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Transformation Programme Manager - Job Opportunity at Sharp Business Systems UK PLC

Wakefield, GB
Full-time
Senior
Posted: May 23, 2025
Hybrid
£65,000 - £85,000 per year based on the senior level of the role, the comprehensive responsibilities spanning strategic planning to hands-on execution, and the Wakefield location which typically offers London-adjacent salaries for senior positions. The requirement for Masters degree and multi-site transformation experience suggests the upper end of this range is likely, particularly given Sharp's position as part of a global corporation with established UK operations.

Benefits

Hybrid working arrangement offering flexibility to work from both Wakefield head office and remotely, providing excellent work-life balance and reduced commuting costs while maintaining collaborative opportunities
Part of a global corporation with over 100 years of industry experience, offering stability and long-term career security in an established technology leader
Access to cutting-edge technology solutions across IT Services, Cyber Security, Managed Print, Audio Visual and Workplace Design, enabling continuous learning and exposure to diverse technology ecosystems
Opportunity to work across 16 UK offices from Dundee to Bristol, providing extensive networking opportunities and exposure to different business environments and regional markets
Direct reporting line to Business Transformation Leader with regular engagement with senior leadership, offering high visibility and influence within the organization

Key Responsibilities

Strategic transformation portfolio ownership: Direct and oversee Sharp UK's entire transformation project portfolio, ensuring alignment with business objectives and delivering measurable value across multiple sites
Programme governance leadership: Establish and maintain robust governance frameworks, facilitate executive-level governance meetings, and drive decision-making processes that impact organizational direction
Cross-functional team orchestration: Lead and inspire diverse project teams across 16 UK offices, coordinating Project Managers and Workstream Leads to achieve complex transformation objectives
Stakeholder influence and engagement: Build strategic relationships with key stakeholders at all organizational levels, influencing buy-in and ensuring sustained support for transformation initiatives
Change management expertise: Develop and execute comprehensive change management strategies including communication plans, training programs, and employee support systems to ensure smooth organizational transitions
Performance monitoring and risk mitigation: Implement data-driven tracking systems for transformation KPIs, identify potential risks early, and develop proactive mitigation strategies to ensure programme success
Budget and resource optimization: Manage programme budgets and resources innovatively, maximizing ROI while ensuring efficient allocation across multiple workstreams and dependencies
Continuous improvement champion: Identify and implement best practices and lessons learned, enhancing transformation effectiveness and building organizational capability for future initiatives

Requirements

Education

Degree (ideally Masters) in Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field

Experience

Demonstrable experience in managing large-scale transformation programmes across multi sites in the UK

Required Skills

Proven experience of supporting an organisation to shape business transformation and aligning transformation initiatives with organisational objectives to develop a clear vision and roadmap Strong understanding of programme and project management methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Waterfall) with project management and programme management skills Expertise in supporting the people side of change, including communication and stakeholder engagement Proven track record of acting as change agent, working in a collaborative way to make transformational change happen Proven ability to lead and inspire cross-functional teams Strong analytical skills to identify problems and develop effective solutions and proven experience in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks Open-minded and patient, always looking for a great win/win solution Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to manage, influence, leverage persuasion, and negotiation to build effective relationships at all levels Excellent presentation, verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present complex information and tailor messages to different audiences Proactive strong team player, willing to roll their sleeves up and get the job done Highly resilient with proven ability to adapt to a changing environment Flexible in approach to working location, hours and areas of work, and happy to take on responsibility Commitment to continuous improvement and professional development Experience in using, developing and managing Monday.com is desirable
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Sauge AI Market Intelligence

Industry Trends

The transformation management field is experiencing unprecedented growth as organizations accelerate digital transformation initiatives post-pandemic. Companies are investing heavily in transformation capabilities to remain competitive, with particular focus on technology integration, process optimization, and cultural change. The role of transformation managers has evolved from project oversight to strategic business partnership, requiring a blend of technical expertise, change management skills, and business acumen. In the UK market specifically, there's increasing demand for transformation professionals who can navigate complex multi-site operations and deliver sustainable change across diverse stakeholder groups. The technology services sector, where Sharp operates, is undergoing significant consolidation and evolution. Traditional hardware and print services companies are repositioning themselves as comprehensive workplace technology partners, integrating IT services, cybersecurity, and digital workplace solutions. This shift creates unique opportunities for transformation managers to lead organizational pivots towards service-oriented business models. The emphasis on hybrid working solutions and workplace design indicates Sharp's strategic alignment with modern workplace trends, positioning the transformation manager role as critical to their market evolution. Programme management methodologies are increasingly converging towards hybrid approaches that combine traditional waterfall planning with agile execution. Organizations are seeking professionals who can flexibly apply different methodologies based on project context rather than adhering rigidly to one approach. The mention of Monday.com as a desirable skill reflects the growing importance of collaborative project management platforms that enable distributed teams to work effectively. This technological shift in programme management tools is reshaping how transformation initiatives are planned, executed, and monitored across organizations.

Role Significance

Based on Sharp UK's 16-office structure and the role's responsibility for coordinating Project Managers and Workstream Leads, the transformation team likely comprises 15-25 direct and dotted-line reports. This would include 3-5 Project Managers, multiple Workstream Leads, and potentially dedicated change management resources. The portfolio management approach suggests oversight of multiple concurrent initiatives, each with their own project teams, potentially influencing 50-100+ employees across various transformation workstreams. The collaborative nature of transformation work means the role will have matrix influence over significantly larger numbers of stakeholders across the organization.
This is a senior strategic role reporting directly to the Business Transformation Leader, positioning it within the upper management tier of Sharp UK's organizational structure. The scope of managing transformation across all 16 UK offices and the requirement to engage with senior leadership regularly indicates significant organizational influence. The role combines strategic planning with operational execution, suggesting a pivotal position that bridges executive vision with ground-level implementation. The emphasis on developing business capability and providing expert guidance to other Project Managers confirms this as a senior leadership position with mentoring responsibilities.

Key Projects

Enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives focusing on integrating Sharp's diverse service offerings (IT Services, Cyber Security, Managed Print, Audio Visual) into cohesive customer solutions. This likely includes developing unified service delivery platforms, implementing cross-functional workflows, and creating integrated customer experience journeys that leverage Sharp's full capability set. Workplace modernization programmes aligning with hybrid working trends, potentially including office consolidation or redesign projects, implementation of collaboration technologies, and development of flexible working policies. Given Sharp's workplace design solutions capability, these projects would serve dual purposes of internal transformation and customer showcase opportunities. Business model transformation from traditional product-centric operations to service-oriented delivery models. This would involve redesigning sales processes, implementing subscription-based service models, developing new partner ecosystems, and transforming internal capabilities to support ongoing service delivery rather than transactional sales. Cultural transformation initiatives to embed continuous improvement mindsets, enhance cross-functional collaboration across the 16 UK offices, and build change resilience within the organization. These projects would focus on leadership development, communication enhancement, and creating mechanisms for innovation and idea sharing across the geographically distributed workforce.

Success Factors

Mastery of stakeholder management across diverse groups with potentially conflicting priorities is absolutely critical for success. The role requires navigating complex political landscapes across 16 offices, each potentially with established ways of working and local leadership structures. Success depends on building trust quickly, understanding different stakeholder motivations, and creating win-win scenarios that advance transformation goals while respecting local needs. The ability to influence without direct authority and to build coalitions for change will determine whether transformation initiatives gain necessary momentum or face resistance. Demonstrating early wins while maintaining long-term transformation vision represents a crucial balancing act. Senior leadership will expect visible progress and ROI from transformation investments, while sustainable change requires patience and systematic capability building. Successful transformation managers in similar roles create portfolios that blend quick-win initiatives generating immediate value with foundational changes that enable long-term transformation. This requires sophisticated portfolio management skills and the ability to communicate different time horizons and value propositions to various stakeholder groups. Technical versatility combined with business acumen emerges as a key differentiator in technology sector transformation roles. While programme management expertise provides the foundation, success requires understanding how technology trends impact business models, customer expectations, and competitive dynamics. The successful candidate must translate between technical teams implementing solutions and business leaders focused on commercial outcomes, requiring fluency in both domains. This includes understanding emerging technologies' transformational potential while maintaining pragmatic focus on deliverable business value. Change resilience and adaptive leadership capabilities become essential given the dynamic nature of transformation work. Large-scale programmes rarely proceed exactly as planned, requiring leaders who can maintain momentum despite setbacks, adapt strategies based on emerging insights, and support teams through uncertainty. The role demands emotional intelligence to recognize and address change fatigue, celebrate progress, and maintain energy levels across extended transformation timelines. Personal resilience modeling becomes crucial as teams look to leadership for stability during periods of significant organizational change.

Market Demand

High demand driven by accelerating digital transformation initiatives across all sectors. The combination of programme management expertise with change management capabilities is particularly sought after, as organizations recognize that technical implementation alone doesn't guarantee transformation success. The hybrid working arrangement and location in Wakefield (with access to Leeds-Manchester talent corridor) positions this role competitively in a candidate-short market.

Important Skills

Critical Skills

Stakeholder management and influence capabilities stand as the most critical success factors given the complex multi-site, multi-level engagement required. The ability to read political landscapes, build coalitions, and navigate competing priorities will determine whether transformation initiatives gain traction or stall. This skill becomes particularly important in established organizations where embedded practices and relationships can resist change. Excellence in stakeholder management multiplies the impact of all other capabilities by ensuring organizational alignment and support. Change management expertise represents another critical capability given the human dimension of transformation. Technical programme management skills alone cannot deliver sustainable transformation without addressing the people side of change. The role requires deep understanding of change psychology, communication strategies, and cultural transformation approaches. This includes recognizing change readiness, designing appropriate interventions, and supporting individuals and teams through transition periods. The multi-site nature of Sharp UK makes this even more critical as change approaches must be adapted for different local contexts. Programme portfolio management capabilities are essential given the scope of overseeing Sharp UK's entire transformation portfolio. This requires sophisticated skills in portfolio optimization, dependency management, and resource allocation across multiple concurrent initiatives. The ability to maintain strategic alignment while managing operational complexity determines whether the transformation portfolio delivers coherent business value or becomes a collection of disconnected projects. This includes understanding how to sequence initiatives for maximum impact and managing the cumulative change burden on the organization.

Beneficial Skills

Monday.com expertise, while listed as desirable, provides significant advantage in modernizing Sharp's programme management approaches. Proficiency with collaborative work management platforms demonstrates technical currency and enables more effective distributed team coordination. This skill signals ability to leverage technology for programme management efficiency, particularly important given the multi-site nature of operations. Beyond the specific platform, this indicates comfort with digital collaboration tools essential for modern transformation leadership. Sector-specific knowledge of technology services and workplace solutions markets would significantly accelerate effectiveness. Understanding industry trends, competitive dynamics, and customer evolution helps shape transformation priorities and business cases. While not explicitly required, familiarity with the convergence of IT services, security, and workplace technology provides context for Sharp's transformation journey. This knowledge enables more strategic transformation planning aligned with market opportunities. Financial acumen and business case development skills enhance credibility with senior stakeholders and improve transformation investment decisions. While not explicitly mentioned, the budget management responsibility suggests value in understanding financial modeling, ROI calculations, and value realization tracking. These skills enable more sophisticated conversations about transformation investments and help prioritize initiatives based on business impact rather than just operational improvements. Coaching and mentoring capabilities multiply impact through developing other project managers and transformation professionals. While the role mentions providing expert guidance, strong coaching skills would enhance organizational capability building beyond individual project success. This includes ability to develop transformation competencies across the organization, creating sustainable change capability rather than dependency on individual expertise. Investment in coaching skills provides both immediate team performance benefits and long-term career advantages.

Unique Aspects

Rare opportunity to lead transformation across an established global brand undergoing significant business model evolution. Unlike pure-play transformation roles in consulting, this position offers the chance to see initiatives through from conception to embedded operation, creating lasting organizational impact. The combination of Sharp's traditional technology heritage with modern service offerings creates unique transformation challenges around cultural change, capability development, and market repositioning.
The multi-site complexity across 16 UK offices presents distinctive programme management challenges rarely found in centralized organizations. This geographic distribution requires sophisticated approaches to change management, stakeholder engagement, and benefits realization. Success in this environment demonstrates capabilities highly valued by other complex, distributed organizations, making this experience particularly valuable for career development.
Direct access to Japanese corporate culture and management philosophy through Sharp Corporation provides unique learning opportunities. The blend of Japanese long-term thinking with UK market agility creates an interesting cultural dynamic for transformation leadership. This cross-cultural dimension adds complexity but also provides exposure to different business philosophies and operational approaches that enrich professional development.
The convergence of multiple technology domains (IT, Security, Print, AV, Workplace Design) under one transformation agenda represents a unique integration challenge. Most transformation roles focus on single domains, while this position requires understanding and integrating diverse technology services into coherent business solutions. This holistic exposure provides comprehensive understanding of modern workplace technology ecosystems.
The role offers unusual combination of strategic influence and hands-on execution, bridging typically separated organizational layers. While reporting to senior leadership and shaping transformation strategy, the position also requires direct project involvement and team coaching. This dual perspective develops well-rounded leaders capable of operating effectively at multiple organizational levels.

Career Growth

Career progression timeline typically spans 3-5 years for movement to Chief Transformation Officer or equivalent roles, assuming successful delivery of major transformation initiatives and demonstrated business impact. The pathway to C-suite positions depends heavily on organizational transformation maturity and individual's ability to expand influence beyond programme management to strategic business partnership. Consulting transitions can occur more quickly (1-2 years) once strong track record is established, while COO progression may require 5-7 years including potential intermediate roles expanding operational responsibilities beyond transformation.

Potential Next Roles

Chief Transformation Officer or Head of Transformation representing the natural progression for exceptional performers who demonstrate strategic impact and C-suite influence. This evolution would involve expanding from programme management to setting enterprise transformation strategy, potentially at Sharp Corporation level or with other major technology services organizations. The global nature of Sharp provides opportunities for international transformation leadership roles, particularly given increasing focus on global operating model standardization. VP of Strategy and Operations roles that leverage transformation expertise to drive broader business strategy. The combination of analytical skills, stakeholder management, and change leadership developed in this role provides ideal preparation for senior strategy positions. These roles would focus less on project execution and more on identifying transformation opportunities, developing business cases, and architecting organizational capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. Independent transformation consulting represents an attractive option for those seeking variety and autonomy. The comprehensive experience gained managing multi-site transformations at Sharp would be highly valuable to other organizations undergoing similar journeys. Consulting firms actively recruit experienced transformation leaders who can immediately add value to client engagements, offering potentially higher compensation and exposure to diverse industries and transformation challenges. Chief Operating Officer positions in mid-sized technology or services companies where transformation experience becomes crucial for operational excellence. The hands-on experience optimizing processes, implementing new technologies, and driving organizational change provides strong foundation for operational leadership. These roles would leverage the full spectrum of skills developed, from strategic planning to execution excellence.

Company Overview

Sharp Business Systems UK PLC

Sharp Business Systems UK PLC operates as the UK subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, a global technology conglomerate with over a century of innovation history. The UK operation manages a comprehensive portfolio of business technology services including IT Services, Cyber Security, Managed Print Services, Audio Visual solutions, and Workplace Design. As part of Sharp Electronics Europe, the UK business contributes significantly to the broader European strategy while maintaining operational autonomy to serve the specific needs of the UK market. The company has evolved from its historical focus on electronics and printing to become a full-service workplace technology partner.

Sharp UK maintains a strong position in the UK business technology services market, leveraging its global brand recognition and extensive local presence through 16 offices. While not the largest player in each individual service category, Sharp's integrated service portfolio provides competitive differentiation against specialized competitors. The company's century-long heritage provides credibility and financial stability that resonates with enterprise customers seeking long-term technology partners. However, Sharp faces competition from both larger IT services companies and nimble specialists, making transformation and service integration crucial for maintaining market relevance.
The Wakefield headquarters location is strategically positioned within the Leeds-Manchester corridor, one of the UK's fastest-growing business regions outside London. This 'Northern Powerhouse' positioning provides access to a strong talent pool while offering cost advantages compared to London-based operations. The network of 16 offices from Dundee to Bristol demonstrates comprehensive UK coverage, enabling local service delivery while maintaining operational scale. This distributed presence creates both opportunities and challenges for transformation initiatives, requiring careful balance between standardization and local market adaptation.
Sharp UK appears to embrace a progressive work culture that balances its traditional corporate heritage with modern workplace flexibility. The hybrid working arrangement signals adaptation to contemporary employee expectations, while the emphasis on collaborative transformation suggests an organization willing to challenge established practices. The mention of 'rolling sleeves up' and being a 'strong team player' indicates a culture that values practical execution alongside strategic thinking. The global corporate backing provides stability and resources while the transformation agenda suggests an organization actively evolving to meet market challenges.
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