Head of Change Guild

AXA UK plc; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services firm in the City of Westminster is seeking a Head of Change Guild to oversee capacity and capability planning within the organization. The role involves leading workforce planning, governance, and budget management to ensure effective delivery of change initiatives. Candidates should possess extensive experience in project delivery, a strong understanding of Agile methodologies, and the ability to engage senior stakeholders. This position includes a competitive salary and benefits while promoting a flexible working environment.

Benefits

Competitive annual salary

Annual company & performance-based bonus

Contributory pension scheme

Life Assurance

Private medical cover

28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays

Wellbeing services & resources

Qualifications

• Extensive experience across programme, project, and product delivery environments within large organisations.
• Proven experience working in Agile environments with a strong understanding of iterative delivery cycles.
• Experience designing development frameworks and coaching programmes.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the vision and objectives of the Change Guild.
• Utilise expertise to provide technical and people leadership across the guild.
• Lead workforce planning strategy ensuring capabilities meet upcoming demand.

Skills

Change delivery expertise

Agile methodologies

Workforce planning

Effective communication

Budget management

Coaching programmes

Community building

Job description

About the Role

The Change Guild defines and governs capacity, capability, and delivery standards for the organisation's change portfolio. The Guild focuses on building high-performing change communities, aligning to AXA's long‑term delivery strategy, and enabling product‑aligned delivery across programmes, projects, and products in a hybrid delivery model. As Head of Change Guild, you’ll lead capacity and capability planning for AXA UKI, ensuring we have the right people, practices, and partnerships to deliver at scale. You’ll orchestrate workforce planning, capability development, governance, and budget, while fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement across change disciplines.

Work Arrangement

At AXA we work smart, empowering our people to balance their time between home and the office in a way that works best for them, their team and our customers. You’ll work at least two days a week (40%) away from home, moving to three days a week (60%) in the future. Away from home means either attendance at one of our office locations, visiting clients or attending industry events. We’re also happy to consider flexible working arrangements, which you can discuss with Talent Acquisition.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the vision, purpose, and objectives of the Change Guild, ensuring alignment with AXA's long‑term delivery strategy across products and projects.
• Utilise deep expertise across project and programme delivery methodologies (including waterfall and agile), PMO, business change and business analysis to provide technical and people leadership and talent development across the Change Guild.
• Engage with Portfolio Management and Tribe Leadership to translate and coordinate delivery requirements across critical change programmes for multiple Tribes/Products (e.g., regulatory changes impacting cross‑functional initiatives).
• Lead each change discipline to effectively manage resource allocation and capacity across AXA's product and project change portfolio, ensuring optimal utilisation of skills and capacity to meet demand.
• Lead the workforce planning strategy to ensure the Change Guild has the capabilities required to meet upcoming demand; develop robust partnerships to source capacity and capability, working with Partner Management and Strategic Capacity teams as needed.
• Drive professional standards and practice excellence across the Change Guild, establishing common frameworks, tools, templates, and KPIs for consistent, high‑quality change delivery.
• Own the Change Guild's investment strategy, including budgeting for upskilling, tools, change enablement initiatives, and capability uplift, advocating for resources that support transformation.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience across programme, project, and product delivery environments within large, complex organisations.
• Broad understanding of change delivery across PMO, business change, and business analysis capabilities.
• Proven experience working in Agile environments (including Kanban and Lean) with a strong understanding of iterative delivery cycles.
• Proficient in workforce planning, able to manage current and anticipate future demand for change professionals in the UKI portfolio.
• Effective communicator and influencer, able to manage senior stakeholders, resolve competing priorities, and drive alignment.
• Experience designing development frameworks, learning pathways, and coaching programmes.
• Comfortable managing budgets, influencing resource decisions, and advocating for investment in people and capability.
• Passionate about community building, knowledge sharing, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• You'll need to show you meet the essential criteria as detailed in the job advert or job description.
• You don’t need to share the details of your long‑term health condition or disability for your application to be considered under this scheme.

Screening & Conduct

As a regulated financial services company, all successful candidates will be subject to pre‑employment checks. Additionally, adherence to the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) Insurance Conduct Standards and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Conduct Rules will be required.

• Who is screened? Everyone, from first‑jobbers to senior directors. Often, the higher up the career ladder you are, the more stringent the screening becomes.
• What is screened? Identity and address; qualifications; employment history; credit check; criminal record; directorships.

If you think anything may affect these checks, please tell us.

Equal Opportunities & Disability

We believe in hiring people who possess the appropriate skills and values that align with our vision. Our selection process is fair and equitable, ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to join us. We are dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion, and we actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds. As an Equal Opportunities Employer, we take pride in treating our employees and potential hires with respect and without discrimination based on any Protected Characteristics.

AXA UK are recognised as a Disability Confident Leader. We actively encourage applications from people who face barriers in the workplace due to a disability or long‑term health condition. We participate in the Disability Confident ‘Offer of Interview’ scheme. This means a fair and proportionate number of candidates with long‑term health conditions or disabilities who meet the essential criteria of a job, will be offered an interview.

Benefits

We acknowledge and appreciate the exceptional efforts of our people in protecting what matters most to our customers. In exchange we offer a series of core and supporting benefits designed to empower our people to thrive both professionally and personally.

• Competitive annual salary dependent on experience
• Annual company & performance‑based bonus
• Contributory pension scheme (up to 12% employer contributions)
• Life Assurance (up to 10 × annual salary)
• Private medical cover
• 28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Opportunity to buy up to 5 extra days leave or sell up to 5 days leave
• Wellbeing services & resources
• AXA employee discounts

Company Culture & Support

AXA UK Support Functions power AXA’s three customer‑facing business units, providing the infrastructure, support, and expertise to ensure our customers can always count on us. Whether you have heaps of experience and qualifications behind you, or you’re just starting out, we’ll give you the support and opportunities to help you grow and develop with confidence.

At AXA we have a culture of trust, respect and care, where everyone belongs. We have an ambition to become one of the most inspiring companies to work for, and we’re committed to supporting employee needs, providing meaningful career development, and celebrating differences. We all have a role to play in ensuring a working environment in which everyone, regardless of who they are, can reach their true potential.