Global Head of Change Management

The Global Head of Change Management leads Jellycat’s global change control function, building and running a robust change management capability across the business. Reporting to the Global Business Transformation Director, this role leads and develops a multidisciplinary team of Business Analysts, System Administrators and Testers, and owns the end to end change control process - from inception, through impact assessment, build, testing and documentation, to delivery - ensuring change is delivered safely, on time and aligned with Jellycat’s strategic priorities.

You’ll be:

Global Change Control Process

• Owning and maintaining Jellycat’s global change control process end to end, covering intake, impact assessment, prioritisation, build, testing, release and post implementation review.
• Partnering with the Global Business Transformation Director and senior stakeholders to define and continuously improve the change management framework, ensuring it scales with the pace and complexity of the business.
• Establishing and maintaining change pipeline reporting, dashboards and KPIs that give leadership a clear, real time view of change volume, risk and throughput across systems and functions.
• Identifying interdependencies and conflicts across concurrent changes, and proactively managing trade offs in scope, timeline and system impact.
• Leading regular Change Advisory Board (CAB) forums with senior stakeholders, recommending decisions on prioritisation, sequencing and go/no go for release.

Team Leadership & Management

• Leading, managing and developing a multidisciplinary team of Business Analysts, System Administrators and Testers, setting clear objectives and creating a culture of accountability, quality and continuous improvement.
• Allocating Business Analysts, System Administrators and Testers to changes and initiatives based on skills, capacity and business priority, balancing workload and development opportunities across the team.
• Building team capability through coaching, structured development plans and access to relevant training and certifications.
• Leading the recruitment and onboarding of change management talent as the team and change portfolio grow.
• Fostering strong, collaborative working relationships between the change team and functional and business teams across Jellycat.

Testing, Quality & Documentation

• Designing, implementing and continuously improving a consistent global change control methodology, covering impact and risk assessment, approval, build, testing and release.
• Establishing clear governance structures and escalation routes, including change approval authorities and emergency change routes.
• Ensuring every change has a clear scope, justification, risk assessment, test plan and sign-off, together with complete documentation from inception through to closure and post-implementation review.
• Embedding rigorous risk and issue management practices, ensuring risks identified during testing are owned and mitigated prior to release.
• Championing consistent use of change, test and documentation management tools and systems, driving standardisation, quality and audit-readiness across the team.
• Monitoring compliance with governance standards and taking corrective action where changes deviate from agreed processes.

Stakeholder Communication & Engagement

• Building strong, trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and system and process owners across Jellycat, acting as a key point of contact for change delivery.
• Designing and delivering clear, tailored communications for different audiences, from working-level updates through to Executive Committee reporting.
• Ensuring stakeholders are engaged early and appropriately throughout the change lifecycle, managing expectations and building buy-in for change.
• Representing the change management function in senior forums, presenting change pipeline status, risks and recommendations with clarity and confidence.
• Acting as an escalation point for change-related issues, working with sponsors and the Global Business Transformation Director to resolve blockers quickly.

• 10+ years’ experience in change management, business analysis or IT delivery, including significant experience owning a global change control process across multiple systems and functions.
• 5+ years’ proven experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams, including Business Analysts, System Administrators and Testers, with strong people leadership and coaching skills.
• Deep expertise in change management and control frameworks (e.g. ITIL Change Management, ISO 20000, Agile/DevOps change practices), with the ability to tailor frameworks pragmatically to organisational needs.
• A formal change, IT service management or testing qualification (e.g. ITIL, ISTQB, PRINCE2 or Agile/Scrum certifications).
• A strong background in software and system testing practices and methodologies, with the ability to establish and enforce quality and testing standards across a testing function.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with a track record of building credibility and influence at senior and Executive level.
• A strong track record of establishing or significantly improving a change control or change management function.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical or process information into clear, actionable insights for different audiences.
• Experience operating within a fast-paced, international organisation.

Desirable

• Experience within retail, FMCG, licensing or a global consumer brand.
• Experience using change, test and documentation management tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, Zephyr or Confluence.
• Experience supporting broader business transformation or organisational change initiatives.