Business Readiness Consultant - SC Cleared in Telford

Whitehall Resources currently require an experienced Business Readiness Consultant to work with a key client based in Telford.

Please note this role falls inside IR35 and requires some onsite presence.

Active SC Clearance Required

Role Purpose

Lead the planning, coordination and execution of business readiness activities for a complex government programme/project to ensure new capabilities are usable, safe, and adoptable across operational areas. You will own readiness planning, coordinate UAT/BAT (User/Business Acceptance Testing), manage change impacts, training and communications, and lead go-live preparation and transition to BAU. You will provide visible leadership across multidisciplinary teams and suppliers, enabling delivery at pace with a focus on user outcomes, service stability and benefits realisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Business Readiness Planning & Governance
  • Define and maintain the Business Readiness Plan, roadmap and acceptance criteria, aligned to programme milestones and benefits.
  • Establish and operate readiness governance (readiness forums, checkpoints, go/no-go criteria, cutover and contingency plans).
  • Create and maintain readiness dashboards and evidence packs for Programme Boards and SROs.
• Change Impact & Adoption
  • Lead change impact assessments across teams, roles, locations and suppliers; identify policy, process, people, data and technology impacts.
  • Develop adoption strategies, including operating model updates, SOPs/work instructions, service desk readiness and business continuity arrangements.
  • Ensure benefits realisation assumptions are reflected in adoption plans and tracked post-go-live.
• UAT/BAT Leadership
  • Define the UAT/BAT strategy and approach (scope, entry/exit criteria, traceability to requirements, scenarios, roles and environments).
  • Coordinate test preparation (test scripts, data, environments), defect triage and prioritisation, and readiness sign-off with business owners.
  • Ensure evidence and audit trails meet assurance and regulatory needs; integrate UAT/BAT outcomes into go/live readiness decisions.
• Training, Communications & Stakeholder Management
  • Own the training needs analysis (TNA), curriculum, materials and delivery approach (classroom, digital, “train-the-trainer”).
  • Develop and run the communications plan—clear messages, timing and channels for different user groups; measure awareness and readiness.
  • Engage credibly with senior leaders and unions/staff associations (where relevant); provide evidence-based recommendations and challenge where plans are not ready.
• Go-Live, Cutover & Early Life Support (ELS)
  • Lead cutover planning, rehearsals and command-and-control; maintain contingency and rollback plans.
  • Coordinate Early Life Support—stabilisation metrics, hypercare processes, incident/defect management and exit criteria to BAU.
  • Capture lessons learned and embed continuous improvement into subsequent releases.
• Risk, Assurance & Controls
  • Maintain a robust RAID regime for readiness and adoption risks/issues; ensure mitigations are owned, funded and time-bound.
  • Prepare for and respond to assurance reviews (e.g., Gateway/IPA), audits and policy/compliance checks; track actions to closure.
  • Ensure data protection, security and accessibility considerations are embedded in readiness criteria.
• Data, MI & Tooling
  • Operate a single source of truth for readiness MI (readiness RAGs, training completion, UAT/BAT pass rates, cutover rehearsals, ELS metrics).
  • Optimise tooling (e.g., SharePoint/Confluence, Project for the Web/MS Project, Azure DevOps/Jira, Power BI) and drive data quality and automation.
  • Align readiness data with schedule, financials and benefits to support decision-quality insight.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Substantial UK government experience in a similar role within a complex programme/project environment involving multiple stakeholders and suppliers.
• Dynamic, visible leadership with the ability to influence across multidisciplinary teams (with line management responsibility for G7 and below where applicable).
• Proven delivery at pace, coordinating concurrent readiness workstreams and releases.
• Confidence to challenge and influence senior leaders, presenting clear evidence, risks and trade-offs.
• Ownership and problem-solving: identifies readiness gaps early, designs pragmatic recovery plans and delivers positive outcomes.
• Track record in role-modelling delivery excellence and coaching others in readiness, change and testing disciplines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, producing clear plans, board papers and user-facing guidance with strong attention to detail.
• Hands-on experience of UAT/BAT methods and business readiness frameworks, flexing Agile/Waterfall/Hybrid approaches to suit delivery priorities.
• Willing and able to travel regularly across sites, user locations and supplier premises.