CRM Change Management Lead (12-Month Fixed-Term Contract)

Cognita; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 250,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognita is seeking a CRM Change Management Lead to drive readiness and adoption across its global cluster rollout. You will own change strategy, coordinate communications, and mitigate resistance to ensure smooth HubSpot CRM deployments and ongoing improvements across schools.

You will work with a diverse leadership team across regions, design training plans, and establish KPIs to measure adoption and sentiment, balancing central program timelines with local readiness.

Qualifications

• Practical experience applying a recognised change framework (e.g. ADKAR, Prosci, Kotter).
• 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 audiences.
• Familiarity with CRM platforms, ideally HubSpot or Salesforce.

Responsibilities

• Own the change management strategy for HubSpot and ongoing CRM changes across clusters and schools.
• Identify and manage adoption risk and resistance with leaders to address blockers early.
• Design and run engagement and communications plans for each rollout wave and changes.
• Maintain a change calendar aligned to the delivery plan to avoid uncoordinated changes.
• Sequence training within the change plan, in partnership with the CRM Enablement Manager.
• Define KPIs and data sources used to track adoption, sentiment and change fatigue.
• Feed field-level sentiment into product prioritisation for future rollouts.
• Provide a change-readiness assessment as input to go-live decisions for each school or cluster.

Skills

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Adaptability

Project management

Strategic thinking

Education

Degree-level education or equivalent

Tools

HubSpot

Salesforce

Job description

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 ourschools move through change with confidence

Cognita is aglobal community of schools committed to making a lasting difference ineducation. We believe great schools are built by great people, and as HubSpotrolls out across our clusters, we need someone who can make sure our people areready for it.

As our CRMChange Management Lead, you’ll own how schools and clusters experience change.You’ll build readiness before changes land, work through resistance, and makesure 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 whatteams are telling us on the ground shapes what we prioritise next.

Contract Type

Fixed-Term Contract (12 Months)

What you’lldo

• Own the change management strategy for HubSpot andongoing CRM changes, covering stakeholder readiness, communications andadoption planning across clusters and schools
• Identify and manage adoption risk and resistance,working with cluster leads and school leadership to address blockers earlyand escape where go-live is at risk
• Design and run engagement and communications plansfor each rollout wave and subsequent product or process change
• Maintain a change calendar aligned to the deliveryplan, 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 trackadoption, including usage, sentiment and change fatigue, by school andcluster
• Design a single, coordinated model of centralengagement, so schools experience one joined-up approach rather thanseparate check-ins
• Feed field-level sentiment and change blockers intoproduct prioritisation via the Business Analyst
• Provide a change-readiness assessment as a requiredinput to go-live decisions for each school or cluster
• Support change management for new schoolonboarding, including new openings and acquisitions

You’ll workclosely with the CRM Optimisation Manager, the HubSpot Global Rollout ProgrammeManager, the CRM Enablement, Data and Insights teams, and cluster and schoolleaders, including Principals and Parent Experience Managers.

What you’llbring Essential

• Practical experience applying a recognised changeframework (e.g. ADKAR, Prosci, Kotter) in a real organisational setting
• Experience leading change management for atechnology or process rollout across multiple sites or regions
• Experience managing stakeholder resistance andadoption risk in a complex, matrixed organisation
• Experience designing and delivering communicationsand engagement plans for diverse, non-co-located audiences
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability totailor your message from school leadership to frontline staff
• The ability to define and track adoption andsentiment metrics, and turn the data into practical, targetedinterventions
• Degree-level education or equivalent professionalexperience
• Familiarity with CRM or similar platform adoptionprogrammes, ideally HubSpot or Salesforce
• Experience using pulse surveys orsentiment-tracking tools to measure change impact
• Confidence navigating multi-level organisations(group, cluster and school) and influencing without direct authority
• A project or programme management certification(e.g. PRINCE2, PMP)
• Experience in K-12, independent or internationaleducation, or another multi-site consumer/service sector
• Experience supporting large-scale, multi-market CRMor system rollouts

This roleinvolves flexible working across multiple time zones and regular engagementwith school and cluster leadership across regions, balancing central programmetimelines with local readiness. You should expect regular international travelto schools and clusters to support readiness, communications and go-liveactivities, particularly during active rollout phases.

Weunderstand the value of AI tools and recognise the benefits they can offer topeople who may need support with their writing. However, please be aware thatwe are increasingly rejecting CVs, expressions of interest and applicationswhere the use of AI has resulted in content that feels generic, lackspersonality or is indistinguishable from other submissions.
By usingyour own words, experiences and ideas to demonstrate your motivation forapplying and your alignment with the role, you will give yourself the bestopportunity 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.