Transition Lead – IT, Finance, HR & Payroll Shared Services

A well known university are seeking an experienced Transition Lead to support a major Corporate Programme within a complex university environment, involving the transition of corporate services into a future-state shared services/outsourced operating model.

This is a cross-tower transition lead role covering IT, Finance, and HR & Payroll services, supporting the programme through mobilisation, transition and handover.

The role requires significant transition leadership experience within complex transformation, outsourcing, managed service, or shared services environments. The successful candidate must have strong practical experience in at least two of the following three service areas: IT, Finance, HR & Payroll.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate transition readiness activity across IT, Finance, HR & Payroll.
• Support mobilisation planning, transition governance, cutover preparation and hypercare coordination.
• Develop and maintain integrated transition plans, milestones, readiness criteria and service acceptance checkpoints.
• Review and challenge supplier transition plans, operating models, assumptions, controls, resource plans and readiness evidence.
• Support definition of retained versus outsourced service responsibilities, operating boundaries, escalation routes and handover points.
• Identify and manage cross-tower risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies, particularly where these affect service continuity, systems, people, data, controls or operational readiness.
• Coordinate readiness activity across people, process, technology, data, controls and supplier mobilisation.
• Support cutover planning, Day 1 readiness, go/no-go inputs, hypercare and post-transition stabilisation.
• Provide clear transition reporting through the Programme Manager into programme governance.
• Translate complex transition risks and operational dependencies into clear business impacts, decisions and actions.

Service Tower Coverage

The Transition Lead will need credible experience across the service areas, with deeper experience in at least two of the following:

• IT: service transition, operational readiness, service acceptance, infrastructure, applications, integrations, end-user computing, service management, support models and hypercare.
• Finance: finance operations across P2P, O2C, R2R, treasury, financial controls, ERP-enabled operations, audit, statutory reporting, month-end and year-end continuity.
• HR & Payroll: HR and payroll transition readiness, payroll continuity, parallel runs, validation, reconciliation, statutory payroll obligations, pensions, TUPE-related dependencies and HR service delivery.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Significant experience leading complex transition, outsourcing, managed service, shared services or transformation programmes.
• Strong experience across mobilisation, operational readiness, cutover, service acceptance and hypercare.
• Practical experience in at least two of the following towers: IT, Finance, HR & Payroll.
• Experience working across multiple workstreams, suppliers, SMEs and retained business teams.
• Strong project management experience, with the ability to manage plans, milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, actions and reporting across multiple workstreams.
• Ability to challenge supplier plans, assumptions, operating models and readiness evidence constructively.
• Strong understanding of retained versus outsourced operating models.
• Proven ability to manage risks, issues, dependencies, actions and readiness concerns in a fast-paced programme environment.
• Strong stakeholder management, governance reporting and delivery coordination skills.
• Ability to communicate complex operational, technical or functional issues clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Confidence to escalate risks and provide pragmatic delivery assurance where transition readiness may be at risk.

Desirable Experience

• Higher Education, public sector or similarly complex multi-stakeholder environment experience.
• Experience across all three service areas: IT, Finance and HR & Payroll / People & Culture.
• Familiarity with service transition methodologies, operational readiness frameworks, ITIL, SIAM, ERP-enabled operations or managed service governance.
• Experience supporting TUPE-related transition dependencies or organisational change activity.
• Experience supporting Day 1 cutover, early-life support and post-transition stabilisation.

All deliverables are to be completed within the 6-month engagement, sequenced to support exit by 31 December 2026.

• Transition design: an integrated cross-tower transition approach and readiness plan covering IT, Finance and HR & Payroll, including milestones, dependencies, readiness criteria and service acceptance checkpoints, developed hand in hand with the supplier/partner.
• Supplier transition assurance: structured review and challenge of supplier/partner transition plans, operating model assumptions, resourcing and readiness evidence, with documented assurance outputs and agreed remediation actions.
• Transition execution: coordination of cutover preparation, Day 1 readiness, go/no-go inputs and hypercare across all three towers, with transition status reporting into programme governance throughout.
• Handover to the VMO: a complete and accepted handover package transferring ongoing supplier and service oversight to the Vendor Management Office, including open risks and issues, outstanding actions, stabilisation items, lessons learned and any residual readiness concerns.
• Exit: a clean exit at the end of the engagement with no dependency on the Transition Lead remaining in place.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be a senior transition professional who can bring structure, pace and challenge to a complex multi-tower transition. They will be comfortable working across IT, Finance, HR & Payroll without needing to be the deep subject matter expert in every area.

They will be pragmatic, delivery-focused and able to work closely with the programme team, suppliers and retained teams to ensure the organisation is ready for transition, cutover and stable Day 1 operations.

Please apply in the first instance. Must be available immediately or within 1-2 weeks to start. 

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