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- Tasks: Lead transformative change initiatives and drive APHA's strategic direction.
- Company: Join a pivotal role in a key public service agency.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, professional development, and opportunities for impactful leadership.
- Why this job: Shape the future of public service and make a real difference.
- Qualifications: Extensive experience in leading large-scale change and transformation.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on diversity, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
The predicted salary is between 75000 - 117800 £ per year.
This role will require frequent travel to Weybridge, central London and other key APHA locations to support your leadership and visibility of your directorate. APHA has agreed a set of collective accountabilities for its Executive board members. As an Executive Board, you provide the collective strategic leadership that drives APHA’s performance, culture, and long-term direction. Together, you ensure the Agency operates with clarity of purpose, aligning its work with APHA’s mission, Defra’s priorities, and the wider objectives of public service.
You will play a central role in shaping and sustaining the organisation’s vision, values, and culture, supporting the Chief Executive in leading APHA with integrity, ambition, and a commitment to excellence. You are collectively responsible for ensuring that APHA is governed effectively. This includes maintaining robust governance arrangements, enabling sound decision-making, and ensuring accountability across all areas of the organisation.
You oversee the identification and management of strategic and operational risks, ensuring that statutory obligations, regulatory requirements, and internal policies are consistently met. As stewards of public resources, you provide oversight of financial planning, budgeting, and investment decisions, ensuring that APHA delivers value for money and remains financially sustainable. You scrutinise financial performance and support the Chief Executive in maintaining strong relationships with Defra finance teams and external auditors.
You champion the development of APHA’s people and organisational capability. This includes promoting diversity and inclusion, upholding Civil Service values, and providing strategic oversight of workforce planning, talent development, and succession planning. You monitor organisational health, including staff engagement, wellbeing, and representation, ensuring APHA remains a supportive and high-performing place to work.
You represent APHA at the highest levels, engaging with Defra, other government departments, industry bodies, devolved administrations, and international partners. Through this, you help build trust, transparency, and collaboration across the wider Defra group and the sectors APHA serves.
You collectively drive organisational performance, providing constructive challenge to ensure high standards of delivery, continuous improvement, and innovation. You monitor progress against strategic objectives, KPIs, and delivery milestones, identifying where intervention or acceleration is required. You champion a culture of accountability, evidence-based decision-making, and results-driven leadership, supporting the Chief Executive in embedding performance frameworks that drive excellence across the organisation.
Above all, you act as a unified leadership body, sharing accountability for APHA’s performance and upholding the principles of public service, integrity, and impartiality. You model the highest standards of leadership and ethical conduct, ensuring APHA delivers for ministers, stakeholders, and the public.
Key Responsibilities
- Sets organisational strategy and provides clear strategic direction for APHA’s change and transformation portfolio, ensuring programmes are prioritised, sequenced and resourced to deliver maximum value.
- Lead development of APHA’s long-term operating model, ensuring alignment to the Agency’s strategic ambitions and Defra Group objectives.
- Act as a key adviser to the CEO, Directors and Defra Group partners on transformation, organisational change, and major delivery.
- Own and lead the APHA change and transformation portfolio, ensuring coherent delivery across all change activity.
- Oversee and assure all major programmes including: EU Reset Programme, APHA Synergy, Delivering Sustainable Futures Programme, and APHA Change Projects.
- Ensure programmes deliver intended benefits, secure value for money, and operate within agreed cost, time and quality tolerances.
- Sponsor and chair governance boards, ensuring compliance with Defra, CO and HM Treasury standards.
Capability & Leadership of Project Delivery and Change
- Lead and develop APHA’s project, programme and change professions, including PMO, portfolio management, business change and transformation specialists.
- Drive professional capability uplift aligned to the Government Project Delivery Framework and OPD standards.
- Ensure robust assurance, risk management and delivery methodologies are embedded.
Person Specification
The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:
- Extensive experience of leading large-scale change and transformation portfolios within complex, operational or regulated organisations, delivering clear strategic outcomes and benefits.
- Strong track record of delivering organisational, digital and/or process change at scale, translating strategy into improved performance, resilience and ways of working.
- Significant experience of developing and leading an organisation-wide coaching and continuous improvement culture, building leadership capability and sustainable change capacity.
- Proven leadership of Project Delivery, Programme and Change professionals, including the development of high-performing, multi-disciplinary and geographically dispersed teams.
- Highly developed strategic thinking, influencing and problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate credibly at Executive and Board level and shape complex decision-making.
- Strong financial, commercial and risk management capability, alongside the ability to build trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders across multiple sectors.
APHA Change Services Director employer: Animal and Plant Health Agency
Contact Detail:
Animal and Plant Health Agency Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land APHA Change Services Director
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the industry. Attend events, join relevant groups, and don’t be shy about reaching out on LinkedIn. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for interviews by researching APHA and its mission. Understand their values and how they align with your own. This will help you articulate why you're the perfect fit for the Change Services Director role and show that you’re genuinely interested in contributing to their goals.
✨Tip Number 3
Practice makes perfect! Conduct mock interviews with friends or mentors to refine your answers and boost your confidence. Focus on showcasing your leadership experience and how you've driven change in previous roles—this is key for the position you're aiming for.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to follow up after interviews! A simple thank-you email can go a long way in leaving a positive impression. It shows your enthusiasm for the role and keeps you on their radar as they make their decision.
We think you need these skills to ace APHA Change Services Director
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your application to reflect the specific requirements of the APHA Change Services Director role. Highlight your relevant experience in leading large-scale change and transformation, and don’t forget to mention how you align with APHA’s mission and values.
Showcase Your Leadership Skills: This role is all about strategic leadership, so be sure to emphasise your experience in guiding teams and driving organisational change. Use examples that demonstrate your ability to influence at an executive level and your track record in building high-performing teams.
Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, clarity is key! Make your points straightforward and avoid jargon. Use bullet points where possible to make it easy for us to see your qualifications and achievements at a glance.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to submit your application through our website. It’s the best way to ensure your application gets the attention it deserves. Plus, you’ll find all the details you need about the role and our organisation there!
How to prepare for a job interview at Animal and Plant Health Agency
✨Know Your Stuff
Make sure you thoroughly understand APHA's mission and the specific challenges they face. Research their recent projects, especially in change and transformation, so you can speak confidently about how your experience aligns with their goals.
✨Showcase Leadership Skills
Prepare examples that highlight your leadership style and how you've successfully led large-scale change initiatives. Be ready to discuss how you foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement within teams.
✨Engage with Strategic Thinking
Demonstrate your strategic thinking abilities by discussing how you've translated organisational strategy into actionable plans. Think about how you can contribute to APHA’s long-term operating model and be prepared to share insights on risk management and financial oversight.
✨Build Relationships
Since this role involves engaging with various stakeholders, think about how you've built trust and collaboration in previous roles. Be ready to discuss your approach to stakeholder management and how you ensure alignment across different teams and departments.