Head of Organisational Design and People Transformation

Job Title: Head of Organisational Design and People Transformation

Location: Oxford Road, Manchester

Salary: £59,139 to £70,579 per annum, dependent on experience

Job Type: Permanent, Full Time (1 FTE)

Closing Date: 29/07/2025

The University are seeking to appoint a dynamic and experienced Head of Organisational Design and People Transformation to join their Organisational Effectiveness and Culture Team.

This is an exciting team to join us at the University as we develop our ambitious 2035 strategy and the enabling professional services vision. Our role in the People Directorate is more critical than ever as we strive for excellence in our delivery of core people services and also to build new centre of expertise capabilities that will support the University and its people through the changes needed to shape the organisation and to deliver our 2035 strategic priorities.

The Head of Organisational Design and People Transformation is a critical leadership role sitting within the newly created Organisational Effectiveness and Culture centre of expertise. The role holder will work closely with the Head of Workforce Strategy, Talent & Succession, Head of Performance and Associate Director of People Engagement, Experience and Culture as well as all other teams across the People Directorate. The overall purpose of the OE & Culture team's goal is to develop the strategies, approach, frameworks and plan to enable the University to delivery successfully to 2035 strategic priorities.

The purpose of the role is to shape and implement the strategies required for organisational transformation and growth, building and implementing the tools, frameworks and processes to facilitate the alignment of strategy, structure, skills, ways of working and culture to optimise the effectiveness of the university.

The role holder, leading a small team, will work closely with all other People CoEs, People Services, Partnering Teams and other directorates to ensure that organisational design and people transformation strategies and processes are built around the people experience, equity and inclusion, as well as the university's strategic goals. This is a role with a broad remit, partnering across our business to assess the current organisation in the context of our strategy and lead the creation and delivery of a future state for people capability and organisational structure.

Person Specification:

• Strong cultural awareness with knowledge of how to embed performance, engagement, experience, culture and talent into significant programmes of design and change.
• Demonstrably successful experience in organisational design, operating model and service de-livery design and it's translation into a detailed roadmap for delivery.
• Experience of coaching and guiding senior leaderships teams in the scope, design and delivery or organisational design and people change.
• Successful experience in developing and delivery significant organisational programmes of change with a people impact, with demonstrable experience of identifying, designing and delivering engaging and equitable people change journeys.
• A commercially focused and strategic thinker who can see the big picture and has proven experience of translating organisational strategic priorities into tangible people goals and out-comes.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to oversee multiple initiatives within one single delivery roadmap and to deliver results on time and within budget.
• Strong people leadership skills.
• Excellence communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engagement and influence a variety of stakeholders include senior leadership teams, trade unions and academic and PS colleagues.
• Degree level HR, Change or Organisational Design qualification
• Preferably CIPD Accredited.

As an ideal candidate you will have:

• Knowledge of HE Sector and internal and external factors influencing universities is preferred but not essential.

As one of the leading Universities our employees enjoy exclusive access to excellent benefits and schemes including:

• Generous annual leave allowance, including Christmas/New Year closure
• Pension scheme membership to provide benefits for you and your family
• Well-being programme with counselling, fitness and leading sports facilities
• Learning and development opportunities
• Season ticket loans for public transport
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Workplace nursery scheme
• Staff recognition schemes
• Staff discounts on a range of products and services including travel and high street savings

Please click APPLY to be redirected to our website to complete an application form.

Candidates with the experience or relevant job titles of; Head of Organizational Development and Design, Director of Organizational Development, Head of Change Management, Transformation Director, Organizational Development Manager, Organizational Development Specialist, may also be considered for this role.