SME - Change Management

Subject Matter Expert, Change Management

Client: Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Clinical Informatics

Location: Remote, with occasional travel as required

Clearance: Ability to obtain and maintain a VA Tier 1 / Public Trust background investigation

Employment Type: Full time, contingent on contract award

Position Summary

The Subject Matter Expert, Change Implementation supports VHA in putting organizational change into practice. VHA is changing how clinical and administrative staff carry out their work. This position determines what those changes mean for the people doing the work and what it will take to prepare them.

The work begins with analysis. The SME identifies who a change affects, at what sites, in what roles, and how their day-to-day work will differ afterward. This includes changes to workflows, handoffs between teams, role responsibilities, and the systems staff use. The analysis also accounts for what those groups already have underway, since most sites are absorbing several changes at once.

The SME then builds the implementation plan. The plan covers what must happen before the change, what happens during, and what support staff need afterward. It addresses readiness activities, training needs, communication, and the measures used to determine whether adoption is working. The SME also identifies the risks the change creates, both to the program and to the people affected, and raises them to leadership early enough to act on.

Much of the role is spent working directly with people. The SME engages clinical and operational leaders at medical centers and program offices, along with training, communications, and informatics staff on the contract. Some of that engagement builds support for the change.

• Conduct stakeholder analyses to identify who is affected by a change, what they need, and who has influence over adoption.
• Conduct impact analyses covering changes to workflows, roles, processes, and systems.
• Build implementation plans, including sequencing, readiness activities, and what has to happen before, during, and after a change.
• Identify risks created by change activities and flag them to program leadership.
• Develop change and communication materials such as readiness assessments, communication plans, roadmaps, training plans, and resistance management plans.
• Work with clinical and operational leaders to build support for the change and address pushback.
• Track adoption and readiness, and report progress to the program and the customer.
• Coordinate with training, communications, and informatics staff so change activities line up with delivery timelines.
• Contribute change management content to program reports and deliverables.

• Master's degree.
• Ten (10) years of relevant work experience.
• Experience leading organizational change efforts in large or complex organizations.
• Experience conducting stakeholder analyses, impact analyses, and implementation planning.
• Experience identifying and reporting risks tied to organizational change.
• Experience briefing and working with senior leaders.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the required VA background investigation.

• Prosci certification, or equivalent change management certification.
• Experience supporting VA, VHA, DoD, or other federal health programs.
• Experience with change management in a union environment.
• Experience on an electronic health record rollout or improvement effort.
• Experience working in a SAFe or other Agile delivery environment.
• Experience with government contract deliverables and reporting.