OD Lead

Reporting to the OD&C Senior Manager (Practice Lead: Culture, Leadership & Engagement), you will:

• Take a portfolio view of engagement, listening and culture insight work across the organisation
• Lead the design and delivery of organisational listening approaches, including staff surveys, pulse activity, qualitative research, listening cycles and feedback loops
• Synthesise complex organisational signals-such as survey data ,lived-experience insight, engagement patterns and narrative feedback - into clear themes, insight and recommendations
• Influence leaders using evidence, storytelling and sense-making
• Lead orco-lead OD squads on high-priority cultural and engagement themes
• Support and enable OD colleagues to deliver high-quality, insight-led OD work
  
  This role is ideal for a senior OD practitioner with deep expertise in engagement, insight and organisational narrative, who is comfortable contracting and collaborating at senior level and translating data into meaningful cultural action and behavioural change., We are looking for a senior OD generalist with deep specialist expertise in engagement and insight, who brings:
• Significant experience in organisational listening, engage mentor culture insight
• Strong qualitative and quantitative insight capability
• Confidence influencing senior leaders using evidence and narrative
• Ability to diagnose patterns and root causes, not just report data
• Experience leading OD work in complex organisations
• A collaborative, enabling approach to developing other OD practitioners
• A mindset aligned to agile, iterative OD
You may come from an OD, organisational psychology, research, engagement, culture/change or related background. We are interested in the quality of your OD judgement and insight practice, not a specific job title.

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 a Senior OD Lead (Engagement, Culture & Insight) to play a pivotal role in shaping how the organisation listens, learns and acts.


• 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.