Change Manager (One Sutton Phase 3)

London Borough of Sutton; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

32 days annual leave

Enhanced maternity/paternity/parental/

Volunteer days

Flexible working

Chromebooks

Learning & development portal

Discounts locally

Season ticket loans

LGPS

Cycle to work

Wellbeing support

Job summary

London Borough of Sutton is seeking a Change Manager (One Sutton Phase 3) for an 18-month fixed-term contract. The role requires shaping the future of the Council, guiding change, listening to staff, and coordinating across directorates with leadership sponsorship.

You will identify Change Champions, run forums and staff networks, manage a small budget, and work with executives, PMO, HR, digital and comms to deliver benefits while maintaining engagement and a focus on delivery.

Qualifications

• Background in transformation, change management, communications or HR with evidence of leading change.
• Ability to listen, engage, and translate feedback into action.
• Experience working across directorates with senior sponsors.

Responsibilities

• Identify Change Champions across all directorates and build a Staff Reference Panel.
• Lead engagement activities using forums, staff networks and informal sessions.
• Agree and manage a small budget to enable delivery of change initiatives.
• Coordinate with Leadership Directors, PMO, HR, digital and finance.

Job description

Length of Employment / Contract End Date 18 months

Working Hours Full Time

Grade 10

36

Salary Range £60,393 - £69,807 (£72,294 unconsolidated maximum)

Salary Basis Per annum

Leave Entitlement 32 days

Application Deadline

15/11/2026, 23:55

Anticipated Interview Date(s) To be confirmed - week commencing 23rd November 2026

About the Borough

The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.

Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.

About the Role and our Ideal Candidate

Shape the Future of Sutton Council: Change Manager (One Sutton Phase 3) - fixed-term contract for 18 months

The One Sutton Change Manager is an exciting opportunity to play a vital role in supporting the organisation to receive the change, lead through it, and deliver the outcomes we want. This is a busy role where you will work at all levels of the organisation, listening, hearing and adapting our messaging according to the feedback from the organisation. You’ll use the Council’s formal internal communications channels but you won’t be limited by them - this role needs ideas, creativity and the ability to adapt, and you’ll demonstrate a delivery style that engages people and brings them on the journey. We’re expecting you to identify and support Change Champions across all directorates, and build and work with a Staff Reference Panel that will bring vital insights. You’ll also identify and use a range of methods including directorate forums, staff networks, informal staff gatherings and anything else you think could work. You’ll have a small budget to achieve this, and have access to regular Pulse surveys that could be cross-organisational or specific to teams, to assess morale and inform the programme.

You’ll work closely with the two Leadership Directors for One Sutton, and be line managed by one of them. You’ll be part of the wider One Sutton team and work alongside Senior Programme Managers, PMO, HR, digital, comms and finance. You’ll also work closely with senior sponsors (Corporate Management Team - CMT), Directors and consultants from PPL/ICC who are supporting the delivery of the programme.

We are offering one role on a full-time 18 month fixed-term contract (secondment for LBS members of staff) basis. Your background might be transformation, change management, communications, HR or something else where you can demonstrate you’ve led change, heard people, and achieved outcomes - we want this to be an opportunity for growth and development for the post-holder.

For more information on the key responsibilities and person specification, please refer to the job profile.

About Us

The 'One Sutton programme: Changing our Council Together' is transforming our council to be more people-focused, place-based, community-led, digital-first, innovative, and value-driven.

Phase 2 of the programme which ran from June to September identified the business case for 12 major change programmes that will transform how we work as an organisation, improve services for residents and staff, and contribute to making significant savings that will ensure we remain financially sustainable as a Council.

We are now entering Phase 3 of the programme, where we need to implement these business cases across the Council and start to deliver benefits. We know that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and that One Sutton is delivering substantial cross-council change at the same time as significant changes for BAU for staff and leaders.

Our Offer To You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 32 days plus bank holidays
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader Employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case‑based basis.

Important Information - Political Restrictions

This post has been deemed as politically restricted / sensitive and therefore applicants will be required to declare any interests that may be deemed political as part of their application.