Organisation Design & Development Lead

Contract Duration: 18 Months (Fixed term contract until April 2026)

Salary: £53,830 + London allowance of £3,520 if applicable

Location: Blended between office and home (England and Wales). Time in office negotiable

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives – from debt to evictions to trouble at work – and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

The Organisation Design and Development (ODD) Lead plays a key role in supporting the organisation’s on-going design and development, maintaining a focus on the experience of our people, in order to:

• Drive sustainable change
• Enable organisational performance and impact
• Focus on improvement
• Ensure and maintain people-centred approach
• Develop the employee experience

For this fixed term opportunity, the role will have a significant focus on organisation design reviews at a team, function and capability level across the organisation.

The nature of the role requires the postholder to be adaptable and flexible in their approach to their work, with the ability to manage multiple and competing priorities, and pivot between pieces of work. There are likely to be high levels of complexity in some projects and given the role will be involved in a range of work areas, the ability to recognise, understand and respond to interdependencies is essential - often playing a role in influencing leaders to make decisions which benefit the broader ‘system’.

With the project-based and multi-disciplinary nature of an Organisation Design and Development practitioner, it is expected that the postholder’s portfolio of work will change in response to the organisation’s priorities and needs. This role profile provides an overview of the expected activities, but the focus and attention on each of these will vary. As with all good ODD activity, there is an emphasis on holistic approaches that would likely see projects encompass and combine elements of organisation design, organisational development, leadership and talent development, and culture and employee experience. There is an expectation that all ODD Lead work would be underpinned by a strong and sustained demonstrable commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity.

The role requires extensive relationship development and management across Citizens Advice and, depending on the nature of work, there may be opportunities to engage with external partners and our network of local Citizens Advice offices. There will be an expectation that the postholder engages regularly with colleagues at all levels of seniority, including Executive Director colleagues, and will provide advice, guidance and influence decision-making in these settings.

To apply

To apply please submit an anonymous CV and anonymous cover letter (please limit your cover letter to 2 pages) that addresses how you meet the following criteria:

• Developed and specialist knowledge across at least two of the following areas which have been gained in a complex context: organisational development, organisation design, employee experience, colleague engagement, performance management, talent management, learning and development, human resources.
• Experience of designing and delivering organisation-wide initiatives successfully on time and to budget, demonstrating best practice in leadership development, ODD, culture, team development, HR and/or change through these.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Our commitment to colleague wellbeing is reflected in us being awarded Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category, as well as Overall Winners, at the Employee Experience Awards 2022.