Newcastle University
Organisational Development Lead
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Salary: £47,389 to £50,253 with progression to £56,535 per annum
Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Closing Date: 11 October 2026
The Role
The University’s Vision and Strategy sets out an ambitious and exciting journey, to be a people focused, world-leading university that harnesses academic excellence, innovation and creativity to advance knowledge and provide benefits to individuals, to organisations and to society as a whole. In order to achieve this vision, we recognise that our people, and our culture are critical to our success.
Our ambition for this role is to ensure we build the capability and capacity of our people in line with our Vision and Strategy. You will lead and shape a wide range of University-wide organisational development projects that will enhance the University’s ability to deliver excellence, creativity and impact through its people.
You will have strong organisational and project management skills and excel at building strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders. You will be able influence across all levels, bringing ideas and new thinking to generate enthusiasm and commitment for change.
To be highly successful in this role, you will work closely with key internal stakeholders to design, deliver and evaluate organisational development initiatives covering the breadth of the colleague lifecycle. You will develop and implement strategic OD plans which are data-informed, will unlock potential, build capability and embed the University’s values in everything we do.
We are looking for someone who can influence across all levels, be passionate about collaboration and be committed to delivering results for the multiple teams you work with. We are particularly keen to hear from those who can bring ideas and new thinking to generate enthusiasm and commitment for change as well as being willing to share knowledge and expertise.
We are happy to discuss flexible working requirements for this role and we are currently working with a hybrid model of some campus and home working. We can support with relocation for applicants outside of the North East region.
Please do reach out to Sarah Anderson at sarah.anderson@newcastle.ac.uk to have a chat about this opportunity.
To apply, please upload a CV and cover letter outlining your unique fit to the criteria set out in our person specification below.
Interviews will be held on our Newcastle campus.
Key Accountabilities
- Partner with key stakeholders to scope, design, deliver and evaluate a wide range of organisational development initiatives to meet the critical people needs of the University
- Lead on University-wide OD projects, working collaboratively and flexibly with colleagues in People Services and across the University to deliver OD and learning requirements across the range of strategic plans and enablers
- Support the delivery of the strategic leadership, talent and succession approach
- Build and oversee key strategic partnerships to ensure the highest standards of service delivery, cost efficiency and delivery of outstanding value
- Articulate measures of success and evaluate activities and interventions to understand whether objectives and outcomes have been achieved
- Design ways to articulate the University’s strategic narrative that are compelling and engaging
- Scope, design, deliver and evaluate OD and learning projects that seek to embed the values within the culture of the University
- Support colleagues to ensure that our processes are fully aligned with our employer brand and University Values
- Ensure all interventions are underpinned by a sound understanding of need and demand and that all the elements of the overall offer evolve to reflect this
- Design and deliver on programmes as required and in particular leadership and management development and core skills development
- Have shared oversight of our approach to colleague engagement including the end-to-end management of the University’s survey provision, communication, dissemination and action planning
- Work with colleagues across the University to enhance the quality and join up of insight, data and intelligence from engagement and survey initiatives
- Line manage, lead and support members of the OD team as required, creating the conditions for them to be the best that they can be and deliver against agreed goals, priorities and outcomes
- Deputise for Senior roles in the team as required
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The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Extensive experience of designing and delivering across a broad spectrum of organisational development and learning interventions
- Track record of leading and managing projects in complex organisations, with a proven ability to deliver on cost, quality and time requirements
- Experience of designing and delivering leadership, management development and coaching interventions at a variety of levels
- Experience of designing and delivering team development interventions and building collective leadership capability at a variety of levels
- Experience of designing and delivering interventions to support people transition through change
- Experience in influencing culture change and working on projects that have had a demonstrable impact on the culture and values of organisations
- Experience of working with multiple stakeholders on a shared agenda
- Understanding of employee engagement and practical experience of working on engagement activities, in particular the use of engagement surveys
- Proven track record on innovation; you keep yourself up to date on trends in the wider OD and learning world and implement these as a matter of course
- Strong data analysis skills, proven ability to use metrics and data to support critical thinking and improvement of the service
- Knowledge and experience of psychometrics and the use of these methodologies in development
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Attributes and Behaviour
- Works collaboratively and in partnership with others
- Promotes and actively drives change
- Ability to think strategically
- Excellent communicator, both verbal and written
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
- Ability to persuade, convince and influence others in order to achieve results
- Ability to balance and deliver on multiple priorities
- Ability to solve problems creatively
- Experience in creating and sustaining a positive and respectful workplace culture that upholds dignity, equity and fairness for all colleagues and students
- Displays enthusiasm, integrity and personal resilience
Qualifications
- Member of CIPD or working towards, or relevant professional qualification
- Level 5 coaching qualification or equivalent coaching experience
Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.
We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.
At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.
In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.
Requisition ID: 29782
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