Transformation Director in Coventry

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mind-set, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 20,000 employees spanning over 100 countries. Our people are our biggest asset as well as our largest shareholder group and are everything that makes us unique; our inclusive culture, the quality service we offer our clients, and our continued growth, all come from our people-first approach.

We have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we’ve focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down disappointed head-hunters for years.

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced transformation leader to drive the successful delivery of a high-impact programme across multiple divisions and functions. This role is pivotal in shaping and executing strategic initiatives that deliver measurable value, enhance operational efficiency, and foster a culture of empowerment and collaboration. The ideal candidate will bring a strong track record in complex transformation management within Financial Services, exceptional stakeholder engagement skills, and a passion for leading high-performing teams through change.

The key accountabilities of this role are to:

• Own the Transformation Vision, Strategy and Roadmap, ensuring alignment with Group objectives.
• Manage the Group Transformation Committee, driving governance and decision making.
• Lead benefit realisation and cost controls on relevant projects and programs.
• Act as the central link between Group Functions and Divisions, ensuring their plans are aligned, dependencies are known and aligned to shared strategic objectives.
• Oversee the delivery of the programme across the divisions and functions.
• Manage robust change control processes for the programmes.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to exceed savings and efficiency targets, leveraging synergies across function.
• Manage interdependencies within and outside of the Programmes, ensuring alignment and mitigating delivery risks.
• Prepare high quality materials and lead briefings to key stakeholders internally (the business leadership team and the Board) and externally (investors).
• Develop and execute a change plan across key stakeholder groups, working with support teams e.g. comms and training, ensuring that the change plan takes into account and avoids impacting business peaks e.g. renewals season.
• Define and track KPIs to measure progress, benefit realisation and overall Programme Health.
• Act as the focal point for cross-workstream change and delivery activities, ensuring clarity of ownership and eliminating gaps.
• Deputise for the Group Head of IMO as required.

People and Culture:

• Builds and collaboratively leads an effective and high performing team that delivers exceptional results and an engaged employee base.
• Generates buy in and excitement in the transformation programme.
• Creates a culture of empowerment, trust and inclusion.
• Role models expected behaviours and Group values.
• Builds effective and productive working relationships with internal stakeholders and clients across the Group at all levels of the organisation.

Capabilities:

• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to deliver business requirements.
• Building strong trusting relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative with the ability to adapt style to different audiences and has a can-do mentality.
• Solid communication skills; ability to synthesise and communicate information from a wide variety of sources.
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to deal with senior stakeholders throughout the business and able to present information in a clear way to different audiences.

What are we looking for?

• Demonstrable experience in transformation and complex programme management.
• Track record of leading high-value high-volume projects in Financial Services with multi-disciplinary teams.
• A track record in building and managing strong and credible relationships at senior leadership team levels and ability to effectively challenge and influence at this level.
• Strong attention to detail and high standards, problem solving and analytical capabilities.
• Ability to evaluate complex challenges and deliver insightful recommendations that can be practically executed.
• Experience in driving and understanding strategies and objectives straddling multiple business units.
• Able to demonstrate previous evidence of drive, energy, commitment, and enthusiasm.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society’s greatest challenges. And we know that separate home and work lives don’t really exist. If you’re happy and healthy at home, you’re more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work – and vice versa. That’s why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.

At Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden ‘personality type’. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new.
• We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges.
• We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond.
• We consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect – regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or family circumstances.

Our sustainability promise: We’re on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It’s a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can.