King's College London is one of the world's leading universities, with a global reputation for excellence in education, research and societal impact. Located in the heart of London, King's is home to more than 40,000 students and 12,000 staff from across the world and is consistently ranked amongst the UK's and world's leading universities.

King’s College London and Cranfield University are coming together through a proposed merger. We are looking for an experienced Change Management Lead to help both institutions, and their staff, students and communities, through the change.

Based in the Merger Management Office and working closely with our Communications and People directorates, this role leads the design and delivery of the change management strategy for the proposed merger. It spans change impact assessment, stakeholder engagement and readiness activity, turning insight into practical action that shapes programme decisions, communications and Day One readiness. Supporting senior leaders across both institutions to guide their communities through a period of uncertainty and opportunity is central to the role.

We are seeking someone with significant experience of developing and delivering change management strategies in large, complex organisations through mergers and acquisitions. A strong understanding of organisational culture and the people impacts of change is essential, as are the influencing skills to work with senior stakeholders and the judgement and discretion to operate in a sensitive, high-profile environment.

Experience in higher education, research or the public sector would be valuable but is not essential.

For further information, please visit the job description and to apply, visit the Jobs at King’s pages. For a confidential and informal conversation, please contact the King’s Seach team at kings-search@kcl.ac.uk.

Closing date for applications: Wednesday 4th November 2026, 23:59 hours

Interviews will be taking place mid-November

To apply, please submit your CV and a supporting statement showing how you meet the essential

Role purpose

The Change Management Lead will work closely with existing Communications and People directorates to design, develop and deliver the change management strategy for the King's College London and Cranfield University Merger Programme, ensuring the merger is planned and implemented with a clear understanding of its impact on people, culture and communities across King's and Cranfield.

The role will lead change impact assessment, stakeholder engagement and change readiness activity, translating insight into practical interventions that inform programme decisions, communications, integration planning and Day One readiness.

The postholder will help both institutions navigate uncertainty, concern and opportunity by creating meaningful ways for staff, students and other stakeholders to engage, contribute and understand what the merger means for them. They will work closely with the Merger Management Office, Communications, People and academic and professional services leads across both institutions.

Key Responsibilities

Change Strategy, Impact and Readiness

Design and lead the delivery of the change management strategy, ensuring it is aligned with Project Whittle objectives, workstream plans, integration planning and Day One readiness requirements.
Design and lead merger-wide change impact assessments, identifying impacts on staff, students, academics, professional services, ways of working, culture, capability and stakeholder experience.
Translate change impact findings into practical interventions, supporting Executive Deans and Directors with engagement, communications, training, transition planning, adoption support and wellbeing considerations.
Design and develop change impact heatmaps, readiness assessments and adoption measures to inform programme planning, risk management, decision-making and governance.
Work closely with senior leaders and programme sponsors to help them understand their role in leading change and engaging their communities through the merger.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communications

Work closely with the Communications Directorate to co-develop and deliver the stakeholder engagement strategy and plan, creating meaningful opportunities for stakeholders to ask questions, raise concerns and contribute to programme development where appropriate.
Work closely with Communications and External Affairs colleagues across King's and Cranfield to maintain a coherent programme narrative, audience-specific messages, briefings, FAQs and engagement materials.
Monitor stakeholder sentiment, emerging concerns and areas of misunderstanding, ensuring these are fed back into programme planning, communications and leadership action.
Work with People colleagues to ensure engagement activity is aligned with, but distinct from, formal consultation processes.
Work closely with senior leaders and programme sponsors to understand cultural differences, areas of sensitivity and opportunities to build trust, connection and a shared sense of direction across both institutions.

Programme Contribution and Governance

Work as part of the Merger Management Office, providing clear updates on change impacts, stakeholder sentiment, engagement, communications, readiness, risks, issues and dependencies.
Ensure change-related risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies are captured, managed and escalated through the programme governance structure.
Work with academic and professional services workstreams to ensure change impacts, stakeholder considerations and readiness requirements are built into integration plans.
Contribute to and lead on some of the preparation of programme reporting, decision papers, readiness assessments and post-Day One transition planning where change, engagement or communications input is required.

Key Deliverables

Change management strategy.
Internal & external stakeholder engagement strategy and plan.
Change champion or local engagement network approach.
Change impact assessment framework, assessments and heatmaps.
Programme narrative, key messages and audience-specific communication materials.
Culture assessment and cultural integration principles.
Stakeholder sentiment and feedback reporting.
Day One change, engagement and communications readiness assessment.
Post-Day One transition and stabilisation plan.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Person specification

Essential criteria

Significant experience developing and delivering change management strategies in large, complex organisations within the context of mergers and acquisitions.
Experience designing and leading change impact assessments, readiness assessments, stakeholder engagement and adoption activity.
Strong understanding of organisational culture and the practical challenges involved in bringing together different ways of working.
Stakeholder management and influencing skills, including experience supporting senior leaders to lead through uncertainty.
Strong understanding of how to assess and manage the people impacts of organisational change.
Ability to operate effectively in sensitive, ambiguous and high-profile environments where plans, decisions and impacts continue to evolve.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex programme activity into clear and credible messages.
Ability to work across multiple workstreams, identify cross-cutting impacts and maintain momentum against tight timescales.
Strong judgement, discretion and political awareness when handling confidential or sensitive information.

Desirable

Experience of working in higher education, research, public sector or another complex stakeholder-led environment.
Experience supporting a merger, integration programme, major transformation or organisation-wide operating model change.
Experience working with communications, HR, organisational design, employee relations or consultation teams.
Relevant professional qualification or training in change management, organisational development, communications or a related discipline.

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant’s own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found here.

Change Management Lead