Senior OD and Culture Lead

Job Information

Senior OD and Culture Lead

Organisational Development & Culture

Permanent | Full‑time
Location: County Hall

Salary: £50,269 - £54.495

Overview

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.

Cultural transformation is a core part of this work and as such the Organisational Development & Culture (OD&C) service is pivotal to the success our Transformation. To this end we are now recruiting an additional Senior Organisational Development and Culture lead within the behavioural practice area of our newly designed OD and Culture service

First and foremost, you will be a true OD generalist, capable of working across the full breadth of organisational development activity to support the organisation. Initially this role will be instrumental in leading the roll out of our revised Employee Engagement and Listening approach and translating this into meaningful insight and activity. You will also contribute to wider OD work across the service including but not limited to leadership and management development, cultural development, team development and wider activity to partner across the organisation. 

This is a genuinely senior organisational development role, and a great opportunity to make a tangible and meaningful difference to the organisation and its wider community across Northumberland

About the Role

Reporting to the OD&C Senior Manager (Practice Lead: Culture, Leadership & Engagement), you will take a strategic, portfolio view of engagement, listening and culture insight work across the organisation.

This role is not only about understanding culture - it is about actively shaping it. You will lead and influence culture change across the organisation, working with senior leaders to translate insight into visible shifts in behaviour, leadership practice and organisational norms.

This role goes beyond insight generation. You will partner with senior leaders to:

• Translate staff feedback (e.g. staff surveys, pulse and listening activity) into clear insight and organisation‑wide action that drives behavioural and cultural change
• Design and lead engagement strategies, culture change initiatives and listening cycles that embed sustainable changes in practice
• Drive engagement activity that is rooted in evidence, feedback and best practice
• Shape organisational narrative and ensure insight meaningfully informs leadership behaviour, decision making and the organisation’s evolving culture

You will lead the development of our internal listening and engagement plans, maximising our employee voice systems and using data‑driven insight to measure, refine and scale impact.

About You – what we’re looking for

• Significant experience in employee engagement, organisational listening, culture transformation or OD
• Strong qualitative and quantitative insight capability, with ability to synthesise complex data into clear, compelling insight
• Experience influencing and partnering with senior leaders to drive engagement and cultural change
• Ability to translate insight into practical, organisation‑wide action that delivers sustained behavioural and cultural impact
• A track record of leading engagement strategies and insight‑driven organisational initiatives
• Confident operating in an agile, iterative way (e.g. test‑and‑learn, evolving approaches as insight emerges)
• Skilled facilitator, able to build trust and rapport quickly across all levels of a large, complex organisation
• Able to connect (“join the dots”) across culture, engagement and leadership insight to identify root causes and shape coherent, system‑wide action

You may come from an OD, engagement, research, organisational psychology or culture/change background — we are interested in the strength of your insight practice, judgement and impact.

Why Join Northumberland?