Senior Culture Lead

In this senior leadership role, you will lead the strategic development, integration and delivery of CD&I business strategy and plans—including the Inclusion Strategy and NMFL2. You will be responsible for designing and maintaining frameworks, coordinating resources, and overseeing performance reporting that enables real cultural progress across the Met. You will also lead the continuous improvement cycle within CD&I by using data, insights and evaluation to track culture change, strengthen accountability and inform decision‑making at the highest levels.

Key Responsibilities:

• Driving strategic alignment across CD&I and Professionalism.
• Developing and embedding an effective CD&I performance framework.
• Overseeing directorate‑wide project tracking, reporting and governance.
• Leading a multi‑disciplinary team, ensuring capability and compliance.

Communication and Working Relationships: This role requires excellent relationship‑building and communication across senior levels of the organisation. You will:

• Regularly engage with SCI leadership, CD&I senior leaders, DAC and Commander, including deputising for senior colleagues.
• Collaborate with Professionalism, CD&I delivery teams and cross‑Met stakeholders to ensure alignment and integration of work.
• Work closely with external partners including MOPAC, NPCC, HMICFRS and the College of Policing to support compliance, reporting and scrutiny.
• Partner with third‑party suppliers and consultants to deliver specialist CD&I programmes.
• Represent CD&I at senior strategic forums and contribute to cross‑cutting organisational initiatives.

Key Result Areas: You will be responsible for leading and delivering:

• Strategic development and governance of CD&I priorities, aligned to Met ambitions: Less Crime, More Trust, High Standards.
• Implementation of tangible culture, diversity and inclusion improvements, including targeted interventions for under‑represented groups.
• High‑quality analysis, insight generation, performance reporting and evidence‑based recommendations for senior decision‑makers.
• Robust governance, monitoring and reporting mechanisms across the CD&I portfolio.
• Budget forecasting, financial assurance and milestone planning for CD&I projects.
• Consistent oversight of risk management and mitigation across strategic programmes.
• Continuous improvement of CD&I processes and operational models.
• Coordinated, high‑impact internal communications to support culture change.
• Strong stakeholder relationships to ensure CD&I interventions are embedded and evaluated.
• Oversight of triage, tasking and commissioning processes within CD&I.

Scope for Impact: This is a high‑influence role shaping cultural, behavioural and inclusion outcomes across the Met. You will:

• Influence organisational culture and the effectiveness of CD&I programmes.
• Lead processes that direct programme delivery, identify risk, commission work and inform strategic decision‑making.
• Be accountable for the accuracy and quality of reporting for executive leaders and external oversight bodies.
• Navigate complex legal, financial and organisational constraints while ensuring high‑quality delivery.

Qualifications:

• Expertise in designing organisational culture strategies and evaluating their impact.
• Strong leadership capability to drive change, manage risk and challenge established practice.
• Ability to manage multiple, complex programmes at pace.
• Advanced data analysis skills and the ability to translate insights into strategic action.
• Exceptional communication and senior‑level influencing skills.
• Ability to build and maintain stakeholder relationships across internal and external partners.
• Understanding of barriers to organisational change and culture transformation.
• Proficiency in MyHR, PSOP, Excel, SharePoint and wider MS Office tools.
• Strong understanding of Equality Act 2010, Public Sector Equality Duty and best practice in inclusion and professional learning.
• Leading organisational strategies and change programmes in complex environments.
• Advising senior leaders on behavioural and cultural development.
• Delivering results through others and holding teams accountable.
• Managing multi‑programme delivery and preparing high‑level strategic briefings.
• Managing budgets, forecasting spend and aligning resources effectively.
• Applying deep organisational strategy knowledge to influence directorate outcomes.

Equal Employment Opportunity: The Met is committed to being an equitable (fair and impartial) and inclusive employer for disabled people, striving to have a diverse and representative workforce at all levels. We encourage applications from people from the widest possible range of backgrounds, cultures and experiences. We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and long‑term conditions, ethnic minority groups and women. As a Disability Confident Leader, the Met has committed to making disability equality part of our everyday practice. We ensure that people with disabilities and those with long‑term conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. The Met is committed to making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process to ensure disabled applicants can perform at their best. If you need any reasonable adjustments or changes to the application and recruitment process, we ask that you include this information within your application form. All matters will be treated in strict confidence.