Global Change Senior Manager - Maternity Cover

Role Summary

• Blue Ventures seeks an experienced change leader for a 12-month maternity cover to guide staff through ongoing organisational transformation. The postholder will lead the people side of change across BV's portfolio, drive the adoption of new systems and processes, and oversee the organisation's project management approach. They will foster trust across teams, manage complex initiatives, and embed change management and continuous improvement as core competencies across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Change and project management methodology (25%)

• Drive the roll-out and adoption of BV's structured change management methodology and toolkit, applying it consistently across change initiatives and refining it based on stakeholder feedback so that it remains relevant and usable.
• Own and develop BV's project management approach and methodology, including how projects are initiated, scoped, governed, delivered and closed, keeping it proportionate to BV's size and current maturity.
• Support project leads and managers to apply the change and project management approaches consistently, providing templates, guidance and practical support.
• Establish and maintain feedback mechanisms (for example, pulse surveys or crowdsourcing) to understand staff experience of change and to identify and prioritise high-impact, low-cost improvements.
• Ensure every major initiative has a proportionate change plan setting out impacts, engagement, readiness, risks and adoption, aligned with its project plan.

Transformation project management (25%)

• Oversee the execution of organisational transformation projects across BV's portfolio, including the people side of change, ensuring they align with strategic objectives, are resource-efficient and are delivered on time.
• Take ownership of specific high-priority transformation projects, managing all end-to-end phases from ideation and business case development through to execution and adoption.
• Collaborate with leaders to sequence and prioritise change initiatives, managing change saturation and ensuring effective resource allocation and stakeholder engagement.
• Manage consultant contracts and budgets for change activity.
• Ensure change initiatives have clear, measurable benefits and that change activity is focused on realising them.
• Set the approach for readiness and go/no-go decisions, advising sponsors and governance groups on whether the organisation is ready for major changes to go live.
• Ensure new ways of working are successfully handed over to business as usual, with clear ownership for sustaining the change and realising benefits.

Stakeholder engagement and communication (20%)

• Work with cross-functional teams to ensure change objectives, timelines and expected outcomes are clearly understood.
• Act as a trusted advisor to leaders and managers, offering guidance on managing resistance, fostering buy-in and communicating change within their teams.
• Build relationships across the organisation to act as a bridge between leadership and staff, promoting transparency and understanding during transformation efforts.
• Work in partnership with BV's Internal Communications and Strategic Communications functions to shape the content, sequencing and timing of change messaging.
• Set up and manage governance groups to oversee transformation initiatives, ensuring accountability, alignment and progress tracking, and provide concise updates to sponsors and senior leadership.
• Provide Internal and Strategic Communications colleagues with insight into stakeholder concerns, resistance and the behaviour shifts required, to inform messaging and training.
• Advise leaders on the organisational design and people implications of change, working with the People team and functional leads.
• Champion psychological safety and open, two-way dialogue in how change is led at BV.

Monitoring and continuous improvement (15%)

• Implement metrics and tracking systems to evaluate the effectiveness and adoption of change initiatives, and adapt approaches based on data-driven insights.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement, gathering lessons learned to inform future transformation efforts.
• Align change management activities with Blue Ventures' OKRs and strategic goals, ensuring outcomes contribute to long-term success.

Capacity building and organisational development (15%)

• Implement programmes to build organisational capacity for managing change, including the development of internal change champions.
• Deliver change management training programmes and guidance, equipping managers, colleagues and local partners with the skills to lead change effectively.
• Line manage, coach and develop the Change Manager and Project Support Officer, setting standards and frameworks for change work across BV.
• Build, advocate for and promote digital tools and systems that enable efficient workflows and collaboration during transitions.
• Provide expert change advice to teams leading change outside formal projects, enabling them to manage smaller changes well without dedicated change resources.

Skills and experience

Required

• Proven experience leading organisational change initiatives, or as a management or strategy consultant, with a demonstrated ability to manage resistance and change fatigue and drive adoption.
• Strong knowledge of change management methodologies (e.g. ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step Model) and their practical application in organisational contexts.
• Experience designing and delivering training programmes, particularly in change management or related fields.
• Excellent project management skills, with experience overseeing complex, cross-functional transformation projects.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build trust and engagement across diverse stakeholder groups and influence senior leaders.
• Analytical mindset, with a focus on data-driven decision-making and process optimisation.
• Line management experience.
• Ability to pick up in-flight work quickly and work effectively with ambiguity.
• Commitment to Blue Ventures' values of social justice, inclusivity and community-centred approaches.

Desirable

• Familiarity with Blue Ventures' focus areas, including marine conservation and community-based development.
• Experience working in matrixed organisations or in underserved, tropical countries.
• Proficiency in a second language relevant to Blue Ventures' work (e.g. Malagasy, French, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese).
• Certification in change management frameworks (e.g. Prosci, APMG Change Management, Certified Change Management Professional - CCMP) and/or project management (e.g. APM, PRINCE2).