Business Improvement Manager

We're have a brand-new opportunity here at Pavers to join our Strategic Programmes Department in the role of Business Improvement Manager.

This is a full-time permanent role, based at our Head Office, Northminster Business Park, York.

Some hybrid working will be available after an initial induction period and the role will require some travel to store or suppliers at times., The Business Improvement Manager is a key role within the Strategic Programmes Team at Pavers, operating at the intersection of business strategy and delivery execution.

The role acts as a trusted advisor to stakeholders across the organisation, translating business ambition into clearly defined, well-governed change that delivers measurable value.

Central to this role is the shaping and definition of change: engaging senior stakeholders to interrogate the underlying business need, challenge assumptions, and establish a shared understanding of the problem to be solved before delivery commences.

You'll ensure that scope is agreed, success criteria are defined, and all parties are aligned on what a good outcome looks like, creating the conditions for delivery teams to build and test with confidence.

Working collaboratively across functions, the role elicits, analyses and documents business requirements and acceptance criteria to a standard that developers and testers can deliver and validate against.

You'll bring structured, evidence-based analysis to assess the impact of change across processes, systems, people, customers and reporting, ensuring the full consequences of a change are understood and planned for, not discovered in delivery.

This role will also act as a critical control point for delivery integrity: protecting programmes from scope creep, ensuring change decisions are grounded in business value, cost and risk, and providing stakeholders with the clarity and confidence to make informed trade-offs.

In doing so, the Business Improvement Manager will safeguard both the pace and quality of delivery across the Strategic Programmes portfolio.

This role will potentially suit an experienced Business Analyst, ideally with experience within an omnichannel retail environment or similar.

Want to see an overview of your duties

• Establish a clear, documented scope baseline for each initiative and act as its guardian throughout delivery, challenging assumptions, testing whether proposed requirements genuinely address the underlying business problem, and admitting additions only where they demonstrably deliver business value at an acceptable cost, time and risk position.
• Apply structured root cause analysis and constructive challenge so that effort is directed at the underlying business problem rather than its symptoms, and initiatives are framed around the genuine need rather than the first-stated ask.
• Elicit, analyse and document business and system requirements, business rules and acceptance criteria that are unambiguous, agreed, testable and fully traceable as priorities evolve.
• Evaluate options, feasibility, cost, benefit and risk, and establish how each initiative will affect people, processes, systems, teams, customer journeys and downstream operations, before delivery commitment, not during it.
• Produce process, data and system models and target-state ("to-be") designs that give developers and QA a precise, agreed specification from which to deliver and validate.
• Define what "done" looks like, and plan and coordinate user acceptance testing so the business can confirm with confidence that delivered solutions satisfy the agreed requirements.
• Identify and shape opportunities to simplify, standardise and automate business processes - including through AI-enabled solutions - reducing rework, manual effort and recurring operational issues
• Operate as the trusted interface between business stakeholders and product/delivery teams: reconciling competing priorities, communicating with equal fluency to technical and non-technical audiences, and securing sign-off at key decision points
• Experienced practitioner/ Business Analyst, ideally with experience in a retail or similar environment.
• Eliciting, analysing and documenting business and system requirements in a delivery environment
• Improving business processes across multiple departments
• Supporting change / transformation projects through the full lifecycle
• Influencing and challenging stakeholders at all levels constructively
• Managing competing priorities in fast-changing environments
• Business process mapping/modelling (e. g. BPMN), ideally with prior experience using mapping tools (e. g. Visio or similar)
• Experience of weighing up cost, benefit, risk and practicality before effort is committed
• Root cause analysis and critical thinking
• Ability to communicate and translate between business and technical audiences and build new relationships with key stakeholders
• Previous Workshop facilitation experience
• Lean Six Sigma (Green Below or above) is desirable
• UK Drivers Licence
  The Pavers story began in York in 1971 when Catherine Paver took out a £200 bank loan (for a sofa she told them) to fund her new business.

She had big dreams of changing the world of footwear and a passion to provide comfortable and stylish shoes for all.

Starting small, she sold shoes at village halls and homeware parties before opening the first Pavers shop in Scarborough in 1981, when Catherine's three sons joined the business.

One of her sons, Stuart, ran the business as Managing Director for over 40 years, joined by his son Jason in 2016.

As of September 2023, Jason Paver is now the Managing Director of Pavers Ltd, with Stuart Paver moving to Chairman, taking the company into the 3rd generation of family run leadership.

From these modest beginnings, Pavers Shoes has grown to be a UK leader in today's footwear industry, with over 180 stores nationwide encompassing our more recently acquired brands including Jones Bootmaker, Herring Shoes, Padders & Van Dal.

We remain acquisitive, highly profitable, and are an ever-growing, independent family-run business, employing over 1,900 people.

We were delighted to be recognised as a 3 Employer with 'World Class' levels of workplace engagement and named the '2nd Best Retailer to Work For' by Best Companies in November 2024.

In June 2025, we were also recognised as a 3 employer for workplace engagement and received an 'Excellent' rating for our Employee Experience from Work L.

Building on this success, Pavers has now also been recognised in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2026 list, celebrating organisations that lead the way in employee engagement, wellbeing and workplace culture across the UK.

• We know our colleagues are our greatest asset, and we value the talent, passion and unique skills every individual brings to our team.

We have created a workplace culture that promotes inclusivity, ambition, opportunity and growth for all colleagues because we know their dedication and commitment are the driving force behind our success.

At Pavers, our colleagues feel part of the family.

• Salary £Competitive dependent on experience
• Generous Staff Discount
• Discretionary Annual Bonus scheme
• Free onsite parking at York Head Office
• Death In Service Benefit
• Holiday Entitlement (Increases with service)
• Access to Retail TRUST (Wellbeing & Financial Support)
• Access to the Pavers Foundation: employee-led grant application and charitable giving scheme
• Access to wider training and development opportunities through Pavers Academy, Holidays that increase with service
• Company Pension Contribution Wellbeing Assistance through Retail Trust Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay Gym Discounts Multiple Retailer Discounts
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