LEAD Forward is a boutique consultancy specializing in organizational development and transformation, leadership development, and strategy activation. We strive for transformative client impact, growing our business to enable even more impact while continuously nurturing our team culture. Whatever we put our minds to, we aim to exude sharpness, playfulness, and open-heartedness.

Our clients include start-ups and scale-ups, small, medium and large enterprises, public and social sector organizations. We aim to always have a good mix.

Our B Corp status: With our certification, we meet high standards of ethical, social and environmental practice, which is impacting both internal- and external-oriented practices.

Location: Berlin or Nürnberg (hybrid work options)

We’re looking for a Senior Consultant specialized in Change and Transformation to support meaningful and employee-centric change in organizations navigating major transformations and cultural shifts. This role focuses on supporting change management and organizational development activities, specifically in connection with mergers & acquisitions, strategic reorganizations, cultural shifts and digitalization efforts. You’ll support organizations during high-impact change and transformation projects while contributing to LEAD Forward’s sharp, playful, and open-hearted culture.

What you’ll be doing:

• Partnering up with the client to identify, make sense and conceptualize the organizational development and change management efforts related to the change or transformative challenges they have.
• Design and steer an agile, clear and transparent plan for how the work will be delivered. Requests for support typically start from a diagnostic to have clarity of the status quo but can also require jumping on an already started project.
• Lead or co-lead the delivery plan, including relevant impact indicators (focus on impact and quality), in collaboration with the LEAD Forward project team members and the client core stakeholders.
• Design and deliver client sessions and workshops, both as strategic workshops and training formats.
• Support the growth of LEAD Forward by contributing to the acquisition of new client projects and retention of existing client relationships and ensuring a good balance of sectors (start-ups, scale-ups, medium and large corporates, NGOs, public and social sector).
• Be a key contributor in driving our playful, sharp, and open-hearted identity and be a part of our mandates groups who decide on staffing, recruitment, business development and more.

What you bring with you:

• Extensive experience in change and transformation projects, with a focus on culture transformation, mergers and acquisitions, HR processes, and people experience, ideally in consulting or a similar role within medium- or large-sized organizations across multiple countries.
• Proven ability to manage projects using agile project plans and effective change management tools, with expertise in employee-centric approaches like persona discovery, stakeholder mapping, and engagement. Proficient in leveraging a diverse change management toolbox to ensure clarity, foster engagement, and successfully implement new directions. Skilled in understanding complex contexts, prioritizing core objectives in challenging situations, and navigating with adaptability.
• Strong business and organizational acumen to understand clients’ business models and structures, driving meaningful conversations and solutions.
• Financial acumen to accurately budget and manage profitable projects.
• Interest in socio-political or high-impact topics, particularly related to leadership, change management, or entrepreneurship.
• Experience leading and facilitating groups in formal management roles, project contexts, and workshops.
• Outstanding skills in change communication, storytelling, and presentations.
• A solid understanding of German and global business dynamics.
• Fluency in German (business level) and excellent English skills.
• Based in or near Berlin or Nürnberg.

What we offer to you:

• A professional and values-driven business
• A modern consulting practice that allows for a balanced workload
• Exciting clients within an intersectoral client portfolio (large corporates, start-ups and scale-ups, non-profit sector and academia)
• Internal transparency around responsibilities and salary bands
• Support for career development as subject-matter experts or in client-leading roles
• Encouragement to join our mandated groups on Client Impact, People & Team, Social Impact!
• A playful, sharp and open-hearted team of individuals to learn from and with everyday!

Other perks: yearly bonus (based on company success), 30 vacation days (for full-time employment), flexible work arrangements (e.g. work remotely within Europe for a certain period), personal yearly development budget, tax-free benefits (e.g., Deutschlandticket), a wonderful team to learn from and with.

How you work

Sharp, playful and openhearted is the core of the behaviors we value. This means to us…

• Crystal clear in communication
• Curious and have excellent listening and sense-making skills.
• By daring to innovate with formats that shake things up
• Don’t shy away from a good challenge and are always ready to adapt
• Act in a deeply human way, especially under pressure
• Offer and ask for feedback often, with genuine support in mind
• Lead with laughter, having impact always in your way of working
• Plan and manage with excellence in mind
• Adapt with an open heart, by naming what you see and feel

At LEAD Forward, we are determined to foster and embrace inclusion – among our clients and wider ecosystem and especially within our own walls. As such, we aim to build an open and kind work environment where multiple perspectives, ideas and backgrounds thrive, are valued and feel empowered. We believe that this will make our organization and quality of work better, but more importantly, we believe it is the right thing to do.

You strongly identify with this job description and would like to get to know LEAD Forward?

Great, we can’t wait to hear from you! Please send your application via email attaching your CV (in German or English) alongside your answers to the three prompts below (max. one page) 

Prompts:

1. A professional example in which I exuded playfulness/open-heartedness/sharpness (choose 1-2) was when

2. A transformation project I led or supported and am most proud of is… because…

3. From my future employer, I expect…