Business Readiness Consultant - SC Cleared
Whitehall Resources currently require an experienced Business Readiness Consultant to work with a key client based in Telford
**Please note this role falls inside IR35 and requires some onsite presence**
Active SC Clearance Required
Role Purpose
Lead the planning, coordination and execution of business readiness activities for a complex government programme/project to ensure new capabilities are usable, safe, and adoptable across operational areas. You will own readiness planning, coordinate UAT/BAT (User/Business Acceptance Testing), manage change impacts, training and communications, and lead go-live preparation and transition to BAU. You will provide visible leadership across multidisciplinary teams and suppliers, enabling delivery at pace with a focus on user outcomes, service stability and benefits realisation.
Key Responsibilities
Business Readiness Planning & Governance
· Define and maintain the Business Readiness Plan, roadmap and acceptance criteria, aligned to programme milestones and benefits.
· Establish and operate readiness governance (readiness forums, checkpoints, go/no-go criteria, cutover and contingency plans).
· Create and maintain readiness dashboards and evidence packs for Programme Boards and SROs.
Change Impact & Adoption
· Lead change impact assessments across teams, roles, locations and suppliers; identify policy, process, people, data and technology impacts.
· Develop adoption strategies, including operating model updates, SOPs/work instructions, service desk readiness and business continuity arrangements.
· Ensure benefits realisation assumptions are reflected in adoption plans and tracked post-go-live.
UAT/BAT Leadership
· Define the UAT/BAT strategy and approach (scope, entry/exit criteria, traceability to requirements, scenarios, roles and environments).
· Coordinate test preparation (test scripts, data, environments), defect triage and prioritisation, and readiness sign-off with business owners.
· Ensure evidence and audit trails meet assurance and regulatory needs; integrate UAT/BAT outcomes into go/live readiness decisions.
Training, Communications & Stakeholder Management
· Own the training needs analysis (TNA), curriculum, materials and delivery approach (classroom, digital, “train-the-trainer”).
· Develop and run the communications plan—clear messages, timing and channels for different user groups; measure awareness and readiness.
· Engage credibly with senior leaders and unions/staff associations (where relevant); provide evidence-based recommendations and challenge where plans are not ready.
Go-Live, Cutover & Early Life Support (ELS)
· Lead cutover planning, rehearsals and command-and-control; maintain contingency and rollback plans.
· Coordinate Early Life Support—stabilisation metrics, hypercare processes, incident/defect management and exit criteria to BAU.
· Capture lessons learned and embed continuous improvement into subsequent releases.
Risk, Assurance & Controls
· Maintain a robust RAID regime for readiness and adoption risks/issues; ensure mitigations are owned, funded and time-bound.
· Prepare for and respond to assurance reviews (e.g., Gateway/IPA), audits and policy/compliance checks; track actions to closure.
· Ensure data protection, security and accessibility considerations are embedded in readiness criteria.
Data, MI & Tooling
· Operate a single source of truth for readiness MI (readiness RAGs, training completion, UAT/BAT pass rates, cutover rehearsals, ELS metrics).
· Optimise tooling (e.g., SharePoint/Confluence, Project for the Web/MS Project, Azure DevOps/Jira, Power BI) and drive data quality and automation.
· Align readiness data with schedule, financials and benefits to support decision-quality insight.
Essential Skills & Experience
· Substantial UK government experience in a similar role within a complex programme/project environment involving multiple stakeholders and suppliers.
· Dynamic, visible leadership with the ability to influence across multidisciplinary teams (with line management responsibility for G7 and below where applicable).
· Proven delivery at pace, coordinating concurrent readiness workstreams and releases.
· Confidence to challenge and influence senior leaders, presenting clear evidence, risks and trade-offs.
· Ownership and problem-solving: identifies readiness gaps early, designs pragmatic recovery plans and delivers positive outcomes.
· Track record in role-modelling delivery excellence and coaching others in readiness, change and testing disciplines.
· Excellent written and verbal communication, producing clear plans, board papers and user-facing guidance with strong attention to detail.
· Hands-on experience of UAT/BAT methods and business readiness frameworks, flexing Agile/Waterfall/Hybrid approaches to suit delivery priorities.
· Willing and able to travel regularly across sites, user locations and supplier premises.