Job Information
3 x Senior OD Advisers (Digital OD, Digital Learning and Culture specialisms)
Organisational Development & Culture
Band 8 | Permanent | Full‑time
Location: County Hall
Salary: £39,862 - £44,075
Northumberland County Council is undergoing a major transformation to modernise how we work, strengthen leadership, and create a modern, inclusive and high‑performing organisation that puts residents first.
As part of this, we are redesigning our Organisational Development & Culture (OD&C) service, and we are now recruiting three Senior OD Advisers to play a critical role in standing up the new service and its ways of working. These are OD generalist roles first, each with depth in a specific practice area. They will be central to enabling the service to work flexibly and responsively, while bringing the depth of expertise needed to deliver impact from day one.
About the roles
You should apply for one primary role. All roles share the same OD foundation - the difference is where your depth sits.
Senior OD Adviser - Culture & Behaviour Change - Focused on making culture real in teams and services, translating values, leadership intent and organisational insight into everyday behaviour change.
This role is for you if you bring:
- Strong experience in culture change and behavioural OD
- Confidence facilitating relational and emotionally complex work
- A practical approach to turning insight into changed habits and practices
Senior OD Adviser – Digital Learning Design & Learning Management Systems - Focused on designing and enabling the organisation’s digital learning ecosystem, ensuring learning is accessible, effective and embedded.
This role is for you if you bring:
- Hands‑on experience of LMS platforms and digital learning systems
- Strong digital learning design capability
- A practical, user‑centred approach to learning and adoption
Senior OD Adviser – Digital OD & Workforce Digital Skills - Focused on building workforce digital confidence and capability, supporting the organisation to adopt new tools, ways of working and digital behaviours.
This role is for you if you bring:
- Strong experience in digital OD, digital adoption or workforce digital capability
- Confidence applying OD methods to technology‑enabled change
- An ability to work with behaviour, confidence and resistance alongside systems and tools
Foundations of the role
All Senior OD advisers share a strong OD generalist foundation. You will be expected to diagnose organisational issues, contract effectively with services and leaders, design and deliver OD interventions across the consulting cycle, and work flexibly across priorities through OD squads. Alongside this breadth, each role brings clear depth in a defined practice area, strengthening the team and enabling early impact.
Embedding Agile OD & New Ways of Working
From June 2026, OD&C will move to a new operating model based on agile OD, including a single intake route, triage, backlog prioritisation and cross‑practice OD squads delivering short cycles of work.
You will contribute actively within squads on significant organisational priorities.
About You – what we’re looking for
OD generalist foundation (essential for all roles)
- Strong grounding in organisational development practice
- Experience diagnosing organisational and behavioural issues
- Confidence contracting with managers and leaders
- Skilled facilitation and OD intervention design
- Ability to operate with ambiguity and competing priorities
- A reflective, learning‑oriented OD mindset
Depth‑specific expertise (role‑dependent, essential)
You will bring credible, recent expertise in the specialist area you are applying for.
These roles are not designed as entry‑level specialist posts – you will be expected to hit the ground running in your depth, with support to grow breadth across OD&C.
Why Join Northumberland?
- A rare opportunity to help build a modern, agile OD service from the ground up
- Visible, meaningful OD work with senior sponsorship
- Space to practise OD well – with clarity ,boundaries and support
- Attractive local government benefits including generous leave, pension, agile working and wellbeing support
- 26 days annual leave plus public/bank holidays, rising to 31 days after 5 years of service (pro rata for part-time employees)
- Automatic enrolment into the Local Government Pension Scheme
- Flexi scheme (if applicable) – up to 2 days flexible leave available per month (pro rata for part-time employees)
Whilst we offer hybrid working, there is a requirement to attend County Hall on a regular basis, along with a need to support services areas in person as required.
For further information about working for NCC, please visit our website here.
How to Apply
Please submit an application, including a strong supporting statement outlining how your experience and OD practice align to your selected role(s). The candidate pack provides further detail to support your choice. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a selection event exploring OD judgement and diagnostic thinking, depth in your specialist area, your ability to translate insight into impact, and how you work with others.
If you would like to arrange an informal discussion, please email marie.curry@northumberland.gov.uk
Closing date for applications is midnight on 20th May 2026, and an assessment centre will take place on 27th May & 28th May.
Stay connected with us on social media to keep up to date with Northumberland County Council’s latest job opportunities.
Facebook: NCC Jobs Group
LinkedIn: Northumberland County Council Jobs
Further information
For guidance on completing your application and for information about our Equality and Diversity principles, please see the attached guidance notes here.
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria.
Alternative application format:
British Sign Language: northumberlandcc-cs.signvideo.net
For those with speech difficulties or hearing loss: Text relay service dial 018001 01670 623930
