Change Management Specialist

About Backroads: 
Founded in 1979, Backroads is the world's most guest-focused travel company, offering Biking, Walking & Hiking and Multi-Adventure Trips for active people of all ages and experience levels. We're all about exploring under your own power and at your own tempo alongside fun-loving travel companions. Everything we do is guided by a commitment to quality, accountability, integrity, and teamwork. 
 
About the Departments: 

The People & Culture Team is a dynamic and experienced group of professionals dedicated to fostering a positive and productive work environment. With decades of collective knowledge, the team excels in collaboration and innovation, ensuring that the organization's culture thrives. 

Currently, the department is comprised of two teams:  

• Talent Development: Responsible for the employee lifecycle from recruiting to hiring, onboarding, employee & manager training, professional development, performance reviews, culture, change management, events and companywide communication.  

• People Operations: Responsible for the seamless execution of traditional HR processes, benefits, compliance, payroll and performance management. 

By joining the People & Culture (P&C) team at Backroads, you’ll be part of a group that values building innovative people processes and fostering a positive, inclusive employee experience. 

The IT Department is a team consisting of dedicated IT professionals with over two decades of institutional expertise, deeply committed to enhancing the organization’s infrastructure. They bring a passion for continuous improvement and a collaborative spirit. 

The department is comprised of several teams, which include the below: 

• Product: The team creates innovative solutions that delight users and drive business growth by turning insights into impactful products. 

• Project Management (PMO): The PMO drives strategic alignment and execution excellence, empowering teams to deliver projects on time, within scope, and with maximum impact. 

• Business Intelligence & Infrastructure: The team transforms data into actionable insights and ensures a robust, scalable foundation for smarter, data-driven decisions across the organization. 

About The Role: 

The Change Management Specialist will play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of change initiatives by enhancing the adoption and usage of new processes, systems, and organizational changes. The main responsibility of this role will be managing the people side of a software transformation. You will collaborate with project managers, senior leadership, training leads and employees to become a trusted advisor.  You will develop and facilitate communication and training structures that empower a partially remote, global audience to successfully embrace new initiatives with minimal resistance. This role requires someone who is curious, solution driven, proactive, able to align individuals without direct authority, and capable of navigating complex organizational dynamics. By fully understanding both the office and field environments, you’ll uncover and address the subtle cultural factors that can affect the success of our initiatives. This position is key to fostering positivity during transformation and reinforcing a culture of adaptability and growth within the organization.   

What You’ll Be Doing: 

• Develop and equip leaders and trainers with the tools and structure that they need to manage their teams through the transformation from one software to another. 

• Serve as a liaison between the senior leadership and project teams to ensure that all change efforts are aligned, scheduled and effectively coordinated so that key players are in the room and attendees are prepared for meetings. 

• Create deliverables such as stakeholder engagement plans, training materials and structures, communication plans, and adoption tracking mechanisms to keep everyone informed, engaged, and supportive of the change efforts.  

• Facilitate workshops, training sessions, communications and meetings to prepare employees and teams for upcoming transitions. 

• Manage feedback loops and adjust approaches as needed to ensure sustained employee engagement. 

• Develop and maintain replication playbooks for standardizing change initiatives across the organization.  

What You’ll Need to Be Successful:  

• Proven experience in large-scale change management. Ideally with 3+ proven years of experience.  

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to organize and align stakeholders at all levels. 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to identify risks and develop mitigation strategies. 

• Experience with creating training content and facilitation.  

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple change initiatives simultaneously and deliver results on time. 

• Adaptability, resilience, and a collaborative mindset. 

• High emotional intelligence and the ability to lead through influence without direct authority. 

• Familiarity with organizational change models and best practices in adoption tracking. 

Work Environment: 

• Berkeley, CA 

• 4-days in the office  

Backroads is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. 

Compensation Range: Up to $100,000 

At Backroads, we uphold a commitment to transparency and fairness within our hiring process, particularly regarding compensation. The salary range posted for each role applies to both employment offers and employees actively working in the role. 

Interview Process: 

• Recruiter Screen (30-minutes) 

• Hiring Manager Video Interview (45-minutes) 

• In Person Panel Presentation (1-hour) 

• In Person Coffee Chat (15-minutes)