Transformation Lead

Location: Hybrid

Contracted to our Wilmslow office. Our Wilmslow office will be relocating to Manchester city centre from 28 September 2026. Through hybrid working we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities and there will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need.

Why work for the ICO?

• Pay progression scheme.
• Hybrid and flexible working options.
• 25 days paid holiday per year, plus privilege and public holidays.
• Flexi leave (up to 26 additional days leave per year).
• Pension (employer contribution around 28.9%).
• Online discount scheme to save money at major supermarkets, retailers, gyms, restaurants, insurance providers and many more.
• Health Cash Plan.
• Fantastic development opportunities to learn and progress.

Job summary

The Transformation Lead drives interventions and initiatives that deliver meaningful, sustained transformation of how the ICO regulates and operates. They will have a clear focus on public value and our purpose, using this to facilitate teams to work together to design and deliver transformation and change. They will lead interventions and initiatives that transform end-to-end ways of working, build the capability and culture for continuous improvement and shift mindsets to support and improve delivery against our purpose. They will actively use data throughout their work, ensuring that changes are based on evidence.

Job description

The Transformation Lead is a hands-on role working across teams to challenge the status quo, embed new behaviours and capabilities, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and enable teams to own and sustain their transformation journeys. The role holder will be required to work independently, interacting confidently with large groups and senior leaders with minimal support. They will need the ability to quickly understand complex issues in a range of different contexts. Whilst the role holder will not hold direct line management responsibilities, they will be expected to matrix manage cross-cutting teams when needed and to work collaboratively with a broad range of key stakeholders, including business analysts, change managers, programme managers and business partners in People Services, Finance and DDaT.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end design, development and delivery of strategic transformation initiatives across the organisation.
• Facilitate teams to redesign how they work across silos, functions and services to improve outcomes for our customers and against our purpose.
• Coach and influence teams and leaders to adopt new ways of thinking, working and learning.
• Apply best practice transformation methodologies, to support adoption, engagement and sustained impact.
• Build confidence and capability in teams to identify opportunities, run experiments, learn from feedback, and continuously evolve their ways of working.
• Work with stakeholders at all levels to align on shared outcomes, remove barriers and co-create meaningful change.
• Support teams to define success measures, capture learnings, and adapt approaches in real-time based on evidence and insights.
• Drive the identification of opportunities for efficiencies, including cost savings.
• Work systematically and systemically to ensure change is sustainable and evidence-based.
• Participate actively in relevant corporate initiatives, including the business planning process, and undertake a senior management role in matters such as internal investigations.

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

• Significant and diverse transformation design and delivery experience in complex organisations.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence and build trust at all levels.
• Experience of working across organisational boundaries and challenging the status quo.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver measurable improvements in outcomes and efficiency.
• Significant experience of facilitating diverse groups of people who hold different perspectives and expectations.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

• Strategic thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to connect the ‘big picture’ to operational detail.
• Ability to work with ambiguity, build trust quickly and influence without formal authority.
• Excellent facilitation, coaching and storytelling skills.
• Deep understanding of systems thinking and organisational culture.
• Skilled at embedding data-driven decision making.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks. Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme. As part of the ICO’s commitment to our EDI objectives and creating a workplace that represents the communities and societies we serve, we guarantee an interview to candidates who declare they identify as belonging from an ethnic minority background and who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy.

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk.

Closing Date

Please submit your CV and cover letter by 23:59 on Sunday 31st May 2026. Your cover letter should be no more than 1,000 words and should clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria for the role. We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. To ensure your application is considered, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact us at recruitment@ico.org.uk. In the event of a high volume of applications, we may not be able to invite all candidates who meet the minimum criteria to interview. However, we encourage you to stay in touch and apply for future roles that match your interests. All candidates who meet the minimum criteria and apply in-line with our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled and ethnic minority applicants will be interviewed.

Clearance Required for this role: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)