Change Manager

Freshwater Recruitment is delighted to be partnering with a prestigious, world-leading Higher Education provider to recruit an experienced Change Manager to support the delivery of high-profile strategic transformation initiatives across a complex and fast-moving environment.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a confident change professional who thrives on working across multiple workstreams, building strong relationships with senior stakeholders, and ensuring new ways of working are successfully adopted and sustained.

As Change Manager, you will take ownership of end-to-end change management delivery across a portfolio of strategic programmes and projects. You will design and implement robust change approaches that support organisational readiness, stakeholder engagement, and measurable adoption of new processes, technology and operating models.

You will be responsible for:

• Leading the full change management approach across assigned transformation programmes and projects
• Assessing organisational change impacts and supporting enterprise-wide alignment to manage change load and readiness
• Coordinating change interventions across multiple teams and workstreams
• Building trusted relationships with senior leaders and advising on best practice change delivery
• Coaching sponsors and managers to effectively lead teams through change
• Delivering workshops including readiness sessions, stakeholder engagement sessions and change impact assessments
• Applying both agile and waterfal l change management tools and techniques
• Designing and delivering targeted communications and engagement plans in partnership with communications teams
• Supporting adoption planning, transition support and training needs analysis
• Embedding and promoting change capability across delivery teams through coaching and knowledge sharing
• Contributing positively to a collaborative and high-performing transformation team culture

About you

We’re looking for an experienced and proactive Change Manager who can confidently operate in a complex, large-scale organisation and deliver structured, people-focused change.

Essential experience and skills include:

• Proven experience delivering change management in a large, complex organisation (digital and/or organisation design change)
• Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management at all levels, including senior leadership
• Demonstrable expertise in stakeholder mapping, impact assessments, readiness planning, adoption planning and benefits-led delivery
• Experience working with both agile and waterfall delivery methodologies
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to coach, engage and gain buy-in
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities effectively
• A recognised change qualification (e.g. Prosci, APMG or similar)
• Experience delivering change within Higher Education or a comparable public sector environment

This is an initial 12 month fixed term contract that will start ASAP, 1 month notice maximum. The role is based in London, 2 days per week in the office