Head of Continuous Improvement

We are looking for a Head of Continuous Improvement to drive a portfolio of business improvements across National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED). This will involve following a clear continuous improvement methodology, to secure rapid but enduring change in our operations. This is a new and high-profile role, and the successful candidate will make a significant impact across NGED. You will be passionate about continuous improvement, highly experienced in leading and delivering continuous improvement programmes, and skilled in stakeholder management.

Reporting to the Director of Strategy & Transformation and working closely with NGED’s Executive team, plus other senior leaders across NGED, this role holder is the continuous improvement leader for NGED. They are responsible for owning the methodology for and delivery of NGED’s continuous improvement initiatives. This strategically critical role leads NGED in:

• Managing and driving the delivery of a portfolio of continuous improvement initiatives across NGED, particularly in field operations, intervening directly where progress is too slow.
• Ensuring that continuous improvement initiatives deliver the planned business benefits.
• Creating a continuous improvement culture across NGED.
• Sharing continuous improvement initiatives tools and methodologies with the business.
• Training teams across the business on continuous improvement.
• Liaising with other related teams, including Change Management and Transformation, as well as teams within the rest of the business.
• Building and managing a small Continuous Improvement Team supporting the business.
• ‘Rolling the sleeves up’ and directly supporting specific continuous improvement initiatives themselves.

We can offer flexibility for the role to be based from offices within our licence areas of West Midlands, East Midlands, South West or Wales. Travel most weeks will be required to NGED locations.

What You Will Do

• Challenge the pace of change, recognising the urgency for rapid business improvement.
• Fully understand the continuous improvement needs right across the business and prioritising where to focus the team.
• Manage a portfolio of continuous improvement initiatives across NGED, obtaining the support and sponsorship of the relevant Executives.
• Ensure clear plans are rapidly developed for all continuous improvement initiatives.
• Drive delivery of the business improvement, flexing the delivery approach as needed.
• Ensure that continuous improvement is delivered in a consistent and coherent way as per National Grid's Performance Excellence Methodology, that blockers are cleared, priority calls made, business cases created and delivered, progress measured and performance reported upon.
• Measure and ensure governance of NGED’s continuous improvement initiatives across the business, including reporting to NGED Executive.
• Feed into steercos, including President and Exec members, the main governance vehicle for overseeing change and business improvement.
• Facilitate changes to leadership behaviours in support of continuous improvement.
• Coordinate and ensure alignment with other significant NGED programmes – e.g. Efficiency Programme, delivery of our ED3 responses, HR activities to address training deficits or culture change.
• Liaise with others related teams, including Change Management, Transformation, Comms, HR and business improvement teams/resources across the business.
• Champion continuous improvement across NGED through training, coaching, tools and methodologies, at all levels up to Executive.
• Lead a small continuous improvement specialist team, allocating them to specific initiatives across the business, providing support to them, and focusing on their development.
• ‘Roll the sleeves up’ and directly support specific continuous improvement initiatives yourself.

About You

• Advanced knowledge of continuous improvement approaches e.g. Lean, Six Sigma and System Thinking and significant experience of deploying continuous improvement into large and diverse organisations.
• Significant experience embedding and sustaining new approaches to the way people work.
• The ability to identify complex problems and challenges, analyse the root cause and identify, test and implement appropriate solutions through utilisation of advanced problem solving and lean skills.
• The ability to optimise and track the benefits of continuous improvement projects across the business.
• Drive, enthusiasm and determination, able to drive delivery of continuous improvement initiatives and challenge NGED Executives.
• Advanced communication skills, facilitation experience and ability to mentor, coach and develop others.
• Outstanding influencing skills to persuade, motivate and influence programme teams and senior executives across NGED.
• The ability to build good relationships at all levels across the business.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Gravitas to operate at the Executive level when needed.
• Willing to ‘roll sleeves up’ and directly support continuous improvement initiatives.
• Graduate calibre.
• Experience of working within the energy industry or an analogous sector with a large field force would be an advantage.

What We Can Offer You

• A competitive salary of £72,000 - £86,000 dependent on experience.
• An electric company car or car cash allowance.
• Up to 20% Annual Bonus (based on personal and company performance).
• 28 days annual leave, plus eight statutory days in addition to the option to buy additional or sell holiday days every year.
• Private medical insurance.
• A generous contributory pension scheme - we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.
• Life Insurance 10 x base salary.
• Financial support to help cover the cost of professional membership subscriptions.
• Family care benefits including a back-up care service for when your usual care arrangements fall through (six paid days each year as standard with the option to purchase further days).
• Access to apps which support health, fitness, and wellbeing.
• Career development, ongoing training and support, career progression and plenty of opportunity to progress!

Further information

This role closes on 10 June 2025, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary. National Grid’s recruitment periods can and may vary. We reserve the right to remove this advert or close it to further applications at any point during the recruitment process.

About Us

National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) is the regional electricity distribution division of National Grid. We are the largest UK Electricity Distribution company, providing services and energy to over 25 million customers, through 8 million connections in our four regions across South Wales, the South-West, West Midlands, and East Midlands. Over the next five years we need to invest in over £7.5bn of infrastructure to fulfil the UK’s ambition, enabling capacity for more than 1.5 million Electric Vehicles and 600,000 heat pumps and ensuring our customers can connect to our network when they want and how they want.

At National Grid, we work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office. Our goal is to drive, develop and operate our business in a way that results in a more inclusive culture. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, the innovation from diverse teams & perspectives and business need. We are committed to building a workforce so we can represent the communities we serve and have a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.