Transformation Manager

Location: London

Job Type: Permanent, hybrid working with 3 days in the office

Please note: we are accepting applications until May 22nd. The advert may close earlier if we receive a high volume of relevant applications.

About the role

This new role of Transformation Manager will sit within our growing Strategy, Planning and Performance team. The ideal candidate will be a skilled and people‑centred Change Manager and will partner closely with the Director of Strategic Planning and Performance and the Senior Manager, Strategy and Planning. This role will play a critical part in strengthening organisational performance by designing and delivering change approaches that are structured, insight‑driven, and aligned to LifeArc's strategic priorities. LifeArc is undergoing significant transformation, including major strategic, operational, and infrastructure programmes. The Change Manager will lead approaches that maximise adoption, minimise disruption, and enhance engagement across diverse teams and functions.

Responsibilities

• Change strategy & delivery: Assess the need for change support on key enterprise wide programmes of work. Develop and lead integrated change plans across multiple concurrent initiatives. Establish practical change governance aligned to programme delivery and suitable for the organisation size and change maturity. Identify and manage interdependencies across change activity to reduce duplication and overload.
• Stakeholder leadership & engagement: Build strong relationships with senior leaders, programme sponsors, People/HR, Internal Comms, IT, Facilities, and local office leadership. Lead coaching and equip leaders with messaging, tools, and engagement approaches. Develop and run engagement plans that reflect different audiences (scientific, operational, corporate functions).
• Change insights & measurement: Use data (e.g., engagement survey results, change impact assessments, adoption metrics) to shape interventions and track progress. Design and run "listening" mechanisms (e.g., pulse checks, focus groups, feedback loops) and translate insights into action. Define success measures and benefits tracking for adoption, capability, and engagement outcomes.
• Change communications & capability: Create clear, consistent narrative and communication assets across programmes (e.g., what's changing, why, what it means, what support is available). Design a suite of standard training, toolkits, and enablement tools and resources. Tailor these tools and deliver them to identified impacted individual archetypes. Support development of internal change capability (e.g., templates, playbooks, coaching, ways of working).
• Risk, fatigue & resilience management: Proactively assess change impacts and risk (e.g., capacity, readiness, resistance) and recommend mitigations. Develop approaches to address change fatigue, prioritisation, and sequencing across initiatives.

Essential experience required

• Proven experience in change management within a similar organisational environment (life sciences/healthcare preferred).
• Formal training or certification in Prosci or another recognised change methodology.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale organisational change across multiple workstreams and stakeholder groups.
• Strong stakeholder management and the ability to influence without formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; confident producing exec‑ready materials.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, creating structure, and driving decisions.
• Experience of successfully collaborating, working with and managing teams within a matrix model to design and deliver complex projects and strategic plans.
• Experience driving and recently delivering, hands on change projects.
• Extensive experience of designing and chairing/facilitating senior stakeholder meetings and workshops.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights.
• Strong problem solving and negotiation skills.
• Ensuring adherence to organisational policies, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Experience reporting to senior executive and Board and being able to distil complex information into compelling proposals.
• Strong written communication skills.
• Proven senior capability in programme leadership and a strong track record of project delivery.

Desirable

• Experience supporting strategy implementation / operating model change / transformation programmes.
• Experience in matrix organisations and/or science, health, charity, or purpose‑led environments.
• Experience with office moves, infrastructure programmes, or complex change impacting ways of working.
• Previous experience gained in a consulting environment would be beneficial.

Education

• Degree level qualification in a relevant discipline.
• Further vocational qualifications required / desired (Prosci or other).

Skills & abilities

• People‑centred: listens, diagnoses, and adapts approach based on real on‑the‑ground insight.
• Calm under pressure; able to manage competing priorities and shifting timelines.
• High integrity and discretion; trusted advisor to leaders.
• Collaborative approach, leading, and managing via influence with both internal and external cross‑functional project and matrix teams.
• Structured, outcomes‑focused, and pragmatic.
• An effective change agent in ensuring consistency and alignment between complementary functions within the organisation.
• Credible, able and experienced in handling complex negotiations and conflict situations with confidence, openness and in a positive manner and is seen as a trusted expert.
• Highly competent in managing multiple priorities, projects and relationships with stakeholders (internal and external) concurrently, each of whom may have a different perspective, varied approaches and sometimes conflicting priorities.

About us

LifeArc is a not-for-profit life science organisation, leading the way for change in rare diseases in the UK and supporting promising initiatives in global health. We seek out research in areas of unmet need that has great potential, providing support to help it become breakthroughs that change lives.

What we can offer you

Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of 'putting patients at the centre of everything we do'. LifeArc is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term health condition who meet the essential criteria for the role. Please note that in certain situations, such as high volumes of applications, it may not be practical to interview all eligible candidates. In these cases, we may need to select those who best meet the essential criteria. (At LifeArc, the Disability Confident Scheme's 'minimum criteria' is referred to as 'essential criteria').

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays. We all have potential. At LifeArc, you'll discover what you can really do with it.