Continuous Improvement & Operational Transformation Lead

Role Description

Rank\Scale PO5

Head of Change - Corporate Development

Reports To

Supervisory Responsibility

Main Responsibilities 1) Strategic Automation & Continuous Improvement Leadership Identify automation opportunities across technical and non-technical workflows. Build and maintain a pipeline of initiatives aligned to strategic priorities. Develop business cases for automation and process redesign. Champion a culture of continuous improvement across the organisation. 2) End-to-End Delivery of Automation & Workflow Optimisation Direct RPA and M365 developers to design, build, and deploy automations. Oversee testing, stakeholder sign-off, and controlled rollout of solutions. Implement frameworks for standardised work and streamlined approvals. Ensure handover to BAU with SOPs and sustainability measures. 3) Governance, Monitoring & Reporting Establish governance cadence for oversight and decision-making. Produce and present dashboards, KPI reports, and benefit realisation updates. Monitor sustainability through control charts and feedback loops. Report progress to leadership and inspection bodies. 4) Cross-Functional Collaboration & People Impact Management Work with HR, L&D, Finance, IT, and Change Management to address impacts. Coordinate with IT for integration and resilience of technical solutions. Engage stakeholders to co-design improvements and manage change readiness. Support workforce transition through training and capability building. 5) Team Leadership & Capability Development Line-manage CI Officers and automation developers. Coach teams in Lean, Six Sigma, and automation best practices. Build organisational capability for data-driven decision-making. Foster collaboration to scale successful practices across the organisation.

The Continuous Improvement Lead plays a pivotal role in driving operational excellence and embedding a culture of continuous improvement across the constabulary. Positioned at the heart of change and transformation, this role leads the end-to-end improvement lifecycle using Lean DMAIC principles, ensuring initiatives deliver measurable benefits aligned to strategic priorities and inspection requirements. A key focus is on identifying and implementing automation opportunities across all areas of the organisation-both technical and non-technical-optimising workflows, reducing duplication, and improving service delivery. The post holder will manage a multidisciplinary team, including RPA and M365 developers, and work collaboratively with departments such as HR, Finance, Learning & Development, IT, and Change Management to address organisational and people impacts arising from improvement activities. They will curate and prioritise a portfolio of initiatives, develop robust business cases, and oversee the design, testing, and deployment of solutions. Additionally, the role is accountable for establishing governance frameworks, monitoring sustainability, and providing clear reporting to senior forums on progress and benefit realisation. Through expert stakeholder engagement and capability building, the Continuous Improvement Lead ensures that continuous improvement becomes an embedded way of working, delivering lasting value across the constabulary.

Role Profile

Continuous Improvement Lead

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Additional Information Vetting Level: The role must be vetted to a minimum of MV Level. Mobility: The Force reserves the right to request you to carry out any other duties or move you to any other post appropriate to your grade, at any location within the county of Gloucestershire, as business requirements dictate. Working Pattern: Normal working hours will average 37 per week or will be pro rata, based at Waterwells Headquarters This will be worked subject to the needs of the service and may involve shift, night, weekend and public holiday working.

Standards of Professional Behaviour: All members of Police Staff / Police Officers must comply with these standards. Training and development: Undertake the required training and development to maintain working knowledge.

First Line Manager for:

- Continuous Improvement Support Officer x 3

- Continuous Improvement Coordinator x 1

- RPA Developer x 4

- 365 Developer x 2

Experience and Qualifications

Role Profile

Continuous Improvement Lead

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Essential:

To perform effectively as Continuous Improvement Lead in a constabulary, the post holder needs proven management experience of supervising staff and/or leading a function. As this is a senior role the expectation is that you are likely to have at least 5 years' experience of managing complex Continuous Improvement Teams. This includes line-managing multidisciplinary teams (CI Officers, RPA and M365 Developers), setting objectives, allocating resources, and assuring delivery quality. • Experience should cover creating portfolio plans, prioritising a pipeline, and running governance cadences (weekly operational reviews, monthly boards) that surface risks, decisions, and benefits. • The manager will have led change across HR, L&D, Finance, IT and operational units, coordinating people impacts, training, and readiness activities. • They will have negotiated trade-offs between control, security, cost and service speed, resolved conflicts, and built sponsorship with senior stakeholders. • Demonstrable competence in performance management, coaching and mentoring, and building capability so teams become self-sufficient is essential. • The role requires confidence in benefit realisation, setting KPIs, monitoring sustainability, and presenting clear progress reports to appropriate forums. • The post holder will model delivery discipline: stage gates, standards stewardship, and escalation routines, while cultivating a culture of continuous improvement and psychological safety that empowers colleagues to experiment, learn, and adopt improved ways of working. • The Continuous Improvement Lead should be comfortable scoping and overseeing automations and digital workflow solutions (RPA, Power Automate, forms, rules engines), understanding how data flows, exceptions, audit logs and role- based access work in practice. • They will have experience mapping processes to a granular level, validating data integrity, and designing measurement systems and dashboards that track cycle time, demand, error rates and control charts. • Practical experience of testing, piloting and controlled rollout is required: setting test plans, defect triage, rollback strategies, and change tickets with IT. The post holder should understand integration patterns, resilience, security guardrails and incident management, collaborating with IT to keep solutions supportable. • In policing and public-sector contexts, they design auditable, reliable, proportionate solutions that protect users, data and service continuity. • Confidence interpreting logs and telemetry to diagnose issues and prevent recurrence in production, and sustain service quality under operational pressure and scrutiny. • Full or part accreditation or qualifications related to Continuous Improvement and Robotic Process Automation best practice. (Business, IT or Public Sector; Lean Sigma Six or Equivalent) Desirable:

• Knowledge of public-sector working, constabulary context, and inspection regimes is desirable, along with adherence to information governance and ethical standards. • Experience of working with / or teams that use Blue prism • Familiarity with process-mining tools, scripting or configuration of automation platforms, and troubleshooting common issues (e.g., credentials, API limits, queue handling) is advantageous. • Experience operating with legacy systems and vendor platforms, balancing cloud capabilities with RPA licenses and constraints, is beneficial.

Progression

Skill Category Skill Name Skill Level Skill Description For PDR

Intelligent, Creative and Informed Policing

We analyse critically Senior Manager/Executive

I create a work environment that values the effective use of high-quality analysis and decision-making.
I identify root causes, even in ambiguous or unclear situations, and ensure my organisation goes beyond treating only the symptoms.
I use my knowledge of the strategic context, external environment and long-term trends to inform effective decision making.
I acknowledge that some decisions may represent a significant change. I think about the best way to introduce such decisions and earn support.

Yes

Role Profile

Continuous Improvement Lead

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Inclusive, Enabling and Visionary Leadership

We are collaborative Senior Manager/Executive

I build strong partnerships by finding common ground with others, acknowledging their different priorities and negotiating effectively with them.
I am politically astute and understand how national policy and politics affects our partners. This allows me to work effectively within decision-making structures.
I use my knowledge of our partners' and stakeholders' interests and concerns to anticipate conflict before it happens.
I support stakeholder relationships to enable things to get done by the most appropriate partners.
I create a culture and environment in which partnership working flourishes and creates tangible benefits for all.

Yes

Resolute, Compassionat e and Committed

We are emotionally aware

Senior Manager/Executive

I recognise my own emotions and the way they might impact on others and regulate this to provide and role model consistent leadership.
I seek to understand influences on organisational culture . click apply for full job details