Head of Business Change

The government has committed to a multi-billion-pound investment in UKHSAs new laboratory facilities the most significant investment the UK has made in biosecurity infrastructure in a generation. These state-of-the-art laboratories, to be built at a new site in Harlow, will replace UKHSAs existing facilities at Porton Down and Colindale and will be critical to the UKs public health resilience and national security for decades to come.

This decision marks a pivotal moment for UKHSA and the wider government science landscape. The new facility will bring together world-class capability under one roof, enabling cutting-edge research, pandemic preparedness, and the protection of the UK from major biological threats.

We are looking for a Head of Business Change, particularly those with experience of delivering complex transformation and/or Government operational reform, to support the Programme Director For Corporate Transition Delivery, to lead the business change activity across Health Security Campus.

The role is offered as a 6 month fixed term appointment with potential for the extension or conversion to permanent.

Working for your organisation

As Head of Business Change you will lead the strategic design and delivery of business change, proactively preparing the organisation for the impacts of complex and high-risk change initiatives. You will provide a critical bridge between project delivery and the business, ensuring that change is fully integrated into delivery plans, successfully adopted, and that measurable benefits are realised and sustained.

This role is a government project delivery profession role and part of UKHSAs project delivery resource model. It is aligned to the Project Delivery Capability Framework career pathway Change Manager G6.

The main responsibilities for this role are as follows:

• Lead the development and direction of business change strategy, working with the project manager to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes.
• Develop clear vision and standards, championing the use of best practice business change management standards, tools, and processes.
• Lead change impact assessments and readiness planning, ensuring organisational preparedness for implementation.
• Lead senior stakeholder engagement, building alignment and strong cross-organisational networks. Act as primary point of contact for senior and strategic stakeholders both internally and externally.
• Provide leadership, oversight and coaching to Business Change Managers, ensuring high-quality delivery and integration across projects and programmes.
• Set direction for change communications and engagement strategies, ensuring messaging is clear, consistent and aligned to organisational priorities
• Lead on the design and assurance of the required business change products for the project.
• Own and integrate the business change plan within the overall project/programme plan, ensuring alignment with governance, controls and delivery milestones.
• Lead the creation and management of the business readiness criteria across the project, playing a key role in governance decisions to approve/refuse go-live.
• Own and drive benefits realisation across the project, ensuring change activities are explicitly linked to outcomes, with clear measures of adoption and success
• Use data and digital tools to drive insight-led change, ensuring effective tracking of impacts, risks and adoption of new ways of working.
• Provide assurance on the effectiveness of change approaches, ensuring alignment with governance standards and contributing to programme and portfolio reporting.
• Be an active member of the UKHSA Project Delivery Profession Community.

The job holder will be supported to work towards achieving Government Project Delivery Accreditation where they do not already hold this.

This is not an exhaustive list.

Essential criteria

1. An expert in business change and implementation with extensive experience leading business change in complex project or programme environments.
2. Strong expertise in benefits management, with the ability to define, measure and drive realisation of outcomes.
3. A visible leader experienced in engaging, influencing and challenging effectively at a senior level.  
4. Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, with experience of managing complex stakeholder environments and working across organisational boundaries.
5. Good understanding and experience of the planning and the scheduling of projects, governance, assurance and risk and issue management.
6. Working knowledge and experience of business case development, requirements management and change control.
7. Ability to use digital tools and data analytics to inform and drive change, and to communicate clearly, persuasively and appropriately to diverse audiences.

Please note that for roles where specific qualifications or registrations are required, successful applicants will be asked to provide appropriate evidence. Employment cannot commence until satisfactory documentation has been received and verified.