Change & Release Manager

Halfords Careers; Redditch; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car allowance

Annual discretionary bonus

Pension

Life assurance

25 days annual leave + bank holidays

Hybrid working

Job summary

Halfords is seeking a Change & Release Manager to lead governance, coordination, and continuous improvement of technology change across the business. You will chair CABs, coordinate releases, and ensure changes are assessed, approved, and communicated with the right balance of control and agility in a retail environment.

In this role you’ll work with Technology and the wider business to remove barriers to delivery, shape change and release practices, and drive meaningful organisational change.

Qualifications

• Significant experience managing Change and Release processes within a large, complex enterprise environment, ideally within retail or another customer-facing organisation.
• Expert understanding of Change Management, Release Management, ITIL, and operational governance principles.
• Proven ability to balance risk management and control with the need to deliver technology change at pace.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to challenge and influence senior leaders when required.
• Experience chairing governance forums and managing competing priorities across multiple teams and programmes.
• A continuous improvement mindset, with a track record of enhancing processes, simplifying governance, and driving better outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the organisation’s Change Management framework, ensuring technology changes are assessed, prioritised and delivered with the right level of governance, control and risk management.
• Coordinate release planning across technology teams, ensuring changes are scheduled effectively to minimise operational risk and service disruption.
• Champion safe, efficient technology delivery by embedding change processes that support modern ways of working while maintaining appropriate operational oversight.
• Lead change governance activities, facilitating advisory forums and ensuring risks, dependencies and operational readiness are clearly understood and managed.
• Provide clear and timely communication of planned changes and releases, giving stakeholders visibility of upcoming activities and potential business impacts.
• Drive operational readiness for technology releases, ensuring new and enhanced capabilities are supported through appropriate testing, validation and cross-functional coordination.

Skills

Change management

Release management

ITIL

Stakeholder management

Governance

Continuous improvement

Job description

About us

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for cocreators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

Technology at Halfords is at a turning point. We’re modernising our foundations, sharpening our delivery, and ensuring every technology decision is connected to real commercial and customer outcomes.

We're looking for people who act as trusted advisors to the business, take end-to-end accountability for outcomes, and can balance pace with long-term architectural integrity. Innovation here means practical, scalable solutions, not ideas that stay on whiteboards.

About the role

As a Change & Release Manager within our Service & Operations team, you'll take ownership of the governance, coordination, and continuous improvement of technology change across the business. Acting as the figurehead for Change Management and Release Management, you'll ensure technology changes are delivered safely, efficiently, and with the right balance of control and agility in a complex retail environment.

You’ll be responsible for chairing Change Advisory Boards (CABs), coordinating releases across multiple technology teams and third-party partners, and ensuring changes are appropriately assessed, approved, communicated, and reviewed. You'll work closely with stakeholders across Technology and the wider business, helping teams navigate governance requirements while removing unnecessary barriers to delivery. This is very much a change enablement role rather than a traditional gatekeeping function.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys improving processes and building frameworks that make a real difference. With significant technology transformation underway, including multiple major change programmes, you'll have the freedom to shape how change and release management operates at Halfords. If you're looking for a role where your expertise will influence strategy, improve governance, and drive meaningful organisational change, you'll see the impact of your work quickly.

Key responsibilities

• Own and evolve the organisation’s Change Management framework, ensuring technology changes are assessed, prioritised and delivered with the right level of governance, control and risk management.
• Coordinate release planning across technology teams, ensuring changes are scheduled effectively to minimise operational risk and service disruption.
• Champion safe, efficient technology delivery by embedding change processes that support modern ways of working while maintaining appropriate operational oversight.
• Lead change governance activities, facilitating advisory forums and ensuring risks, dependencies and operational readiness are clearly understood and managed.
• Provide clear and timely communication of planned changes and releases, giving stakeholders visibility of upcoming activities and potential business impacts.
• Drive operational readiness for technology releases, ensuring new and enhanced capabilities are supported through appropriate testing, validation and cross-functional coordination.
• Monitor and report on change performance, analysing success rates, failed changes and service impacts to identify trends and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Work closely with Service Assurance, Incident & Resilience, Engineering and Delivery teams to ensure changes are introduced safely and lessons learned are embedded into future processes.
• Continually improve change and release practices, reducing unnecessary complexity and process friction while maintaining service stability in a fast-paced 24/7 environment.
• Act as a trusted subject matter expert, promoting best practice and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement across Technology and the wider business.

About you

• Significant experience managing Change and Release processes within a large, complex enterprise environment, ideally within retail or another customer-facing organisation
• Expert understanding of Change Management, Release Management, ITIL, and operational governance principles
• Proven ability to balance risk management and control with the need to deliver technology change at pace
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to challenge and influence senior leaders when required
• Experience chairing governance forums and managing competing priorities across multiple teams and programmes
• A continuous improvement mindset, with a track record of enhancing processes, simplifying governance, and driving better outcomes

Reward & benefits

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, car allowance, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.

• We offer hybrid working in our Support Centre, you will be based at our Support Centre 3 days a week with an optional 2 days working from home.
• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.
• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We’re an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

At Halfords, we operate a hybrid working policy with 3 days on site at our Support Centre in Redditch.