives. Influences and contributes to the development of strategic business decisions and leads implementation of change management across the enterprise at all organizational levels. Primary Duties & Responsibilities • Develop and mature a team of change management professionals of the future. Create and maintain a team culture of trust, engagement, and inclusion. • Applies NM change methodology and process to deliver the people side of change that is required to achieve our desired business outcomes. • Analyze people-related risks and points of resistance; implement specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns. Provide insight to project and senior leaders about the potential impact of decisions on the effectiveness of overall change strategy. • Accountable for leading and aligning large, highly complex, strategic cross-departmental/ functional change initiatives across a broad portfolio. Responsible for managing impact of changes to people, process, technology, organization, and culture. • Acts as a thought leader on change management activities; develops change plans and strategies for execution across highly complex efforts which requires significant change to business processes, behavior, and culture change. • Partner with and influence business leadership across multiple departments and functions and all layers of the organization to design planning and program delivery approaches that promote user centric business solutions and ensure change strategies align with the business strategy and vision. Establishes and maintains strong partnerships across the organization to integrate multiple change efforts to produce integrated delivery. • Implement efficient change management structures that support an integrated delivery approach and provide direction and oversight to one or more change teams to ensure predictable execution and realization of benefits. • Develops strong relationships with business clients to manage change delivery expectations and implementation. Provides expert level change management consulting, negotiation and influencing at all levels. • Aligns all stakeholder leadership on strategy, business priorities, and approach to change delivery. Influences others to take action to change, within and outside of own area. • Responsible for gathering and delivering metrics and data to drive insights and action plans to continually adjust and pursue goals. Leverage tools and techniques to enable end-to-end value delivery and the best ongoing rollout and ongoing experience. • Applies extensive business acumen in depth and breadth of industry, company initiatives and strategy, and products, integrates knowledge into change management objectives. • Uses expert-level knowledge of change management to understand key business drivers and outcomes. Conduct highly complex analysis to identify scope and nature of change management deliverables to solve a department or business need. • Adopt, integrate, and promote common NM enterprise-wide change process, methodology and language. • Lead's a team of change practitioners. Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Communication, or related field. • Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience with increasing levels of responsibility; including experience leading large, complex, cross-functional change management efforts. • Demonstrated experience creating and implementing change management frameworks, methodologies and tools. • Experience managing large-scale change efforts. • Ability to present recommendations which are aligned to the business strategy. Ability to articulate an independent point-of-view and comfortable to challenge conventional practices. • Systems view to bring organization design, people effectiveness and change enablement to drive integration and transformation. • Demonstrated ability to think strategically and execute. Must be strategically oriented, yet tactically focused on execution of plans. • Exceptional influencing and relationship skills. Capable of building and sustaining excellent relationships at multiple levels in the organization and/or field to understand business needs and strategically accomplish goals. • Analytical problem-solving skills to draw insights, assess the organization, recognize potential issues, diagnosis route causes, and craft viable solutions. • Demonstrated ability to collaborate with business leaders to develop, implement and sustain change interventions that enable transformational shift and achievement of business goals. • Familiarity with project management approaches, tools and project phases • Change Management certification (Prosci or similar). Skills You Have • Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Builds alignment and coordinates work across teams and functions to achieve shared goals. • Business Influence: Uses business knowledge and effective communication to gain stakeholder alignment and support organizational priorities. • Change Implementation: Develops and executes plans that drive adoption and support organizational transformation. • Adaptive Communication: Tailors complex information for different audiences and connects technical and non-technical stakeholders. • Strategic Vision & Planning: Defines and executes a strategic direction aligned with broader enterprise goals. • Change Management: Leads organizational and behavioral change by building the case for change, engaging stakeholders, mitigating risks, and driving adoption. Compensation Range: Pay Range - Start: $160,000.00 Pay Range - End: $240,000.00 Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $176,000.00 USD - $264,000.00 USD Structure 115: $184,000.00 USD - $276,000.00 USD We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more. Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now! Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

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