Head of Business Transformation & Operational Excellence
Location: Oxford
Contract Type: Permanent | Full-time
Role Overview
The Head of Business Transformation & Operational Excellence is responsible for designing and delivering enterprise-wide transformation across operations, commercial performance, and digital capability.
This senior leadership role acts as the architect of operational–commercial alignment, ensuring that delivery activity is underpinned by robust estimates, schedules, and cost baselines, all linked to profitability and customer performance requirements through a single source of truth.
The role leads business process optimisation, digital evolution, and efficiency initiatives, embedding a culture of continuous improvement to reduce cost and deliver industry-leading performance for major public-sector and regulated customers.
Key Responsibilities
Planning & Operational Control
Commercial–Operational Synchronisation: Establish clear, actionable links between commercial KPIs and operational delivery through improved communication, governance, and visual performance management.
Baseline Management: Develop and maintain robust cost and schedule baselines to ensure large, complex programmes are delivered on-cost and in line with contractual commitments.
Single Source of Truth: Own the organisation’s digital data landscape, ensuring all teams operate from consistent, reliable data across commercial, engineering, and operational functions.
Visual Management: Translate complex operational and commercial requirements into intuitive dashboards and automated reporting to enable real-time performance tracking.
Business Process Optimisation: Take a holistic view of end-to-end processes and adapt them to support a lean, agile, and competitive operating model.
Digital Transformation & Data Integrity
Systems Ownership: Act as the functional owner for core operational and airworthiness systems (or equivalent), ensuring system reliability and reporting integrity.
Data Architecture & Security: Design and maintain scalable, future-proof data architecture while strengthening data governance and security.
Insight & Analytics: Lead teams responsible for converting complex datasets into actionable insights, with accountability for KPI frameworks and reporting standards.
Leading Change
Transformation Strategy: Define and execute the medium- and long-term transformation roadmap across the business.
Programme Governance: Lead governance of the transformation programme, managing interdependencies, progress, and risk escalation to senior leadership.
Financial Stewardship: Partner with Finance leadership to ensure transformation investments deliver clear ROI through productivity gains and cost reduction.
Culture & Capability: Embed a continuous improvement mindset, introducing new ways of working and cross-functional collaboration.
People Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of BI, systems, and application specialists, promoting technical excellence and problem-solving.
Essential Experience & Skills
Proven leadership of large-scale transformation programmes in complex operational environments.
Experience driving change at shop-floor or frontline operational level within production, engineering, or MRO-type settings.
Strong background in data architecture, system integration, and operational analytics.
Ability to translate complex business requirements into technical and digital solutions.
Advanced experience with MRO or operational systems (or equivalent) and BI platforms.
Strong SQL/PL/SQL capability and deep understanding of data modelling and visualisation.
Desirable Experience
Exposure to regulated operational environments (e.g. aviation, defence, emergency services, or similar).
Understanding of airworthiness standards or asset-intensive maintenance operations.
Experience with cloud platforms (e.g. Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure).
Additional Requirements
Eligibility for UK security clearance (DBS and SC).
Compliance with export control regulations.
Legal right to work in the United Kingdom.
Reward & Benefits
This role offers a competitive salary and access to a comprehensive benefits package via salary sacrifice schemes, including:
Private medical insurance
Pension scheme with employer contribution
Discretionary bonus and share incentive schemes
Cycle-to-work, technology, and vehicle purchase schemes
Healthcare cash plan and personal accident insurance
Health assessments and travel insurance
Employee discounts and financial/legal wellbeing support
Employment Type:
Permanent