Transformation Director in Leeds

Salary: £100,000 per annum
Location: Leeds / Hybrid
Reporting to: Chief Financial Officer

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Transformation Director to join Horizon Care & Education and play a pivotal role in shaping how we operate as we continue to grow.

This is a high-impact, hands-on role with a broad remit across our frontline services and central functions. Working directly with our CFO and Executive Team, you will identify where we can work smarter, simplify complex processes and lead meaningful transformation that delivers measurable improvements across the organisation.

We are looking for someone who can move comfortably between strategy and delivery. You won't simply identify opportunities or make recommendations – you'll work alongside teams to understand how things really work, challenge where needed, redesign processes and see improvements through to successful implementation.

The Role

As Transformation Director, you will help shape and drive our transformation strategy, ensuring our organisation becomes increasingly efficient, consistent and scalable while maintaining the quality of the services we provide.

You will:

• Work across frontline services and central functions including Operations, Finance, People, IT, Procurement and Quality to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Analyse end-to-end processes, identifying bottlenecks, duplication, unnecessary complexity, manual workarounds and opportunities to improve efficiency.
• Build and prioritise a pipeline of transformation and process improvement initiatives based on operational impact, financial benefit, service quality, colleague experience and risk.
• Design and implement simpler, faster and more scalable ways of working, with clear ownership, accountability and appropriate controls.
• Lead improvements from initial diagnosis through to implementation, adoption and measurable results.
• Identify opportunities to make better use of technology, automation and AI, working closely with IT and system owners to improve workflows, integrations and data flows.
• Establish clear baselines and measures of success, demonstrating tangible improvements such as cost reduction, capacity release, reduced errors, improved compliance and faster turnaround times.
• Build strong relationships across the organisation, bringing people together to solve complex problems and successfully embed change.
• Work with the Executive Team, PMO and IT to develop and maintain a coherent, multi-year transformation roadmap.
• Develop robust business and investment cases, clearly articulating costs, benefits, ROI, cashflow impact and value-creation opportunities.
• Act as a trusted problem-solving partner to the CFO and Executive Team, taking ownership of complex and sometimes ambiguous organisational challenges.
• What We're Looking For
• We're looking for a highly capable transformation professional with the commercial awareness, analytical ability and influence to deliver change across a complex organisation.

You will have:

• A proven track record of delivering end-to-end business process improvement and transformation.
• Strong process mapping, analysis and redesign capability.
• Experience working across both operational/frontline environments and corporate functions.
• Evidence of delivering measurable operational and financial improvements.
• Strong analytical, commercial and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, including the confidence to constructively challenge senior colleagues.
• Experience of implementing and embedding change, rather than simply producing recommendations.
• A strong understanding of systems, data, technology and automation.
• The ability to work independently, take ownership and deliver without relying on a large transformation team or infrastructure.
• A pragmatic, organised and delivery-focused approach.
• Experience within a PE-backed, high-growth or acquisitive organisation would be particularly valuable, as would experience within healthcare, children's services, social care, education or another operationally intensive service environment.
• Experience of Lean/Six Sigma, transformation consulting, enterprise systems, post-acquisition integration or delivering measurable cost reduction and capacity improvements would also be advantageous.

Why Horizon?

As we continue to grow, we want to ensure the organisation behind our services is as effective, responsive and ambitious as the people delivering them. This role provides a genuine opportunity to influence how Horizon operates, working at Executive level while remaining close enough to our services and teams to turn ideas into tangible improvements.

You’ll join a supportive senior leadership team and have the autonomy to identify opportunities, challenge existing ways of working and deliver transformation that makes a measurable difference.

How You'll Be Rewarded

• Salary: £100,000 per annum, alongside a comprehensive range of colleague benefits, including:
• Life Assurance.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Financial wellbeing support.
• Blue Light Card.
• Option to buy and sell up to five days' annual leave.
• Colleague referral scheme with cash rewards.
• Tastecard discounts across dining, cinema, supermarkets and UK attractions.
• Access to ongoing training, professional development and high-quality CPD.
• A supportive senior leadership team committed to making a positive difference.