Head of Change and Continuous Improvement

Why Join Howden US?At Howden, we’re not just building a business- We’re rewriting the rules of what a global insurance broker can be. And now, it’s your turn to be part of something extraordinary. From three people and a dog to over 22,000 employees across 56 countries, we’ve grown into a $4bn revenue powerhouse with bold ambition: to become a $13bn business with 40,000 people by 2030. We’re launching our US retail platform with the same entrepreneurial spirit that’s driven our success worldwide- and we’re looking for trailblazers to help shape the future.Why Howden? You’ll Own It With6,000 employee shareholders owning 34% of the company, our unique ownership model means you’re not just joining a team—you’re building a business you truly own. You’ll Be Empowered We’re a destination for talent where people are trusted to look after their clients and grow together. You’ll have the freedom to lead, backed by global scale and local expertise. You’ll Be Part of Something Bigger Our integrated platform spans broking, reinsurance, and MGA capabilities—giving you access to everything you need to deliver for clients and build something remarkableWe have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we've focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. Simply put, we hire talented specialists and give them what they need to make a difference for clients. Always have, always will.What is the role? We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Head of Change and Continuous Improvement to build and lead a high-performing enterprise function that drives both transformation and operational excellence. You will be responsible for developing and embedding scalable capabilities—while embedding resilience, performance, and adoption across the business. A key focus will be the creation of a robust, future-ready change and improvement enablement ecosystem, grounded in strong governance, risk awareness, behavioral engagement, continuous feedback and data-driven insight.You will bring clarity, structure, and empathy to enterprise transformation—making the intangible elements of change, such as culture, mindset, and adaptability, visible, measurable, and actionable. This is an exciting opportunity for a senior leader who views transformation not just as a delivery function, but as a strategic and cultural shift—one that must be owned, enabled, and experienced at every level of the organization.What will you be doing? Strategic Service Capability Leadership Lead the strategic roadmap for service enabling capabilities. Ensure alignment of investment with strategic ambition and business outcomes. Build and scale Centers of Excellence to embed capability uplift. Ensure shared service capabilities are modular, reusable, and aligned with long-term strategy.Change Management Leadership Operationalize an enterprise-grade change enablement function, including: A change management framework grounded in behavioral science and best practice. Playbooks, methodologies, and self-service toolkits for functional leaders and delivery teams. Collaborate with a network of change champions and embedded practitioners across business units. Lead enterprise-wide initiatives that build capability and confidence in navigating modernization. Align delivery across project, product and operational teams in an efficient and effective manner.Change Governance and Risk Integration Align business architecture with broader governance frameworks. Establish and chair CS change governance forums. Integrate risk and issue management into every stage of the transformation lifecycle. Define and maintain enterprise-wide change risk dashboards.Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead the design, documentation, and optimization of SOPs. Drive a culture of excellence through robust QA frameworks, continuous feedback loops, and proactive. identification of improvement opportunities. Establish and oversee a business help desk function to provide end-to-end user and client support. Champion client experience design, monitoring and improving NPS, retention, and client profitability. Ensure team structures and alignments optimize delivery of continuous improvement initiatives.Learning and Development Design and implement training programs that strengthen capabilities across client delivery and operations. Build learning pathways that reinforce consistent application of SOPs and process standards. Partner with business leaders to embed operational excellence into onboarding and ongoing training. Maintain knowledge-sharing tools to capture and disseminate best practices. Promote a culture of continuous learning focused on process discipline and client-first behaviors.Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration Operate as a key adviser and thought partner to CS and enterprise leaders. Create high-trust, collaborative relationships with senior stakeholders. Build confidence and clarity through transparent updates, shared metrics, and accessible storytelling.Key Skills & Competencies Deep expertise in change management, organizational enablement and continuous improvement. Organizational design experience that translated into delivery and benefit realization for firm(s). Strategic systems thinker with operational discipline and commercial insight. Proven ability to create governance models that balance agility with risk and control. Strong analytical acumen. Highly collaborative, culturally fluent, and emotionally intelligent leader. Able to influence at C-suite level. Able to develop business case and demonstrate organizational benefit.Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Adoption and usage rates of new systems, processes, and operating models. Stakeholder readiness and sentiment scores. Compliance with change governance frameworks and audit outcomes. Process efficiency gains. Quality assurance outcomes. Client experience and retention improvements.Qualifications Degree in Business, Transformation, Organizational Psychology, Systems Thinking, or related field. PMI PMP Change Management certification preferred. Familiarity with tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Smartsheet, or ServiceNow dashboards is an advantage. Lean Six Sigma certification is beneficial.What do we offer in return? A career that you define. Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society’s greatest challenges. And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work – and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.Diversity and InclusionAt Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden ‘personality type’. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us: Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond We consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect – regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or family circumstances.Our sustainability promise We’re on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It's a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can. Our governance processes, company policies, and review systems are all geared towards our goal of making a positive impact in the world. You can read more about our sustainability workhere.

Created: 2025-09-25