Strategic Change Director

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is seeking an exceptional Strategic Change Director to join its Executive Team. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, you will be accountable for delivery of the Agency portfolio and change objectives, ensuring programmes, projects and portfolios are prioritised, governed, resourced and successfully delivered in line with DVLA and wider government priorities.

This is a brand-new role within DVLA's Executive Team, created to give strategic change the dedicated leadership it needs as the Agency embarks on its next phase of transformation. You will have real scope to define how the function operates and to build the team, governance and culture around it from the ground up.

As Strategic Change Director, you will provide visible leadership across DVLA's transformation and strategic change agenda, acting as the architect of the organisation's change portfolio. You will translate strategic ambition into an integrated, prioritised and sequenced programme of change that improves customer outcomes, colleague experience and organisational resilience.

You will:

• Lead and own DVLA's end-to-end strategic change and transformation portfolio, ensuring activity is prioritised, aligned to strategic objectives and delivers value for money.
• Shape and deliver large-scale organisational, operational and service transformation, ensuring change is user-centered, effectively governed and successfully embedded across the Agency.
• Lead and develop a diverse, multi-disciplinary workforce, building the leadership, capability and capacity required to deliver DVLA's long-term ambitions.
• Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture that promotes accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement and a "One DVLA" approach to transformation and change.
• Provide strategic advice and assurance to the Chief Executive, Board and Executive Team on portfolio performance, risks, dependencies, benefits and organisational readiness for change.
• Act as a corporate leader of DVLA, contributing to enterprise-wide decision-making and collective accountability for organisational performance and outcomes.

Essential Criteria

• Strategic Change and Transformation Portfolio Leadership - Proven experience leading and owning a large-scale change or transformation portfolio within a complex organisation, and translating organisational strategy into a coherent, prioritised programme of work that delivers measurable outcomes and value for money. This experience may come from central government, wider public sector, regulated industries or private sector organisations of comparable scale and complexity.

• Prioritisation, Governance and Assurance - Significant experience establishing and leading portfolio governance, assurance and decision-making frameworks, providing executive oversight of risks, dependencies, benefits, performance and resource allocation across complex change environments.
• Leading Large-Scale Organisational and Service Transformation - A strong track record of leading complex organisational, operational and service transformation, ensuring change is successfully designed, delivered and embedded, with genuine attention to user and customer outcomes.
• Executive Leadership and Organisational Influence - Demonstrable experience operating at or near executive level within a large and complex organisation, leading senior leaders and multi-disciplinary teams, building organisational capability and contributing to corporate decision-making and strategic outcomes.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience applying recognised governance, assurance or professional standards to control and improve the quality of transformation programmes.
• Experience building a change or transformation function from an early stage, including establishing new governance, ways of working or team structures.
• Experience of Board-level governance and sector accountability structures, for example working with or reporting to a Board, Minister, non-executive body or equivalent senior governance structure in a large public or private sector organisation.