Business Change Lead

We are a collaborative, delivery focused team supporting large, high profile change across Pensions and Savings and with industry partners. Our mission is to ensure external organisationssuch as ISA providers, trade and professional bodies, and representative groups have the information, support and confidence they need to be ready on time for numerous ISA changes including digital reporting. We work closely with policy, product, service, operations, communications and digital teams to plan, track and assure external readiness throughout delivery.

The role

As External Readiness Lead, you will be the project’s focal point for external readinessbuilding strong relationships, setting clear expectations, and driving the plans, evidence and assurance needed for successful go lives. You will:

• Develop a robust plan covering all aspects of external readiness to support successful delivery of project outcomes, starting with digital reporting. This includes securing SRO and project board approval of the plan and then tracking and reporting progress through to successful implementation.
• Act as the single point of contact for external readiness with key industry and representative stakeholders, ensuring alignment on scope, timelines and deliverables.
• Develop and maintain a targeted external engagement and communications plan, segmenting audiences and tailoring materials to drive clarity and timely action from stakeholders.
• Design and run readiness assessments (e.g., structured checkpoints, surveys, evidence packs), analyse findings, and implement escalation and support routes to address gaps.
• Establish and support effective readiness forums/working groups where external organisations and HMRC colleagues share insights, resolve issues and shape readiness plans.
• Use customer and user insight and research to inform messaging and interventions; commission or oversee specific pieces of insight where needed.
• Lead the production of clear, targeted productsbriefings, decks, FAQs, newsletters and guidanceso stakeholders understand what’s changing, what they need to do and by when.
• Define and maintain governance and RACI across external readiness streams, integrating with programme risk, issue and dependency management to protect delivery confidence.
• Contribute to core programme management artefacts (plans, RAID, reporting) and provide seniorlevel assurance on external readiness status and risks.

Essential criteria

We will sift on the criteria belowplease provide clear, evidenced examples in your statement/CV:

1. Stakeholder leadership: A strong track record of forging effective relationships with senior external and internal stakeholders in complex or challenging environments, with the ability to influence, negotiate and maintain trust.
2. Engagement & communications: Expertise in turning complex change into clear, persuasive written and verbal messages; confident presenting to varied audiences and tailoring content by segment.
3. Planning & delivery: Proven ability to build and deliver engagement/readiness plans, work at pace to tight deadlines, and coordinate activities across multidisciplinary teams.
4. Readiness assessment & assurance: Experience designing or running structured readiness checks, interpreting evidence/insight, and leading mitigation and escalation to closure.
5. Governance & RACI: Demonstrated ability to define roles and responsibilities across organisations, and uphold high standards of programme governance.
6. Project Delivery fundamentals (PDCF aligned): Proficiency across stakeholder engagement, risk & issues management, and business change/implementation, consistent with Project Delivery Capability Framework expectations for Grade 7 roles.