Head of Transformation Practice and Capability

**Job Type:**Permanent**Build a brilliant future with Hiscox****Role: Head of Transformation Practice & Capability****Reporting to: Chief Transformation Officer****Location: London, York or Colchester****Advert closing date: 13th March 2026****About the Role**The Transformation Practice & Capability Lead is the organisation’s central architect of transformation excellence, responsible for defining, elevating and embedding the methodologies, capabilities, tools and partners that enable Hiscox to deliver change predictably, confidently and at scale. As the custodian of the Group’s transformation standards, this role ensures that every initiative, from the simplest change activity to the most complex enterprise programme, is underpinned by consistent discipline, clear structure, and world‑class delivery practices.Operating as a strategic partner to the Chief Transformation Officer, the role blends deep expertise in transformation methodology, organisational capability-building and operational excellence. You will shape the backbone of how Hiscox delivers change by creating an environment where teams have the frameworks, skills, behaviours and support they need to drive sustainable outcomes. This includes developing a clear, practical and enterprise‑wide change methodology; establishing and leading an Operational Excellence COE; designing role pathways and capability uplift strategies; and stewarding a high‑quality supplier ecosystem that complements in‑house capability.The role is central to enabling Hiscox to mature its transformation muscle. You will anticipate where the organisation needs greater structure, better tools, greater delivery consistency or stronger capability and turn these insights into practical, scalable solutions. You will also play a key role in building a community of practice across the transformation profession, creating cohesion, shared learning and a strong identity for practitioners across Business Units, IT, Finance, HR and central functions.This is a role for a strategic thinker and delivery expert who brings authority, clarity and confidence to complex environments. You will be comfortable shaping standards across a global organisation, coaching senior stakeholders, and leading improvements that change how teams work. Above all, you will be instrumental in ensuring Hiscox has the skills, methods and operational foundations required to deliver its transformation ambition with discipline, pace and impact.**What You’ll Be Doing****Methodology & Standards*** Owning the Group’s transformation and change delivery methodology and ensuring consistent application across initiatives.* Formalise a transformation risk and control framework, defining Quality gates, Risk thresholds, Stage boundaries and Assurance reviews* Leads and embeds structured change impact assessment and organisational readiness practices to ensure the business is prepared, engaged and capable of adopting transformation outcomes.* Evolving frameworks, templates, tools and standards to support high‑quality transformation delivery.* Embedding modern delivery practices including agile, design thinking and continuous improvement.**Capability Development*** Leads workforce and capability planning for the transformation community, including role design, career pathways and resourcing models that ensure long‑term in‑house capability* Manages skills gap analysis across transformation roles and workstreams, creating a central view of resources to enable optimisation across the enterprise* Designing and coordinating training, upskilling and coaching programmes with HR/OD and external partners.* Building a strong transformation community of practice to enable shared learning.**Operational Excellence COE*** Designing, establishing and leading the Operational Excellence COE (OpEx CoE), creating a central hub of expertise, standards and best‑practice delivery across the organisation.* Defining the vision, operating model and remit of the OpEx CoE, ensuring clear alignment with enterprise transformation priorities.* Developing and embedding standardised processes, continuous improvement frameworks, performance measures and problem‑solving methodologies.* Partnering with senior leaders and delivery teams to identify improvement opportunities, remove inefficiencies and drive operational performance at scale.**Supplier Management & Partner Governance*** Managing the transformation supplier panel, ensuring access to high‑quality partners that complement in‑house capability and support delivery across change, transformation and operational excellence.* Overseeing supplier selection, performance management and contractual alignment to ensure quality, value for money and consistency of delivery.* Establishing clear standards, expectations and ways of working for all external partners, ensuring alignment with the Group’s transformation methodology and operating model.* Acting as the central point of coordination for all transformation‑related external spend, ensuring transparency, appropriate challenge and strong stewardship of supplier relationships.* Continuously evaluating supplier performance, capabilities and market offerings to ensure the organisation partners with best‑in‑class expertise.**Tooling & Delivery Enablement*** Owning the suite of tools and systems used for planning, reporting, risk management and delivery.* Working with IT and vendors to ensure tools are effective, integrated and continuously improved.* Enhancing ways of working to improve transparency, consistency and pace.**Ways of Working & Operating Model Evolution*** Defining, embedding and continuously improving the ways of working that underpin transformation delivery, ensuring clarity of roles, decision rights, interactions and governance across teams.* Assessing and evolving the organisation’s operating model to ensure alignment with strategic priorities, identifying where processes, structures or accountabilities need to shift to enable effective delivery.* Facilitating regular reviews of cross‑functional working practices, surfacing bottlenecks and recommending improvements to strengthen collaboration, pace and decision‑making.* Partnering with senior leaders to reinforce outcome‑based working and promote modern, efficient and transparent delivery behaviours across the transformation community**Person Specification*** Extensive expertise in transformation and change delivery methodologies, with a deep understanding of modern approaches including agile, design thinking, continuous improvement and operational excellence.* Proven experience establishing or leading a centre of excellence, practice, or capability function, ideally within a complex, multi‑business organisation.* Demonstrated ability to assess organisational skills gaps, identify capability needs and design targeted development, training and coaching interventions that build long‑term in‑house capability.* Strong analytical and diagnostic skills, able to translate delivery challenges into clear, structured guidance, frameworks and repeatable tools.* Experience managing external suppliers and consulting partners, with the ability to assess capability, negotiate value, monitor performance and ensure alignment with internal standards and methodology.* Highly skilled communicator and influencer, able to guide, coach and build confidence across diverse teams, from senior leaders to transformation practitioners.* Credible expert in operational excellence, with experience embedding standardised processes, continuous improvement techniques and performance discipline into business teams.* Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trust and alignment across HR/OD, IT, Finance, Business Units and delivery teams.* Proactive, collaborative and outcomes‑focused, able to simplify complexity, drive clarity and promote consistent, high‑quality #J-18808-Ljbffr