Head of Enterprise Change Excellence

At M&G our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work.As an international savings and investments business with roots stretching back more than 170 years we offer a range of financial products and services through Asset Management Life and Wealth. All three operating segments work together to deliver attractive financial outcomes for our clients and superior shareholder returns.

Through our behaviours of telling it like it is owning it now and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Head of Enterprise Change Excellence

The Role: M&G Life covers over 5 million customers with more than 300 Bn invested across all of its products and wrappers and has an ambitious growth plan for 2025 and beyond. M&G Life operations work with a number of partners including Equiniti Diligenta Waystone Paragon Willis Towers Watson as well as M&G Global Services supporting our in-house operation.

This newly created role presents a unique and inspiring opportunity to lead the transformation of the Life Change function at M&G Life into a best-in-class enterprise capability. As the Head of Enterprise Change Excellence you will be at the forefront of shaping the future of change deliverysetting new benchmarks for innovation quality and customer-centric outcomes. With full accountability for the design implementation and assurance of quality standards across all enterprise-wide change initiatives you will drive excellence in delivery practices governance risk management and capability development across the entire portfolio.

Key Responsibilities:

As a pivotal member of the senior leadership team the Head of Enterprise Change Excellence holds comprehensive authority over the design implementation and ongoing refinement of quality standards across all enterprise-wide change initiatives. This senior role demands the definition and enforcement of robust quality strategies and best practice frameworks across diverse delivery models including Agile Waterfall and hybrid approaches. The Head of Enterprise Change Excellence will be responsible for establishing and governing risk and control frameworks ensuring alignment with the enterprise risk appetite and meeting the highest standards of compliance in partnership with internal and external auditors.

Upholding a culture of collaboration and constructive challenge the Head will build and maintain advanced capability and capacity frameworks for delivery rolespartnering closely with HR L&D and senior stakeholders to nurture talent and ensure workforce readiness.

Ownership of the tooling and data strategy including the effective deployment and continuous improvement of platforms is central to enabling data-led transparent decision-making. The role further requires leading inspiring and developing a team of quality and delivery professionals fostering a culture where excellence accountability and cross-functional engagement are the norm and acting as a trusted advisor who consistently challenges supports and elevates the standard of enterprise change delivery. Specific deliverable highlighted below:

Quality Strategy & Frameworks

• Define and embed a comprehensive quality strategy across the change portfolio.
• Establish and maintain best practice frameworks for Agile Waterfall and hybrid delivery models.
• Drive continuous improvement through feedback loops retrospectives and lessons learned.
• Lead the design monitoring and reporting on project delivery quality metrics that affect customer outcomes and delivery of value.

Governance Risk & Control

• Own the governance model for change delivery ensuring alignment with enterprise risk appetite.
• Lead the development and oversight of risk and control frameworks for change initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with internal and external audit requirements.
• Ensure quality assurance and data practices align with regulatory requirements including FCA conduct rules Solvency II and GDPR.

Capability & Capacity

• Build and maintain a capability framework for delivery roles (e.g. PMs BAs Programme Directors).
• Lead capacity planning and workforce readiness across the portfolio.
• Partner with HR and L&D to design and deliver role-specific development pathways.

Tooling & Data

• Own the strategy and roadmap for project delivery tooling (e.g. ServiceNow Jira).
• Ensure tools are effectively adopted and used to drive data-led decision-making.
• Oversee the quality and consistency of portfolio data and reporting.

Leadership & Engagement

• Lead coach and develop a high-performing team of quality and delivery professionals.
• Foster a culture of excellence collaboration and accountability.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on delivery quality and risk.

Assurance and Hands on Delivery Support

• Engage directly with project teams to assess and uplift delivery quality in real time.
• Champion alignment with best practice frameworks while adapting to individual project needs.
• Drive improvement through regular reviews constructive feedback and tailored interventions.
• Ensure governance and quality standards support project progress rather than hinder it.
• Defining and implementing quality assurance methodologies including test planning execution and defect tracking across change initiatives.

Collaborate with delivery leads to anticipate challenges and adapt approaches as needed.

Embed a culture of learning accountability and outcome-based success across all initiatives.

Key Skills and Experience:

Candidate profile:

A colleague-obsessed leadership approach is fundamental to fulfilling the key responsibilities of this role: ensuring effective tooling adoption driving data-led decisions and maintaining high standards across project delivery. By focusing on colleagues strengths supporting open communication and celebrating achievements the leader creates a culture where teams feel empowered to own portfolio data quality and deliver consistent reporting.

Championing inclusivity and hands-on support not only builds high-performing collaborative teams but also accelerates the adoption of best practices in tools and governance. This people-first mindset ensures that everyone is engaged obstacles are swiftly addressed and personal growth is prioritiseddirectly fuelling delivery excellence accountability and innovation. Ultimately being colleague obsessed is not simply good leadershipit is a strategic necessity for driving results fostering trust and unlocking organisational success.

Demonstrated background in financial services with a proven track record of rolling out best practices across diverse change functions. Brings a deep understanding of risk and control and excels in streamlining and reinforcing governance frameworks to drive clarity and accountability. Adept at implementing best-in-class tooling and cultivating a true sense of communityhaving built and led successful communities of practice that span multiple organisational layers.

Extensive experience working closely with Risk and Audit teams as well as influencing portfolios and Steering Committees (SteerCo) to ensure strategic alignment and effective oversight. Skilled at driving continuous improvement and embedding a strong One Team mentality even in complex and shifting landscapes.

Notably this leader has championed challenged and guided mindset and cultural shifts in leadership at all levelsincluding up to Executive Committee (Exco). They have been instrumental in inspiring senior leaders to adopt more inclusive empowering and agile approaches often acting as a catalyst for deep transformation. Through courageous conversations clear vision and persistent advocacy they have helped reshape organisational cultureensuring that collaborative people-first values are embedded from the top down.

Highly proficient in project management and reporting tools with advanced expertise in Power BI and its applications to enable data-driven decisions. Confident in leveraging AI tools such as Copilot as valuable thought partners enabling smarter faster and more innovative ways of working.

Qualifications:

• Evidence of successful leadership development training particularly in inclusive and collaborative management practices within financial services
• Strong record of continuous professional development and commitment to ongoing learning
• Bachelors degree or higher in Business Finance Project Management or a related discipline
• Desirable: certification in Project or Programme Management (e.g. PRINCE2 PMP AgilePM) relevant qualifications in Risk Management or Governance (such as IRM or equivalent)
• Proven training or certification in the use of AI tools for business (e.g. Microsoft Copilot AI for Leaders)

Key Behaviours:

• Brings a self-starting & adaptable approach to change proactively identifying opportunities and responding to evolving priorities with pace precision and purpose.
• Build trust by putting people at the center of decisions fostering a collaborative and empowering environment enabling teams to thrive through delivery uncertainty and transformation.
• Takes ownership of outcomes anticipates risks and initiates solutions without waiting for direction.
• Apply critical thinking to assess risks and interpret data to drive evidence-based decisions to support and protect delivery of value.
• Demonstrate integrity in handling sensitive data upholding trust and transparency.

Work Level : Integrated leader

Recruiter: Sarah Mathers

Location: London Stirling or Homebased UK or NI

Closing Date : 2 September 2025

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender ethnicity age sexual orientation nationality disability or long term condition we are looking to attract promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.

M&G is also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions disabilities or neuro-divergent conditions. Being a Disability Confident Leader means that candidates who meet the minimum criteria of a job will be offered an interview if they opt in to the scheme when applying.

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