Organizational Development Consultant

Thrivent; Minneapolis (MN); Remote; USD 109,000 - 148,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonuses (including annual or long-term

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Health savings account

401k / Pension

Paid time off - 20 days

Volunteer Time Off

Parental leave

EAP and well-being benefits

Job summary

Thrivent is seeking an Organization Development Consultant to partner with leaders and HR to diagnose needs and design practical solutions that boost organizational effectiveness and business performance. You’ll apply OD expertise across design, operating models, leadership effectiveness, change, workforce planning, and related interventions, often without direct authority.

This senior individual contributor role can be remote within the United States, requiring you to lead complex engagements,

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of Organization Development principles, organizational assessment and diagnosis, organization design, team effectiveness, leadership effectiveness, change, workforce planning, and related interventions.
• Ability to understand connections among strategy, structure, work, process, technology, governance, culture, leadership, talent, and change.
• Hold the whole picture across multiple projects or workstreams and surface dependencies and risks.
• Move beyond stated requests, synthesize information, identify root causes, and recommend effective interventions.
• Strong contracting, inquiry, listening, facilitation, synthesis, and stakeholder management skills.
• Connect organizational choices to business strategy, performance, and outcomes.
• Design structures, operating models, governance, and workflows.
• Assess team and leadership conditions and design interventions to improve performance.
• Knowledge of change management, readiness, adoption, and workforce planning.
• Defines meaningful outcomes and evaluates impact with evidence-based adjustments.
• Manages concurrent work with clear priorities and portfolio visibility.
• Able to lead or coordinate in ambiguity with sound judgment.
• Synthesize complex information into clear narratives for diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex organization effectiveness engagements from intake through sustainment with a systems perspective.
• Apply assessment and diagnostic practices to distinguish symptoms from root causes and identify appropriate interventions.
• Bring a whole-system view across initiatives, surface dependencies and surface risks for coordinated action.
• Translate business strategy into practical capabilities and ways of working to improve alignment and execution.
• Design and facilitate interventions to strengthen leadership alignment, team clarity, and collaboration.
• Guide leadership teams through complex discussions, problem solving, and alignment without relying on formal authority.
• Integrate change practices to strengthen stakeholder engagement and sustainment of results.
• Support workforce planning by linking business strategy to capability, skills, roles, and capacity.
• Partner with HR and enterprise teams to deliver executable solutions and build organizational capability.

Skills

Organization Development expertise

Systems thinking

Integrated initiative leadership

Diagnostic capability

Consulting and influence

Business acumen

Organization and work design

Leadership and team effectiveness

Change and workforce capability

Measurement and evaluation

Engagement and portfolio management

Judgment and adaptability

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Organization Development, Human Resources, Business, Organizational Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, behavioral science, or a related field

Master’s degree in Organization Development, Organizational Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Human Resources, Business, or a related field

Job description

The Organization Development Consultant is a senior-level individual contributor who partners with leaders, HR Business Partners, and enterprise stakeholders to diagnose organizational needs and design practical solutions that improve organizational effectiveness and business performance.

The role applies Organization Development expertise across organization design, operating model effectiveness, team and leadership effectiveness, change and transformation, workforce planning, and related organizational interventions.

The consultant looks beyond the presenting request to identify root causes, patterns, dependencies, and enterprise implications, then recommends an approach grounded in business need, readiness, risk, and expected value.

Operating with a broad perspective and leadership without direct authority, the consultant connects people, ideas, decisions, and related bodies of work, helping leaders and partners understand how the pieces fit together and address important dependencies, gaps, and organizational implications.

Depending on scope and complexity, the consultant may lead an engagement directly, coordinate work across multiple contributors and workstreams, or equip leaders and HR partners with the tools and guidance needed to execute and sustain the solution.

This role can be remote within the United States.

Job Description

Lead complex organization effectiveness engagements from intake through sustainment, bringing an enterprise and systems perspective to business priorities.

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Contracting

• Conduct intake and contracting discussions to clarify the business need, desired outcomes, scope, stakeholders, decision makers, timing, risks, dependencies, constraints, and measures of success.
• Apply organizational assessment and diagnostic practices to distinguish symptoms from root causes, recognize patterns across the system, test assumptions, and identify the appropriate intervention rather than defaulting to a requested solution.

Integrated Initiative Leadership

• Bring a whole-system perspective to complex initiatives, recognizing connections across related projects, workstreams, stakeholders, decisions, dependencies, organizational impacts, and competing demands.
• Connect people, ideas, data, and bodies of work that may sit outside the consultant's direct scope; surface gaps, overlaps, downstream implications, and risks that others may not see; and help establish shared direction and coordinated action.
• Use influence, facilitation, and sound judgment to create clarity, strengthen alignment and accountability, facilitate decisions, and help move complex work forward without relying on positional authority.

Organization Strategy, Design, and Ways of Working

• Lead organization design and operating model engagements that may include current-state assessment, design criteria, structure, work design, roles, accountabilities, governance, decision rights, interfaces, talent implications, and implementation planning.
• Translate business strategy into practical organizational capabilities and ways of working that improve alignment, agility, coordination, decision quality, and execution.

Leadership and Team Effectiveness

• Design and facilitate interventions that strengthen leadership alignment, team clarity, relationships, collaboration, accountability, decision making, and performance.
• Guide leadership teams and cross-functional groups through complex, ambiguous, or sensitive discussions, organizational decisions, problem solving, and alignment.

Change, Readiness, and Sustainment

• Integrate change practices into broader organizational interventions to strengthen stakeholder engagement, readiness, adoption, reinforcement, and sustainability.
• Assess cumulative impacts, interdependencies, workforce implications, and organizational capacity; transition completed work to the appropriate business or HR owner with clear sustainment accountabilities.

Workforce Strategy and Planning

• Support workforce planning and future-readiness work by connecting business strategy to capability, skill, role, capacity, and talent implications.
• Use data, scenarios, and organizational insight to help leaders consider how changing business needs, technology, automation, and artificial intelligence may affect work and the workforce.

Consulting, Partnership, and Capability Building

• Serve as a trusted consultant to leaders and HR partners, providing strategic insight, constructive challenge, facilitation, and practical recommendations.
• Partner across HR and the enterprise to determine the appropriate delivery model, clarify roles and engagement expectations, and integrate related expertise into executable solutions.
• Build capability in leaders and HR partners through frameworks, tools, coaching, and consultation, enabling others to address organizational effectiveness needs independently when appropriate.

Engagement and Portfolio Discipline

• Manage multiple concurrent engagements with discipline around scope, priorities, milestones, stakeholders, decisions, deliverables, risks, outcomes, and closeout.
• Maintain visibility to engagement health, dependencies, risks, and leadership attention needs; proactively surface implications across the broader OE portfolio and provide insight that supports prioritization and sequencing decisions.

Measurement, Learning, and Practice Development

• Establish success measures at the beginning of an engagement across relevant business, organizational effectiveness, employee experience, and behavior outcomes; treat readiness as a leading indicator when appropriate.
• Evaluate impact and value, monitor sustainability, use evidence and feedback to adjust solutions, and contribute to the continuous improvement of Organization Effectiveness methods, tools, standards, and ways of working.
• Stay current on Organization Development and Organization Effectiveness research and emerging practices, translating them into accessible, pragmatic business solutions.
• Models Thrivent’s leadership competencies - Model the Way, Rally the Team, and Deliver Outcomes.
• Supports an environment focused on continuous improvement, employee engagement, partnership, and an unwavering commitment to clients. Models Thrivent’s purpose, promise, and values and helps protect the organization’s trust and reputation.

QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:

Required:

• Organization Development and Effectiveness expertise: Deep knowledge of Organization Development principles, organizational assessment and diagnosis, organization design, team effectiveness, leadership effectiveness, change, workforce planning, and related interventions, with the judgment to apply them pragmatically.
• Systems and ecosystem thinking: Ability to understand the connections among strategy, structure, work, process, technology, governance, culture, leadership, talent, and change; identify patterns and interdependencies; anticipate second-order effects; and see gaps or implications that may not be immediately visible to others.
• Integrated initiative leadership: Ability to hold the whole picture across multiple projects or workstreams, connect stakeholders and decisions, surface dependencies and risks, and help create coordinated movement without relying on formal authority.
• Diagnostic capability: Demonstrated ability to move beyond the stated request, ask incisive questions, synthesize qualitative and quantitative information, identify root causes, and recommend the intervention most likely to address the business need.
• Consulting and influence: Strong contracting, inquiry, listening, facilitation, synthesis, recommendation, stakeholder management, and constructive challenge skills. Builds credibility quickly and influences leaders without positional authority.
• Business acumen: Connects organizational choices to business strategy, performance, priorities, financial considerations, risk, execution, and client outcomes.
• Organization and work design: Can assess and design structures, operating models, roles, accountabilities, governance, decision rights, interfaces, workflows, and ways of working.
• Leadership and team effectiveness: Can assess team and leadership conditions and design interventions that improve clarity, alignment, collaboration, decision quality, accountability, and performance.
• Change and workforce capability: Working knowledge of change management, stakeholder readiness, adoption, workforce planning, skill and capacity implications, and the effects of artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technology on work.
• Measurement and evaluation: Defines meaningful outcomes and leading indicators, including readiness, and uses evidence and feedback to evaluate impact, demonstrate value, and improve solutions.
• Engagement and portfolio management: Manages concurrent work with clear scope, priorities, milestones, decisions, risks, dependencies, deliverables, outcomes, and closure while maintaining visibility to the broader portfolio.
• Judgment and adaptability: Determines when to lead directly, coordinate others, consult or coach, or provide scalable tools and resources. Operates effectively in ambiguity with curiosity, objectivity, confidence, and sound judgment.
• Communication: Synthesizes complex information into clear narratives, recommendations, decisions, and actions for a variety of audiences.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Organization Development, Human Resources, Business, Organizational Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, behavioral science, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Seven to ten years of progressive experience in Organization Development, Organization Effectiveness, organizational consulting, organization design, transformation, workforce planning, change, HR strategy, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience independently advising leaders and senior stakeholders, diagnosing complex organizational issues, and translating findings into practical recommendations and interventions.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional engagements with multiple stakeholders, projects, workstreams, dependencies, and competing priorities from intake and contracting through implementation, measurement, transition, and closeout.
• Experience designing and facilitating interventions with leadership teams and cross-functional groups and establishing measures of success for organizational work.

Preferred:

• Master’s degree in Organization Development, Organizational Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Human Resources, Business, or a related field.
• Formal education, certification, or substantive professional development in Organization Development theory, organization design, facilitation, assessment, or change management.
• Experience applying recognized organization design and change methodologies in a practical business environment.

Pay TransparencyThrivent’s long-term growth depends on attracting, rewarding, and retaining people who are committed to helping others thrive with purpose. We accomplish this by offering a wide variety of market competitive compensation programs to attract, reward, and retain top talent. The applicable salary or hourly wage range for this full-time role is $109,268.00 - $147,832.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will be determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, business needs, market demand, and other factors Thrivent deems important.Thrivent is unique in our commitment to helping people to be wise with money and live balanced and generous lives. That extends to our benefits.The following benefits may be offered: various bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives); medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings account; flexible spending account; 401k; pension; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance; supplemental protection insurance; 20 days of Paid Time Off each year; Sick and Safe Time; 10 paid company holidays; Volunteer Time Off; paid parental leave; EAP; well-being benefits, and other employee benefits. Eligibility for receipt of these benefits is subject to the applicable plan/policy documents. Thrivent’s plans/policies are subject to change at any time at Thrivent’s discretion.

Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.

Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to [e-mail] or call800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.