CRM Change Management Lead 12-Month Fixed-Term Contract

Cognita Schools; Dubai; Hybrid; AED 320,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognita is seeking a CRM Change Management Lead to guide schools through HubSpot and CRM changes across clusters. You’ll shape readiness, address resistance and ensure adoption with clear communications, linking ground feedback to program priorities.

Reporting to the CRM Optimisation team, you’ll design engagement plans, track adoption KPIs and coordinate training, with travel to multiple regions and a 12-month fixed-term engagement, based in Dubai with hybrid working.

Qualifications

• Practical experience applying a recognised change framework (e.g. ADKAR, Prosci, Kotter) in a real organisational setting.
• Experience leading change management for a technology or process rollout across multiple sites or regions.
• Experience managing stakeholder resistance and adoption risk in a complex, matrixed organisation.
• Experience designing and delivering communications and engagement plans for diverse, non-co-located audiences.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to tailor your message from school leadership to frontline staff.
• The ability to define and track adoption and sentiment metrics, and turn the data into practical, targeted interventions.
• Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the change management strategy for HubSpot and ongoing CRM changes, covering stakeholder readiness, communications and adoption planning across clusters and schools
• Identify and manage adoption risk and resistance, working with cluster leads and school leadership to address blockers early and escalate where go-live is at risk
• Design and run engagement and communications plans for each rollout wave and subsequent product or process change
• Maintain a change calendar aligned to the delivery plan, so schools aren’t hit with uncoordinated or overlapping changes
• Sequence training within the broader change plan, in partnership with the CRM Enablement Manager
• Define the KPIs and data sources used to track adoption, including usage, sentiment and change fatigue, by school and cluster
• Design a single, coordinated model of central engagement, so schools experience one joined-up approach rather than separate checkins
• Feed field-level sentiment and change blockers into product prioritisation via the Business Analyst
• Provide a change-readiness assessment as a required input to go-live decisions for each school or cluster
• Support change management for new school onboarding, including new openings and acquisitions

Skills

Change management

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Project coordination

Adaptability

Education

Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience

Tools

HubSpot

Salesforce

Job description

Job Description:

Working with us Cognita is a global family of 86 schools across 21 countries, with more than 100,000 students, 22,000 colleagues, 14 curricula and 9 languages of instruction. Our strength lies in our diversity. There is no single model of a Cognita school because education is inherently local. When families choose a school, they are making a deeply personal and community-based decision, and our schools reflect this.

What unites us is a shared ambition to deliver consistently high-quality education, alongside an exceptional experience for students and parents. We define this clearly through group-wide standards that articulate what “great” looks like, while allowing schools the freedom to express their local identity.

We have recently launched a new vision and strategic plan. It is ambitious and sets a clear direction for the years ahead.

Job Overview

Help our schools move through change with confidence

Cognita is a global community of schools committed to making a lasting difference in education. We believe great schools are built by great people, and as HubSpot rolls out across our clusters, we need someone who can make sure our people are ready for it.

As our CRM Change Management Lead, you’ll own how schools and clusters experience change. You’ll build readiness before changes land, work through resistance, and make sure every rollout wave is met with clear communication and strong adoption. You’ll also be the voice of the school in the wider programme, making sure what teams are telling us on the ground shapes what we prioritise next.

Contract Type: Fixed-Term Contract (12 Months)

What you’ll do

• Own the change management strategy for HubSpot and ongoing CRM changes, covering stakeholder readiness, communications and adoption planning across clusters and schools
• Identify and manage adoption risk and resistance, working with cluster leads and school leadership to address blockers early and escalate where go-live is at risk
• Design and run engagement and communications plans for each rollout wave and subsequent product or process change
• Maintain a change calendar aligned to the delivery plan, so schools aren’t hit with uncoordinated or overlapping changes
• Sequence training within the broader change plan, in partnership with the CRM Enablement Manager
• Define the KPIs and data sources used to track adoption, including usage, sentiment and change fatigue, by school and cluster
• Design a single, coordinated model of central engagement, so schools experience one joined-up approach rather than separate checkins
• Feed field-level sentiment and change blockers into product prioritisation via the Business Analyst
• Provide a change-readiness assessment as a required input to go-live decisions for each school or cluster
• Support change management for new school onboarding, including new openings and acquisitions

You’ll work closely with the CRM Optimisation Manager, the HubSpot Global Rollout Programme Manager, the CRM Enablement, Data and Insights teams, and cluster and school leaders, including Principals and Parent Experience Managers.

What you’ll bring

Essential

• Practical experience applying a recognised change framework (e.g. ADKAR, Prosci, Kotter) in a real organisational setting
• Experience leading change management for a technology or process rollout across multiple sites or regions
• Experience managing stakeholder resistance and adoption risk in a complex, matrixed organisation
• Experience designing and delivering communications and engagement plans for diverse, non-co-located audiences
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to tailor your message from school leadership to frontline staff
• The ability to define and track adoption and sentiment metrics, and turn the data into practical, targeted interventions
• Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience

Desirable

• Familiarity with CRM or similar platform adoption programmes, ideally HubSpot or Salesforce
• Experience using pulse surveys or sentiment-tracking tools to measure change impact
• Confidence navigating multi-level organisations (group, cluster and school) and influencing without direct authority
• A change management certification (e.g. Prosci ADKAR, APMG Change Management)
• A project or programme management certification (e.g. PRINCE2, PMP)
• Experience in K-12, independent or international education, or another multi-site consumer/service sector
• Experience supporting large-scale, multi-market CRM or system rollouts

Working arrangements

4 days per week in Dubai office, 1 day working from home. This role involves flexible working across multiple time zones and regular engagement with school and cluster leadership across regions, balancing central programme timelines with local readiness. You should expect regular international travel to schools and clusters to support readiness, communications and go-live activities, particularly during active rollout phases.

We understand the value of AI tools and recognise the benefits they can offer to people who may need support with their writing. However, please be aware that we are increasingly rejecting CVs, expressions of interest and applications where the use of AI has resulted in content that feels generic, lacks personality or is indistinguishable from other submissions.

By using your own words, experiences and ideas to demonstrate your motivation for applying and your alignment with the role, you will give yourself the best opportunity to stand out in a highly competitive field.

Cognita is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and expects the same from its employees. All new staff will be subject to detailed and enhanced pre-employment clearance, including identity checks, criminal background checks for all countries lived in, qualification checks, employment checks to include an exploration of any gaps in employment, and satisfactory reference checks for all employment in the last 10 years.