Head of Business Transformation – Defence

Arden White is recruiting on behalf of a leading organisation for a senior Head of Business Transformation and Operational Excellence. This is a pivotal leadership role responsible for aligning commercial commitments with operational delivery through robust planning, digital transformation, and performance management.

The successful candidate will act as the architect of operational and commercial synchronisation, ensuring that estimates, schedules, and cost baselines are directly linked to contract profitability and customer performance through a single source of truth.
Key Responsibilities
Planning and Operational Control

• Establish strong links between commercial KPIs and operational delivery through improved communication, visual management, and performance controls
• Develop and maintain robust cost and schedule baselines to support multi million pound programmes
• Own and govern the organisation’s single source of truth, ensuring alignment across commercial, engineering, and operational teams
• Translate complex requirements into intuitive dashboards and real time performance visualisation
• Take a holistic view of business processes to drive a lean, agile, and competitive operating model

Digital Transformation and Data Integrity

• Act as functional administrator for core operational and airworthiness systems, ensuring reliability and reporting capability
• Design and maintain secure, future proof data architecture across business owned systems
• Lead teams of developers and analysts to convert complex data into actionable insights
• Define and maintain KPI structures to support decision making and performance improvement

Leading Change

• Define and deliver the medium and long term transformation strategy across the business
• Lead transformation programme governance, risk management, and reporting to the Senior Leadership Team
• Align transformation investment with financial benefits, ensuring clear return on investment through cost reduction and productivity gains
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, new ways of working, and cross functional collaboration
• Line manage and mentor BI and application development teams, promoting technical excellence

Essential Skills and Experience

• Proven leadership of complex transformation programmes and governance at senior level
• Experience delivering operational change within production or MRO environments
• Strong technical architecture background with experience integrating multiple business systems
• Excellent stakeholder management and ability to translate business needs into technical solutions
• Expert knowledge of MRO systems such as Envision or equivalent
• Experience with BI platforms such as Looker or Oracle APEX
• Strong SQL or PLSQL skills with deep understanding of data modelling and visualisation

Desirable Skills

• Knowledge of aviation maintenance and airworthiness standards
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Additional Requirements

• DBS clearance required and eligibility for SC clearance
• Compliance with Export Control Regulations
• Legal right to work in the United Kingdom

What’s on Offer

• A senior, influential role driving business wide transformation
• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Opportunity to shape future operating models and industry leading performance

If you are a transformation leader with strong operational and digital expertise, Arden White would welcome your application.

Ready to accelerate your career? Apply now!