Continuous Improvement Senior Manager

Durham University; North East; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in the North East is seeking a Continuous Improvement Specialist to drive change initiatives within its Student Journey Futures Programme. The successful candidate will possess strong interpersonal skills and a collaborative mindset, responsible for diagnosing stakeholder needs and applying process improvement tools. Experience in workshop facilitation and data analysis is desirable. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to key strategic projects at the university.

Qualifications

• Strong continuous improvement expertise with the ability to work collaboratively.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to influence and engage stakeholders.
• Willingness to lead and coach others in improvement methods.

Responsibilities

• Diagnose stakeholders' needs and provide guidance.
• Influence stakeholders for project buy-in.
• Lead various improvement activities and build capability.

Skills

Continuous improvement expertise

Interpersonal skills

Stakeholder engagement

Workshop facilitation

Job description

Overview

The Role and Department

The Student Journey Futures (SJF) Programme, jointly led by Computing and Information Services (CIS) and Student and Academic Services Directorate (SASD), is delivering a multi-million pound programme of change. This role will be a 2-year fixed term role on one of the university's key strategic projects. This role will report into the SJF Programme Director but will work in a matrix management structure with close links into our Strategy Delivery Unit for alignment to our Change and Project Delivery approaches. The Strategy Delivery Unit focuses on changing the way Durham University thinks about and delivers change, primarily focusing on the co-ordination and professional delivery of the University strategy.

We are looking for a highly motivated continuous improvement specialist, with outstanding interpersonal skills and a focus on successful implementation. The post holder will be expected to take responsibility for the provision of continuous improvement expertise within the SJF Programme.

Responsibilities

• Diagnosis of stakeholders needs.
• Providing guidance / promoting best practice approach to process design/improvement.
• Influencing stakeholders to get buy-in.
• Agreeing a tailored approach to the project.
• Application of process improvement tools in collaboration with change teams and overall support to improvement activity.
• The post holder can expect to directly lead (workshop facilitation, data gathering & analysis, mapping, etc.).
• Build capability (training, demonstration, etc.) and support stakeholders to apply through coaching.

Requirements

• Strong continuous improvement expertise with the ability to work collaboratively across levels of staff throughout the University.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to influence and engage stakeholders to achieve buy-in.
• Ability to quickly develop in-depth knowledge of the University’s structure and processes.
• Willingness to lead, train, and coach others in improvement methods and practices.
• Experience with workshop facilitation, data gathering, analysis, and process mapping is desirable.

Further information about the role and the responsibilities is at the bottom of this job description.