R&D Change & Transformation Lead

Job description

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals! As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People. At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights. Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today! Your Role As the R&D Organizational Change Management (OCM) Lead, you will execute and sustain change strategies for R&D initiatives, including an initial focus on our data and AI digital transformation. This role is critical to helping Elanco R&D adopt new ways of working, build a stronger digital mindset, and move the organization toward its next level of capability. You will take a practical, hands-on approach to organizational change, meeting the organization where it is today while helping leaders and employees see what is possible. You will work directly with employees, managers, senior leaders, and executive sponsors to build commitment, address resistance, and create lasting behavioral and operational change. You will help establish and evolve the change management capability within R&D, adapting proven change management practices to the needs of the organization rather than applying a one-size-fits-all framework. Success will be measured through meaningful adoption, engagement, behavior change, and business outcomes. Your Responsibilities Design and execute practical change strategies for R&D initiatives, using proven OCM practices and a structured approach to move change from definition and planning through implementation and sustainment. Partner closely with program and project teams while adapting the approach to the needs, maturity, and culture of each part of the organization. Coach executive sponsors, managers, and R&D leaders to effectively lead their teams through change. Help leaders communicate clearly, role-model new behaviors, address resistance, remove roadblocks, and maintain accountability throughout the change journey. Build and mobilize a Change Champion network across R&D functions. Develop strong relationships with champions, equip them to engage their teams, surface concerns and resistance, and help employees understand how changes will affect their day-to-day work. Create meaningful employee engagement, communication, and learning experiences that translate complex changes into clear, practical actions. Partner with learning and project teams to develop role-based training and support that helps employees understand not only what is changing, but why it matters and how to succeed in the new environment. Measure and sustain adoption by defining meaningful adoption and engagement measures, identifying areas of resistance or change fatigue, and using those insights to guide corrective actions. Metrics and dashboards should support meaningful people engagement and help demonstrate the value and impact of change efforts. Drive execution and accountability across change activities by establishing clear plans, milestones, ownership, and follow-through. Bring enough project management discipline to keep work moving, surface issues early, and hold stakeholders accountable for commitments. What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications) Education: Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Psychology, Organizational Development, Human Resources, Business, Communication, or a related field. Experience: Significant progressive experience in Organizational Change Management, including hands-on leadership of large-scale organizational change within a sizable, complex organization. Demonstrated experience personally leading significant change efforts more than once and working through the practical challenges of organizational adoption. Organization-wide engagement: Demonstrated ability to work effectively at all levels of an organization, from frontline employees and people managers through senior leaders and executive sponsors. Must be comfortable listening to concerns, addressing resistance, building trust, and helping individuals and teams navigate through change. Change leadership & coaching: Proven ability to coach managers, senior leaders, and executive sponsors through organizational transformation. Strong ability to influence, challenge, and support leaders while helping them communicate clearly, model expected behaviors, and actively lead change within their organizations. Communication & learning: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical, data, or organizational concepts into clear, practical, audience-specific messages. Strong experience developing learning, enablement, or role-based training that supports behavioral adoption and new ways of working. Practical leadership style: Strong emotional intelligence, sound judgment, and a pragmatic, hands-on approach to problem solving. Able to simplify complexity, adapt established change practices to the organization rather than relying on a rigid methodology, and operate effectively in an environment where change capability is still being built. Execution & accountability: Demonstrated ability to manage complex work, establish clear actions and milestones, follow through on commitments, and hold stakeholders accountable while working across a matrixed organization. What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications) Industry & domain experience: Experience working within R&D, pharmaceutical, biotech, animal health, life sciences, or another technically complex environment. An understanding of scientific stakeholders and how technical teams operate is strongly preferred. Digital transformation experience: Experience supporting significant technology, data, analytics, AI, or digital transformation initiatives where successful adoption required meaningful changes in behaviors and ways of working. Change networks: Demonstrated success building and leading cross-functional Change Champion, change agent, or employee advocacy networks that actively supported organizational adoption. Learning & development: Strong experience designing practical learning and development approaches that help employees and leaders build capability and successfully transition to new ways of working. Adoption measurement: Experience defining adoption KPIs and using employee feedback, engagement measures, and business outcomes to understand progress and guide corrective actions. Experience with adoption dashboards or tools such as Power BI is helpful but secondary to strong employee engagement and change leadership. Advanced education & credentials: Master’s degree in a relevant field and/or formal change management certifications such as Prosci or CCMP. Project or program management credentials such as PMP or Agile are also valued but are not required. Builder mindset: Experience creating or evolving change management capability within an organization, particularly where processes, networks, tools, or ways of working needed to be developed from the ground up. Influence without authority: Demonstrated ability to build credibility, bring stakeholders along, show the value of change management, and influence outcomes without relying on formal authority. Additional Information Travel: Up to 10% travel, primarily to key R&D sites and stakeholder locations. Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA is the preferred primary location, with flexibility for hybrid or remote work depending on candidate profile and business needs. Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Elanco we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. If you think you might be a good fit for a role but don't necessarily meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this role or other roles! Elanco Benefits and Perks: We offer a comprehensive benefits package focusing on financial, physical, and mental well-being while encouraging our employees to pursue our purpose! Some highlights include: Multiple relocation packages Two weeklong shutdowns (mid-summer and year-end) in the US (in addition to PTO) 8-week parental leave 9 Employee Resource Groups Annual bonus offering Flexible work arrangements Up to 6% 401K matching Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job ‑ related criteria and/or transferrable skills. These tools help ensure a consistent, structured evaluation, but they do not make hiring decisions. All decisions involve a human reviewer. For more information on how we handle personal data, please see our Elanco Workforce Privacy Notice. #LI-MW1 Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job‑related criteria and/or transferrable skills. These tools help ensure a consistent, structured evaluation, but they do not make hiring decisions. All decisions involve a human reviewer. For more information on how we handle personal data, please see our Elanco Workforce Privacy Notice.