Senior Organizational Change Manager

Who Are We:

We are a high-impact change team supporting M&T’s Commercial Bank—one of the organization’s core business segments, serving over 2,500 employees across middle market regions, commercial real estate, and specialized industries.

We partner closely with the business, product, technology and program delivery teams to deliver meaningful change that improves how we serve our clients and support our employees. Our work focuses on the people side of change, ensuring initiatives are understood, adopted, and sustained.

We are:

• Change catalysts who partner with Commercial leaders to deliver strategic business transformation and outcomes that matter.
• Strategic thinkers who bring clarity to complexity, aligning business, product, technology and operational partners to accelerate transformation.
• Collaborative problem-solvers who synthesize insights, communicate with impact, and build bridges across business lines and executive leadership.
• Champions of adoption, embedding Change Management principles and practices to ensure people, process, technology, and data evolve together.

What You’ll Do: Lead Large-Scale Change Initiatives

This role is dedicated to supporting the Commercial Bank, partnering closely with Lending leaders and stakeholders to deliver strategic business transformation. The Senior Organizational Change Manager serves as an embedded advisor within the business, helping teams navigate change, accelerate adoption, and realize value from initiatives that enhance the client and employee experience, improve operational effectiveness, and support growth.

As a Senior Organizational Change Manager, you will serve as a trusted advisor to Commercial Lending leadership, shaping change strategies that enable large-scale transformation and business outcomes. You will lead the people side of change for high-impact Lending initiatives, partnering with and influencing executives, program leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders to build readiness, manage organizational risk, accelerate adoption, and sustain lasting results.

You will:

• Design and deliver change management strategies for Commercial initiatives, tailoring approaches to business-specific needs.
• Assess Commercial initiatives for the appropriate level of change management support, determining when dedicated change leadership is required versus advisory support that enables business teams to effectively lead change.
• Coach and mentor business partners, project leaders, and Change peers, building capability, confidence, and consistency in how change is delivered across the bank.
• Lead with influence, serving as the trusted advisor to sponsors, project leaders, and stakeholders, driving alignment, clarity, and momentum.
• Navigate complexity by managing multiple change efforts simultaneously, sequencing activities to mitigate saturation and build organizational resilience.
• Build strong partnerships across Commercial and the enterprise, fostering alignment among business, risk, operations, technology, and delivery teams.
• Translate insight into action by leveraging stakeholder input, readiness indicators and impact data to guide change planning and execution.
• Empower leaders with coaching and guidance to become visible, effective sponsors of change.
• Craft compelling narratives and communication strategies that inspire engagement and foster understanding.
• Collaborate on learning experiences, partnering with L&D to design training that supports capability building and sustained adoption.
• Measure what matters, defining success metrics and gathering feedback to continuously improve change outcomes.
• Champion sustainability, ensuring transitions are smooth and that change sticks long after implementation.
• Strengthen change maturity within Commercial by mentoring fellow practitioners, sharing best practices, and embedding effective change leadership across business initiatives.
• Model agility, adapting quickly to new challenges, unfamiliar domains, and evolving priorities.

What You Bring: Experience, Expertise, and a Passion for Change

We’re looking for a seasoned change leader who combines strategic thinking with hands-on experience in driving transformation across complex environments. You’ll thrive in this role if you bring:

• A bachelor’s degree and at least 7 years of experience in change management, learning and development, employee communications, product management, or project management. (Equivalent experience of 10 years, including 6 years in relevant roles, will also be considered.)
• Proven expertise in applying change management principles, methodologies, and tools to deliver measurable outcomes on large-scale initiatives.
• Demonstrated capability in coaching others—leaders, teams, and non-expert change agents—to apply change management practices effectively.
• A recognized change management certification (e.g., Prosci, ACMP CCMP).
• Demonstrated ability to integrate change strategies with iterative delivery environments and complex transformation programs.
• A track record of leading large-scale, high-impact business transformation initiatives in large organizations, with clear evidence of driving business value.
• Exceptional communication skills articulating complex concepts into clear, compelling messages and influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior and executive leadership.
• Strong project management capabilities and the ability to juggle multiple priorities.
• A natural ability to adapt and lead through ambiguity, bringing clarity, confidence and creativity to evolving situations and shifting priorities.
• A positive, resilient, and solutions-oriented mindset, with the ability to navigate uncertainty, support evolving business priorities, and build confidence during periods of significant change and transformation.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience: Elevate Your Impact

While not required, the following qualifications and experience will help you thrive and lead with even greater influence:

• An MBA or advanced degree in Organizational Development, Organizational Behavior, Change Management, or a related field.
• At least three years of experience in a dedicated change management role, with a focus on large-scale transformation.
• Experience coaching or developing talent, including mentoring junior change practitioners or enabling non-experts to perform CM activities confidently and successfully.
• Experience collaborating with customer experience, UX, or human-centered design teams to create change strategies that are empathetic, user-informed, and adoption-ready.
• Proficiency in collaboration and transparency tools such as Jira, Miro, Target Process, or Trello, tools that support agile ways of working and cross-functional alignment.
• Exceptional problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, with a demonstrated ability to connect dots across systems, teams, and initiatives.
• Experience supporting Commercial Banking, Lending, Credit, Servicing, Operations, or related financial services transformation initiatives, with a strong understanding of the regulatory, operational, and cultural dynamics that shape change.
• Strong business acumen, with the ability to anticipate organizational challenges and design change strategies that drive measurable outcomes.

#LI-LA1