The Change Readiness Lead is the senior change leader on the program responsible for defining and driving the program's change strategy, readiness approach, governance, and delivery standards to ensure a consistent, high‑quality, and business‑focused change experience across functions and business units. Reporting directly to the Program Change Director, the role sits at the heart of the Change Management function and is the senior change leadership role on the program.
Responsibilities
- Change Strategy & Approach: Define and own the Program Change Management Strategy, business engagement approach, and operating model – and establish the methodology, templates, and toolkits used by all Functional and BU Change Leads.
- Readiness Framework & Governance: Define go‑live gate criteria and the readiness assessment approach; consolidate readiness inputs from all Functional and BU Change Leads into a Program‑level view; chair readiness forums and report status to the Program Change Director.
- CIA Quality Assurance: Own the QA process for all Change Impact Assessments and key change deliverables – reviewing for rigour, completeness, and consistency, and providing structured feedback before materials are used in governance or shared with stakeholders.
- Key User Journey Standardisation: Define and standardise the end‑to‑end Key User Learning Journey across functions and BUs; set measurable go/no‑go criteria for Key User readiness and monitor Program‑wide completion and confidence.
- Change Plan Management: Own the Program‑wide Change Plan, manage cross‑workstream dependencies, run the change team's operating rhythm, and produce consolidated change status reports to the Program Change Director.
- Risk & Issue Management: Own the Program‑level change risk and issues log – ensuring owners and mitigations are assigned and escalating systemic risks with root‑cause analysis and proposed interventions.
- Team Leadership: Directly lead, manage, and develop the Functional Change Lead team; hold BU Change Leads to Program standards through governance and QA; collaborate as a peer with the Training Lead and Communications Lead.
- Program Representation: Represent change and readiness at design authority, Program leadership forums, and steering committee; act as deputy to the Program Change Director when required.
- Capability Building: Build lasting organisational change capability – develop frameworks and standards that outlast the Program and leave the organisation better equipped to manage change independently.
Qualifications
- Experience – 8–10 years progressive experience in change management or business transformation at senior leadership level, with a proven track record leading change on large‑scale ERP, CRM, or comparable enterprise transformation programs.
- Strategic Acumen – Demonstrated ability to design and own a Program‑level change strategy – not just execute within one defined by others – and translate strategic objectives into an actionable, governed delivery plan.
- Leadership Presence – Confidence to lead, challenge, and align senior stakeholders at Program Director, C‑suite, and steering committee level; proven people leadership of a change team.
- Quality & Rigour – Demonstrable experience quality‑assuring change deliverables (CIAs, Personas, Change Action Plans) and coaching others to improve quality; able to define and defend a high standard.
- Readiness Governance – Experience defining and governing a Program readiness framework including assessment criteria, scoring methodology, and go‑live gate standards across multiple functions or business units.
- Analytics & Reporting – Ability to consolidate data from multiple change workstreams into clear, governance‑ready dashboards and status reports for senior leadership and steering committee audiences.
- Communication – Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to translate change complexity into clear, authoritative, and audience‑appropriate messaging.
- Tools & Systems – Proficiency in Program management tools (MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira) and collaboration platforms (SharePoint, Teams, Confluence).
- Handling Complexity – Comfortable working in a matrixed environment across multiple functions and business units, managing ambiguity and competing priorities at Program pace.
- System Implementation Exposure – Familiarity with the specific platform being implemented (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Salesforce) and the change challenges it presents is highly preferred.
- Education – Bachelor's degree in business, Management, Organisational Psychology, or a related discipline.
- Methodology Knowledge – Practical working knowledge of a recognised change management methodology (Prosci ADKAR, APMG, Kotter, or equivalent).
- Certifications – Prosci, APMG, or CCMP certification preferred; Program or project management qualification (MSP, PMP, PRINCE2) advantageous; Coaching qualification (ILM, ICF) advantageous.
- Job Specific Requirements – Proven track record of cross‑functional leadership on large‑scale transformation programs; Senior change management experience including strategy ownership, QA, and readiness governance; Strong program‑level planning and risk management capability; System implementation experience (SAP, O9, Oracle, Salesforce, or equivalent) highly preferred.
