Organisation Design Lead

If you’d like to be considered for this opportunity we encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment as if applications are high the role will close before the closing date given.

AWE is looking for an experienced Organisational Design professional to join us on a 12-month fixed-term contract, providing additional expertise and capacity across our busy and varied portfolio.

You’ll play an important role in delivering key activities, partnering with stakeholders and bringing your experience to complex and evolving pieces of work. Alongside delivery, you’ll help strengthen our internal capability by sharing your knowledge, developing others and embedding effective approaches that support the team for the future.

Location: Located in Reading, with free onsite parking.

Package: Starting from £61,040 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience)

Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application.

Ready to play your part?

At AWE, it’s not just a job, it’s far more than that. Our shared purpose is to help keep the nation safe. Could this role be the opportunity for you to play your part?

The Organisation Design (OD) Lead is a pivotal role within AWE’s People, Culture and Communications function. You will be responsible for shaping and optimising the organisation’s operating model, ensuring alignment between structure, processes, capability, and strategic priorities. Acting as the organisation’s OD expert, you will lead the design and delivery of OD frameworks, principles, and methodologies, ensuring AWE is set up for long‑term success in a complex, evolving environment.

In the role you will:

• Lead a portfolio of organisation design and operating model projects across AWE, navigating ambiguity and balancing competing priorities.
• Develop and execute AWE’s OD strategy, ensuring organisational structures, capability, and processes align with business needs.
• Design, embed, and maintain OD methodology and tools, including design principles, operating model frameworks, sizing, spans of control and layers.
• Act as guardian of AWE’s Target Operating Model, ensuring regular review, optimisation, and alignment to strategic objectives.
• Create and deliver a Teams framework that supports the embedding of new structures and ways of working.
• Conduct periodic assessments of operating model health using analytics and benchmarking.
• Analyse organisational structures and make recommendations on optimal size, shape, skill mix, and value for money.
• Work closely with business leaders to provide insight and guidance on organisational capability and in/outsourcing (Make/Team/Buy) strategies.
• Enhance OD and organisational effectiveness capability across the HR function and leadership population.
• Stay up to date with OD & Target Operating Model (TOM) best practice and bring new thinking into AWE.

The Company may require you to fulfil any other reasonable duties aligned to your position from time to time, in line with business needs.

Whilst not to be considered a tick list, we’d like you to have experience in some of the following:

• Extensive experience delivering large-scale organisation design programmes end-to-end.
• Practical experience with OD and TOM methodologies, tools, and techniques.
• Experience facilitating organisational change around roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities.
• Proven ability to manage multiple OD programmes across geographically dispersed or complex environments.
• Capability to develop and apply design principles to shape organisational structures.
• Strong workshop facilitation and excellent communication skills, including executive-level engagement.
• Proven leadership skills with resilience to perform effectively under pressure.
• Experience using organisational data and analytics to inform design decisions.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to influence stakeholders at senior levels.
• Resilience, pragmatism, and comfort working with competing priorities and ambiguity.

Some reasons we think you’ll love it here:

AWE has wide range of benefits to suit you. These include:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

The 'Working at AWE' page on our website is where you can find full details in the 'AWE Benefits Guide'.

Hybrid working is available for this role on an informal, non-contractual basis.

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Next steps:

Everyone who works at AWE brings unique skills and perspectives to the table. We recognise that great people don’t always ‘tick every box’. That’s why we focus on your potential, your fit with our values, your transferable skills as well as your experience. Even if you don’t meet every point above, but you feel that this role and AWE are a great fit for you, please go ahead and apply, we’d love to receive your application.

Important things you need to know:

• We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes.
• You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. 
• We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.
• Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.