diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 650cc345..97de4d09 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,9 +6,13 @@ All notable changes to the Zowe Client Python SDK will be documented in this fil
 
 ### Bug Fixes
 
-- Fixed `create_data_set` to accept "FBA", "FBM", "VBA", "VBM" as valid recfm [#240](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/issues/240)
-- Fixed an issue with `list_jobs` user correlator parameter [#242](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/issues/242)
-- Return response instead of raw from streamed requests [#245](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/pull/245)
+- Fixed `Files.create_data_set` to accept "FBA", "FBM", "VBA", "VBM" as valid recfm [#240](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/issues/240)
+- Fixed an issue with `Jobs.list_jobs` user correlator parameter [#242](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/issues/242)
+- Fixed default encoding for I/O operations to be UTF-8 on Windows [#243](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/issues/243)
+
+### Enhancements
+
+- Next Breaking: Updated core SDK method `RequestHandler.perform_streamed_request` to return response object instead of raw buffer. [#245](https://github.com/zowe/zowe-client-python-sdk/pull/245)
 
 ## `1.0.0-dev12`
 
diff --git a/src/zos_files/zowe/zos_files_for_zowe_sdk/files.py b/src/zos_files/zowe/zos_files_for_zowe_sdk/files.py
index fa817fdb..26f49370 100644
--- a/src/zos_files/zowe/zos_files_for_zowe_sdk/files.py
+++ b/src/zos_files/zowe/zos_files_for_zowe_sdk/files.py
@@ -517,7 +517,7 @@ def write_to_dsn(self, dataset_name, data, encoding=_ZOWE_FILES_DEFAULT_ENCODING
     def download_dsn(self, dataset_name, output_file):
         """Retrieve the contents of a dataset and saves it to a given file."""
         raw_response = self.get_dsn_content_streamed(dataset_name)
-        with open(output_file, "w") as f:
+        with open(output_file, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
             shutil.copyfileobj(raw_response, f)
 
     def download_binary_dsn(self, dataset_name, output_file, with_prefixes=False):
@@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ def write_to_uss(self, filepath_name, data, encoding=_ZOWE_FILES_DEFAULT_ENCODIN
     def upload_file_to_uss(self, input_file, filepath_name, encoding=_ZOWE_FILES_DEFAULT_ENCODING):
         """Upload contents of a given file and uploads it to UNIX file"""
         if os.path.isfile(input_file):
-            in_file = open(input_file, "r")
+            in_file = open(input_file, "r", encoding="utf-8")
             file_contents = in_file.read()
             response_json = self.write_to_uss(filepath_name, file_contents)
         else:
diff --git a/src/zos_jobs/zowe/zos_jobs_for_zowe_sdk/jobs.py b/src/zos_jobs/zowe/zos_jobs_for_zowe_sdk/jobs.py
index f3f21510..4f497ce9 100644
--- a/src/zos_jobs/zowe/zos_jobs_for_zowe_sdk/jobs.py
+++ b/src/zos_jobs/zowe/zos_jobs_for_zowe_sdk/jobs.py
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ def submit_from_local_file(self, jcl_path):
             A JSON containing the result of the request execution
         """
         if os.path.isfile(jcl_path):
-            jcl_file = open(jcl_path, "r")
+            jcl_file = open(jcl_path, "r", encoding="utf-8")
             file_content = jcl_file.read()
             jcl_file.close()
             return self.submit_plaintext(file_content)
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ def get_job_output_as_files(self, status, output_dir):
         _output_file = os.path.join(output_dir, _job_name, _job_id, "jcl.txt")
         _data_spool_file = self.get_jcl_text(_job_correlator)
         _dataset_content = _data_spool_file["response"]
-        _out_file = open(_output_file, "w")
+        _out_file = open(_output_file, "w", encoding="utf-8")
         _out_file.write(_dataset_content)
         _out_file.close()
 
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ def get_job_output_as_files(self, status, output_dir):
             _output_file = os.path.join(output_dir, _job_name, _job_id, _stepname, _ddname)
             _data_spool_file = self.get_spool_file_contents(_job_correlator, _spoolfile_id)
             _dataset_content = _data_spool_file["response"]
-            _out_file = open(_output_file, "w")
+            _out_file = open(_output_file, "w", encoding="utf-8")
             _out_file.write(_dataset_content)
             _out_file.close()