Job overview

The Business Change Specialist is responsible for delivering business change activities that enable internal teams and external stakeholders to adopt and embed changes associated with the Research Systems Programme. The role owns and leads discrete business change deliverables—readiness assessments, stakeholder engagement, adoption interventions, and early-life support—and operates with a high degree of autonomy to ensure the successful transition from legacy systems to new digital services.

This role is part of a fast-paced, iterative programme to build a user-centred digital service and achieve a successful transition from current systems (IRAS, HARP and TOPS). The programme will: connect processes for health and social care research in the UK; make the UK a great place to do research that people can trust; and help people collaborate to plan, approve, set up, manage and complete research.

This post is designed specifically to support and deliver the business change activity required to enable implementation of the new digital service

What you’ll do
We're after someone who knows how to land change in the real world — in messy, multi-agency, complex settings. You’ll bring:

·         A collaborative style that builds trust and engagement across boundaries

·         Practical skills in planning, readiness assessment, and user-focused change adoption

A structured, methodical approach rooted in recognised change methodologies

Interviews will take place week commencing 15th Dec

Main duties of the job

·         Work closely with Business Change Managers/Leads and the Chief Business Transformation Officer to review stakeholder impacts through agile development and provide data for readiness assessments.

·         Engage and advise internal/external stakeholders on upcoming service, system and process changes, supporting effective planning and adoption.

·         Work with the Communications & Engagement Manager to maintain the business change communications plan, drafting targeted content.

·         Contribute to the development and agreement of change plans for different user groups, ensuring they are tailored, inclusive and aligned with product/service delivery.

·         Support the Benefits Manager, Project Manager and stakeholders to identify and leverage benefits.

·         Develop and/or advise on the creation of required business change products, engaging relevant end users.

·         Co-develop support materials with Communications, Learning & Development and Guidance teams to ensure products are accessible and timed to need.

·         Collate data and reports to support Business Change Leads/Managers in preparing and updating business readiness criteria ahead of implementation.

Working for our organisation

Working at the HRA, we are reminded daily of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for you, not just us and the work we do. 

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know from experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger, more creative workplace that helps us to deliver the best services. We welcome applications which represent the rich diversity of our community: age, disability, gender identity and expression, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and other diverse characteristics, and we have policies in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process. 

When applying to work here, speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement – if it works for us, we will do our best to make it work for you. 

Please note, if applying to our Manchester, Nottingham or Bristol locations, we are only able to offer the role as home based.