Head of Business and Transformation

As our newly created Head of Business Change & Transformation, you'll lead the long-term transformation agenda across Commercial Operations, creating a clear strategy for process improvement, data, reporting, digital tools and future ways of working.

Working closely with technology teams, central support functions, Regional Directors and leisure centre operations, you'll review end-to-end processes, simplify ways of working and identify opportunities to reduce duplication and manual activity.

You'll set standards and governance for operating procedures and ensure new systems, tools and dashboards are designed around operational needs.

You'll own the transformation roadmap and help shape our future operating model, connecting people, processes, data and technology.

You'll ensure programmes are prioritised around measurable business outcomes, with the right plans in place for operational readiness, communication, training and adoption.

Please note that this role involves frequent travel to our Leisure sites, typically 2 to 3 days per week.

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application.

We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can't promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect.

We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment.

By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities.

To be considered for this role, your CV will need to demonstrate:

• Experience of leading business change, transformation, continuous improvement or operating model development within a complex, multi-site or operational organisation.
• Evidence of using recognised process improvement tools or methodologies, such as Lean or Six Sigma, to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
• Experience of owning or developing data, reporting or business intelligence roadmaps, including data definitions, reporting governance and source-of-truth design.
• Experience of partnering with technology teams to define business requirements, shape system roadmaps and manage the sequencing and adoption of change.
• Evidence of developing transformation roadmaps that connect processes, systems, data and colleague or customer experience to measurable business outcomes.

Ideally you will come from a leisure, retail or hospitality background.

You'll be an experienced transformation leader who can turn complex operational challenges into clear, practical plans. You'll understand how process, data, technology and colleague experience fit together, and you'll be confident challenging existing ways of working to achieve better outcomes.

You'll bring strong commercial and operational awareness, with the ability to balance different priorities and provide credible recommendations to senior leaders. You'll be comfortable working across central functions, field leadership, operational teams and technology partners, building support for change while keeping business readiness and adoption at the heart of your approach.

You'll understand the communication, training and transition planning needed to embed new ways of working safely and consistently. Curious about emerging technology and AI, you'll use external insight to identify opportunities while ensuring transformation remains…