Head of Transformation and Organisational Improvement

RSPB; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 76,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading nature conservation charity in the UK is seeking a Head of Transformation and Organisational Improvement. You will lead initiatives to optimize operations and deliver on strategic goals. The ideal candidate has strong leadership and communication skills, with a background in managing change in complex environments. This role offers a salary of £70,490 - £75,257 per annum and various employee benefits.

Benefits

Pension Scheme

Life Assurance Scheme

26 days' Annual Leave

Qualifications

• Experience leading major change programmes in complex environments.
• Enterprise leadership experience working with senior leaders.
• Developing teams that demonstrate high performance and positive culture.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead transformation and organisational improvement programmes.
• Act as a trusted adviser to the Executive Board.
• Identify inefficiencies and opportunities across functions and processes.

Skills

Leadership and people management

High-level communication

Collaboration skills

Business management

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

Education

Degree level education or relevant experience

Project/Programme management qualifications

Job description

Head of Transformation and Organisational Improvement

Reference: AUG20259531

Location: Flexible in UK

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week

Salary: £70,490 - £75,257 Per Annum

Benefits: Pension Scheme, Life Assurance Scheme, 26 days' Annual Leave

As the UK’s largest nature conservation charity and one of the UK’s most recognised charities, with a workforce of over 14,000 employees and volunteers across all four countries of the UK, the RSPB has an ambitious programme of work to transform our approach to saving nature, and to deepen our impact.

Recognising that people are the heart of delivering this, we have an exciting opportunity for a talented individual to join the RSPB’s senior leadership team. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you will play a leading role in optimising our operations, improving the delivery of our strategic plan, and ensuring we are always learning and improving.

The successful candidate will have responsibility for heading up the Transformation & Organisational Improvement team which develops, designs, runs, and embeds key projects and programmes of change and improvement. Working collaboratively with senior stakeholders and colleagues right across the organisation, you will lead the delivery of critical changes to drive the delivery of the RSPB’s strategic plan, creating effectiveness and efficiency.

You will be an important member of the RSPB’s senior leadership team and have a special relationship with the Executive Board and trustees.

2025 is an exciting year for the RSPB as we continue to deliver our ambitious strategy whilst building an organisation that is a great place to work for our staff and volunteers. The incumbent will play a key role in enabling the RSPB to achieve its strategic ambitions through our workforce, building on the success of our ongoing transformation programme, and be a big part of our future conservation successes.

Key Result Areas:

• Contribute to delivering the RSPB’s strategy through developing and delivering a programme of transformation and organisational improvement.
• Lead the Transformation & Organisational Improvement team, which involves directing the planning, prioritisation and future development of objectives and nurturing its specialisms.
• Act as a trusted adviser to the Executive Board on operational effectiveness.
• Identify inefficiencies, risks, and bottlenecks that pose improvement opportunities across functions, systems and processes.
• Build strong relationships across departments, seeking to align and streamline processes and taking insights to action improvements.
• Work proactively and dynamically with leaders and teams across the RSPB to analyse the root cause of challenges and issues, identify opportunities to improve ways of working and to build support and commitment for change.
• Support and enable teams to optimise their own ways of working, building capability through providing tools, training and coaching, making it as simple as possible to manage essential change.
• Demonstrate leadership by creating a vision, inspiring engagement and enabling teams to achieve their goals, proactively develop them, take an interest in their future aspirations, and support them through coaching and mentoring.
• Build clear metrics to track the success of improvements, and maximise the benefits, across the operation.

Experience we are looking for:

• Experience of leading and delivering major change programmes and ongoing organisational improvement in a complex environment through people.
• Enterprise leadership experience, working collaboratively across the organisation with other senior leaders, using your influencing skills to build credibility and support.
• Experience of leading and developing a team of specialists who demonstrate high performance and a positive culture consistent with our values.

Skills:

• Leadership and people management skills to motivate, coach and develop team members for high performance and facilitate others in the organisation to improve ways of working.
• High level communication skills to present, influence, facilitate and represent the organisation.
• Highly proficient in managing multiple workstreams and demands, communicating priorities clearly and managing resources dynamically.
• Collaboration skills to build relationships, navigate politics, and manage conflicts.
• Familiarity with digital tools for collaborations, workflow management, and data insight, and digital transformation.
• Business management skills to understand strategy, business functions and decision-making.
• A strong commitment to, and an understanding of, how equality, diversity and inclusion enables an organisation to be successful.

Qualifications:

• Educated to degree level or relevant high-level experience to effectively communicate complex messages and use management information to undertake responsibilities.
• Relevant professional Project and/or Programme management, improvement methodology, and/or change management qualifications, or equivalent demonstrable experience.

Closing date: 23:59, Sunday, 28th September 2025.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application.

As part of this application you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete a full application including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience requested.

No agencies please.