The carve-out of Barclaycard from Barclays in partnership with Brookfield represents one of the most ambitious financial services transformations in Europe. To deliver this with pace, discipline, and cultural alignment, a specialist in change management, communications, and people/customer engagement is needed to join the transformation team. This role will ensure employees, leaders, stakeholders and customers are aligned and mobilised behind the Barclaycard Payments journey.
Role Impact
A high-visibility, Board-facing role central to shaping a future-ready Barclaycard Payments organisation. Operating as strategist and hands-on leader, the Change Management, Communications and People Engagement Transformation Director will:
- Trusted advisor to the Board, Brookfield, and CxOs, translating strategy into people, culture, and change execution.
- Lead the people and customer engagement, driving the communications agenda, ensuring employees and customers are informed, inspired, and supported.
- Communicate and embed scalable operating and organisational models aligned with PE-backed growth, investor expectations, and regulatory standards.
- Drive cultural design and change, developing a leadership blueprint and EVP to unify employees under a new identity and brand.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Change Leadership
- Lead the end-to-end change and communications strategy across sites, functions, geographies, personas and customer groups.
- Advise the Board on change impacts, cultural integration, workforce and customer engagement.
People & Organisation Engagement
- Support the implementation of scalable operating models that align to growth objectives and compliance requirements.
- Manage stakeholder alignment, including clear and timely messaging to unions, ensuring productivity and minimal disruption.
- Champion a 'One Team' cultural blueprint and leadership framework.
Transformation Governance & Delivery
- Establish disciplined change governance with KPIs, risk tracking, and benefit realisation.
- Mentor transformation teams to deliver cultural, cost, and operational outcomes.
- Partner with HR, Operations, Tech, and Finance to enable seamless Day 1 and post-Day 1 execution.
Communication & Engagement Excellence
- Design and deliver clear, consistent communication strategies, content, events and artefacts for both internal and external customers.
- Embed feedback loops, listening forums, and change ambassador networks to drive adoption and advocacy.
Key Success Outcomes
- Seamless Day 1 and post-Day 1 execution with minimal disruption to customers and employees.
- Strong workforce and customer engagement supported by clear communications and visible leadership sponsorship.
- Alignment with unions and regulators, safeguarding operational continuity and reputation.
About BPL
Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.
In April 2025, we announced a long‑term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve‑outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long‑term growth.
Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance‑linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long‑term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.
For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.
Risk and Control
You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job‑specific technical skills.
Purpose of the role
Responsible for broader, strategic objectives across multiple projects, with a long‑term, cross‑functional focus.
Accountabilities
- Scope Management: Oversees a collection of related projects that together aim to achieve broader strategic business objectives. Their focus is on the long‑term benefits and ensuring the alignment of projects with the organization’s goals.
- Strategic Focus: Focuses on strategic, high‑level outcomes. They are responsible for the overall success and continuous alignment of projects to the organization’s business strategy.
- Time Horizon: Typically works over a longer time horizon, as programs may span months or years and involve multiple phases and projects.
- Stakeholder Management: Manages a wide range of stakeholders across various projects, including executives, project managers, and external clients. They ensure communication and alignment across all projects within the program.
- Risk and Issue Management: Manages risks and issues at a higher level, focusing on cross‑project dependencies and potential impacts on the broader program or business strategy.
- Resource Management: Responsible for allocating resources across multiple projects, balancing priorities, and ensuring that resources are used efficiently across the program.
- Financial Management: Manages the overall program budget, tracking the financial health of multiple projects and ensuring that the program as a whole delivers value.
- Metrics: Measures success based on the cumulative benefits delivered by all the projects within the program. They look at business outcomes, value creation, and alignment with strategic goals.
- Change Management: Deals with change at a macro level, ensuring that changes across projects are managed cohesively and don’t negatively impact the overall program.
Director Expectations
- To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide.
- They manage the direction of a large team or sub‑function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.
- Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
- Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub‑function.
- Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
- Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
- Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
- Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
- Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up‑to‑date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
- Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
- Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
- Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
- Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
- Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.
All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.
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