Customer Experience Transformation Director - Fixed Term (12 Months)

Customer Experience Transformation Director

Contract type: Fixed-term (12 Months)

Location: London; UK-wide ravel required to engage stakeholders & teams.

Closing Date: Friday 19th September

About Openreach

Openreach is dedicated to building the UK’s future digital infrastructure, connecting people, businesses, and communities. Join us as we embark on this exciting transformation journey, redefining what great customer experience means for everyone we serve.

Openreach stands at the forefront of the UK’s digital infrastructure, enabling millions of homes and businesses to connect, communicate, and thrive. As the organisation continues to evolve, we recognise that customer experience must be at the heart of our transformation. To this end, we are seeking an outstanding senior leader to take on a pivotal, director-level role on a 12-month fixed-term contract, tasked with spearheading our customer experience transformation agenda.

Role Summary:

The Director of Customer Experience Transformation will be responsible for guiding Openreach through an ambitious, structured journey to redefine how we serve our diverse customer base. This is a newly created role, reflecting our commitment to placing customer experience at the centre of our business strategy. Reporting to the executive committee, the successful candidate will bring proven expertise in leading complex, cross-functional transformation programmes in large organisations, with a particular focus on delivering tangible, lasting improvements to customer outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership: Shape, communicate, and drive the customer experience transformation strategy across Openreach, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and stakeholder expectations.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build and nurture relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including retailers, operational teams, technology partners, and regulators, ensuring their needs and perspectives inform every stage of the transformation.
• Programme Delivery: Lead the planning and execution of transformation initiatives, overseeing delivery against agreed milestones, budgets, and performance metrics.
• Team Development: Inspire, develop, and mobilise multidisciplinary teams to deliver a unified approach to customer experience improvement.
• Change Management: Champion a “customer first” mindset, embedding it into Openreach’s culture, systems, processes, and products through effective change management strategies.

Core Areas of Focus:

1. Needs-Based Customer Segmentation

• Identify and analyse the key needs-based customer segments served by Openreach (e.g., residential, small business, enterprise, public sector).
• Define what constitutes a great customer experience for each segment, drawing on best practice, data analysis, and direct customer insight.
• Shape segment-specific strategies and service offerings to ensure that each customer group receives a tailored, differentiated experience.

2. Retailer Experience and Expectations

• Engage with Openreach’s retail partners to understand their evolving needs and expectations.
• Articulate what a truly outstanding customer experience looks like for retailers, including those serving end-users through broadband, telephony, and digital services.
• Establish mechanisms for ongoing retailer feedback and collaboration, ensuring continuous improvement and partnership.

3. Proposition Development and Differentiation

• Lead the development of new or evolved propositions and service enhancements that address the specific needs of our customer segments and retail partners.
• Benchmark against competitors to identify opportunities for differentiation and market leadership.
• Work with product, marketing, and operations teams to bring innovative ideas from concept to delivery, with clarity on the customer value proposition.

4. FTTP Line Growth, WLR Conversion, and Digital Inclusion

• Use customer insights to define the suite of propositions needed to support WLR conversion and broader digital inclusion efforts, ensuring commercial viability and sustainability.
• Devise strategies to accelerate the growth of Openreach’s FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) line base, with a focus on converting traditional WLR (Wholesale Line Rental) lines to broadband solutions.
• Promote digital inclusion by identifying and addressing barriers to broadband adoption, especially among underserved or digitally excluded communities.

5. Culture and Mindset Evolution

• Champion the evolution of Openreach’s culture towards a truly “customer first” ethos.
• Translate this mindset into practical changes across systems, processes, and products, so the organisation’s commitment to customer experience is visible and measurable at every touchpoint.
• Design and implement training, communications, and recognition programmes to reinforce desired behaviours and values.

6. KPI Redesign for Customer Experience Impact

• Assess current KPIs and performance measurement frameworks, identifying gaps and areas for improvement.
• Design and implement new KPIs that accurately reflect the importance of customer experience outcomes and incentivise desired behaviours.
• Establish robust reporting and governance processes to track progress and ensure accountability.

Person Specification:

• Experience: Extensive leadership experience in customer experience transformation in large, complex, multi-stakeholder organisations (e.g., telecoms, utilities, financial services, retail, or similar sectors).
• Expertise: Demonstrated ability to design and implement customer segmentation strategies, proposition development, and culture change programmes at scale.
• Change Leader: Proven track record of driving sustained change and embedding new ways of working across diverse teams.
• Commercial Acumen: Strong understanding of commercial drivers and competitive dynamics in customer experience.
• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication and influencing skills; comfortable engaging at all levels from front-line staff to board members.
• Analytical Skills: Highly skilled in data-driven decision making, with the ability to interpret complex information and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Innovation: Creative, visionary thinker able to identify new opportunities and challenge existing paradigms.
• Resilience: Adaptable and resilient in the face of ambiguity, competing priorities, and organisational change.

Leadership Standards:

• Leading inclusively: I inspire and build trust through self-awareness, honesty and integrity
• Owning outcomes: I take the right decisions that benefit the broader organisation
• Delivering for the customer: I execute brilliantly on clear priorities that add value to our customers and the wider business
• Commercially savvy: I demonstrate strong commercial focus, bringing an external perspective to decision-making
• Growth mindset: I experiment and identify opportunities for growth for both myself and the organisation
• Building for the future: I build diverse future-ready teams where all individuals can be their best

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT?

Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.