Who are we?
Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.
People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.
What is the role?
We are seeking an experienced Global Head of Enabling Services to establish and lead our Corporate Services function. In this strategic role, you will design and implement a transformative infrastructure while overseeing scalable shared capabilities—from automation and process excellence to service design and data insights—integrated across the organization.
The role will design and operationalise the infrastructure that enables Corporate Services to become a true driver of enterprise-wide value. In this role, they lead the development and delivery of scalable shared capabilities—including automation, process excellence, service design, and data insights—while ensuring that adoption, resilience, and performance are embedded across every layer of the business.
A core priority is the establishment of a robust and future-fit change enablement ecosystem, underpinned by governance, risk awareness, behavioural engagement, and data-informed insight. They bring rigour, clarity, and empathy to enterprise transformation, making the intangible—such as culture, mindset, and adaptation—visible, trackable, and actionable.
This position is suited to a senior leader who views transformation not merely as a delivery function, but as a strategic and cultural shift that must be owned, enabled, and experienced at every level of the organisation.
What will you be doing?
Strategic Capability Leadership
- Develop and execute the strategic roadmap for enabling capabilities, including data visualization, service management, risk & controls, continuous improvement, and change governance.
- Ensure alignment of investment and strategic ambition.
- Build and scale Centres of Excellence to embed capability uplift across operational and functional domains.
- Ensure shared capabilities are modular, reusable, and aligned with long-term Corporate Services and enterprise strategy.
Transformation Delivery and Enterprise Enablement
- Translate strategic priorities into well-structured, resourced, and outcome-driven transformation programmes.
- Ensure capability deployment is aligned with user needs, frontline adoption, and business impact.
- Partner with functional leaders to embed new operating models, roles, and practices that support ongoing evolution.
- Provide tangible value transparency of transformation to business goals.
- Drive harmonisation of transformation effort towards common outcomes.
Change Management Leadership
- Operationalise an enterprise-grade change enablement function, including:
- A global change management framework grounded in behavioural science and best practice.
- Playbooks, methodologies, and self-service toolkits for functional leaders and delivery teams.
- A federated network of CS change champions and embedded practitioners across business units.
- Lead enterprise-wide initiatives that build capability and confidence in navigating complexity, disruption, and modernisation.
- Align delivery across project, product and operational teams in an efficient and effective manner.
Change Governance and Risk Integration
- Establish and chair CS change governance forums, creating clear escalation routes, decision-making frameworks, and alignment checkpoints across regions and programmes.
- Integrate risk and issue management into every stage of the transformation lifecycle—embedding scenario planning, readiness assessment, stakeholder impact analysis, and mitigation controls.
- Define and maintain enterprise-wide change risk dashboards, enabling senior leaders to anticipate blockers, monitor friction points, and course-correct proactively.
Insight, Measurement, and Data Visualisation
- Design a transformation analytics strategy that captures adoption, sentiment, risk, and value realisation in real-time.
- Leverage advanced data visualisation tools to make transformation progress clear, credible, and actionable.
- Translate complex transformation data into executive-ready insights—informing investment decisions, people strategies, and strategic pivots.
Stakeholder Engagement & Strategic Influence
- Operate as a key adviser and thought partner to CS and enterprise leaders—connecting vision to execution and change to value.
- Create high-trust, collaborative relationships with senior stakeholders across all regions and business units.
- Build confidence and clarity through transparent updates, shared metrics, and accessible storytelling of success and lessons learned.
Leadership & Cultural Stewardship
- Inspire and develop a high-performing global team of capability leaders, transformation specialists, change practitioners, and analysts.
- Promote a psychologically safe, inclusive, and growth-oriented team environment.
- Lead by example—championing curiosity, integrity, and service-driven leadership across all levels of the organisation.
What are we looking for?
Experience
- 10+ years in senior leadership roles across Global Business Services, Enterprise Transformation, Shared Services, or Centre of Excellence leadership.
- Demonstrated success designing and leading enterprise-wide transformation or capability uplift programmes across geographies and functions.
- Experience in building or embedding governance structures, operating models, and change adoption methodologies within complex organisations.
- Demonstrable experience working across complex organisations with diverse stakeholder groups.
- Demonstrable experience of leading integration and/or divestment of businesses for an Enterprise organisation.
- Demonstrable experience of building and delivering target organisational design.
Core Competencies
- Deep expertise in change management and organisational enablement.
- Organisational design experience that translated into delivery and benefit realisation 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—able to translate transformation data into impactful stories, dashboards, and executive insights.
- Highly collaborative, culturally fluent, and emotionally intelligent leader with the ability to influence at C-suite level.
- Business case development and ability to demonstrate organisational benefit over term of initiative to C-suite leadership.
Qualifications
- Degree in Business, Transformation, Organisational Psychology, Systems Thinking, or related field.
- PRINCE2, MSP 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. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden 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
Reasonable adjustments
We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.
If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.
*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.
Permanent
