Change & Release Manager

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for cocreators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

Technology at Halfords is at a turning point. We’re modernising our foundations, sharpening our delivery, and ensuring every technology decision is connected to real commercial and customer outcomes.

We're looking for people who act as trusted advisors to the business, take end-to-end accountability for outcomes, and can balance pace with long-term architectural integrity. Innovation here means practical, scalable solutions, not ideas that stay on whiteboards.

As a Change & Release Manager within our Service & Operations team, you'll take ownership of the governance, coordination, and continuous improvement of technology change across the business. Acting as the figurehead for Change Management and Release Management, you'll ensure technology changes are delivered safely, efficiently, and with the right balance of control and agility in a complex retail environment.

You’ll be responsible for chairing Change Advisory Boards (CABs), coordinating releases across multiple technology teams and third-party partners, and ensuring changes are appropriately assessed, approved, communicated, and reviewed. You'll work closely with stakeholders across Technology and the wider business, helping teams navigate governance requirements while removing unnecessary barriers to delivery. This is very much a change enablement role rather than a traditional gatekeeping function.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys improving processes and building frameworks that make a real difference. With significant technology transformation underway, including multiple major change programmes, you'll have the freedom to shape how change and release management operates at Halfords. If you're looking for a role where your expertise will influence strategy, improve governance, and drive meaningful organisational change, you'll see the impact of your work quickly.

• →Own and evolve the organisation’s Change Management framework, ensuring technology changes are assessed, prioritised and delivered with the right level of governance, control and risk management.
• →Coordinate release planning across technology teams, ensuring changes are scheduled effectively to minimise operational risk and service disruption.
• →Champion safe, efficient technology delivery by embedding change processes that support modern ways of working while maintaining appropriate operational oversight.
• →Lead change governance activities, facilitating advisory forums and ensuring risks, dependencies and operational readiness are clearly understood and managed.
• →Provide clear and timely communication of planned changes and releases, giving stakeholders visibility of upcoming activities and potential business impacts.
• →Drive operational readiness for technology releases, ensuring new and enhanced capabilities are supported through appropriate testing, validation and cross-functional coordination.
• →Monitor and report on change performance, analysing success rates, failed changes and service impacts to identify trends and continuous improvement opportunities.
• →Work closely with Service Assurance, Incident & Resilience, Engineering and Delivery teams to ensure changes are introduced safely and lessons learned are embedded into future processes.
• →Continually improve change and release practices, reducing unnecessary complexity and process friction while maintaining service stability in a fast-paced 24/7 environment.
• →Act as a trusted subject matter expert, promoting best practice and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement across Technology and the wider business.

• Significant experience managing Change and Release processes within a large, complex enterprise environment, ideally within retail or another customer-facing organisation
• Expert understanding of Change Management, Release Management, ITIL, and operational governance principles
• Proven ability to balance risk management and control with the need to deliver technology change at pace
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to challenge and influence senior leaders when required
• Experience chairing governance forums and managing competing priorities across multiple teams and programmes
• A continuous improvement mindset, with a track record of enhancing processes, simplifying governance, and driving better outcomes
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