Director, Global Enterprise Transformation

Smith+Nephew•Minneapolis, MN

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Director, Global Enterprise Transformation Life Unlimited. At Smith+Nephew, we design and manufacture technology that takes the limits off living. The Director of the Transformation Office is accountable for designing, governing, and accelerating ELEVATE, Smith+Nephew’s enterprise‑wide, multi‑year transformation program. ELEVATE is a fundamental operating model shift that moves Smith+Nephew from fragmented, channel‑led execution to a connected, omnichannel, customer‑centric enterprise. This role owns the single enterprise transformation blueprint and ensures that customer‑facing investments across Business Units, regions, technology, and functions align to a shared vision, common standards, and measurable enterprise value. Operating within a highly decentralized organization, the Director acts as an enterprise integrator and value steward—balancing local market autonomy with strong central governance, prioritization, and decision‑making to ensure ELEVATE delivers commercial growth, improved customer experience, and operational efficiency at scale. What will you be doing? Enterprise Ownership of ELEVATE Own the enterprise transformation vision, roadmap, and success model for ELEVATE. Define enterprise standards for omnichannel, digital customer experience, data, platforms, and new ways of working. Translate enterprise strategy into a sequenced, value‑driven, multi‑year roadmap across all Business Units. Serve as the single point of accountability for the overall success of ELEVATE. Value, Investment & Portfolio Management Establish and operate an enterprise value management framework across all ELEVATE initiatives. Control investment prioritization, funding decisions, and sequencing across the transformation portfolio. Ensure all initiatives have clearly defined customer outcomes, commercial impact, cost and efficiency impact, and adoption and capability impact. Track benefits realization and actively stop, pause, or redirect initiatives that are not delivering expected value. Integrated Program & Delivery Orchestration Establish and run the Transformation Management Office (TMO) as an enterprise coordination and governance function. Integrate all ELEVATE workstreams into a single, enterprise‑level delivery plan with clear dependencies, risks, and investments. Enable fact-based executive decision‑making through insight, analysis, and options—not status reporting. Actively manage trade‑offs across scope, speed, cost, and quality. Change, Adoption & Operating Model Shift Own the enterprise change and adoption strategy for ELEVATE. Ensure new platforms, data, processes, and ways of working are embedded into business‑as‑usual operations. Partner with HR, Communications, and Business Unit leadership to build digital and customer experience capability and reinforce accountability. Measure adoption and behavioral change, not just delivery milestones. Executive Alignment & Governance Build strong working relationships with executive leadership, senior leaders, and delivery teams across the enterprise. Design and operate governance forums for executive steering, investment decisions, architecture standards, and prioritization. Align decentralized delivery with enterprise outcomes while respecting local accountability. Act as a key integrator across technology, digital, operations, marketing, medical education, and customer care teams. Escalate and resolve conflicts between local priorities and enterprise value. What do you need to be successful?

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Strategy, Marketing, Technology, or a related field required.
10+ years’ experience leading large‑scale, global transformation programs in complex, matrixed organizations.
Proven track record owning enterprise transformation outcomes, including benefits realization and ROI.
Demonstrated experience prioritizing investments and governing multi‑workstream portfolios with significant budgets and dependencies.
Strong understanding of digital, data, and omnichannel ecosystems and their application to customer experience and commercial performance.
Experience embedding new operating models, driving sustained adoption, and changing ways of working at scale.
Proven leadership of high‑performing, cross‑functional global teams.
Strong commercial and financial acumen with the ability to link transformation activity to business outcomes.
Ability to influence and align senior leaders without formal line authority.
Executive‑level communication and stakeholder management skills.
Digital and data fluency sufficient to challenge technology teams, partners, and vendors on outcomes and value delivery.
Strong judgement and decision‑making capability in complex, ambiguous environments.

Nice To Haves

MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification preferred.

Responsibilities

Enterprise Ownership of ELEVATE Own the enterprise transformation vision, roadmap, and success model for ELEVATE.
Define enterprise standards for omnichannel, digital customer experience, data, platforms, and new ways of working.
Translate enterprise strategy into a sequenced, value‑driven, multi‑year roadmap across all Business Units.
Serve as the single point of accountability for the overall success of ELEVATE.
Value, Investment & Portfolio Management Establish and operate an enterprise value management framework across all ELEVATE initiatives.
Control investment prioritization, funding decisions, and sequencing across the transformation portfolio.
Ensure all initiatives have clearly defined customer outcomes, commercial impact, cost and efficiency impact, and adoption and capability impact.
Track benefits realization and actively stop, pause, or redirect initiatives that are not delivering expected value.
Integrated Program & Delivery Orchestration Establish and run the Transformation Management Office (TMO) as an enterprise coordination and governance function.
Integrate all ELEVATE workstreams into a single, enterprise‑level delivery plan with clear dependencies, risks, and investments.
Enable fact-based executive decision‑making through insight, analysis, and options—not status reporting.
Actively manage trade‑offs across scope, speed, cost, and quality.
Change, Adoption & Operating Model Shift Own the enterprise change and adoption strategy for ELEVATE.
Ensure new platforms, data, processes, and ways of working are embedded into business‑as‑usual operations.
Partner with HR, Communications, and Business Unit leadership to build digital and customer experience capability and reinforce accountability.
Measure adoption and behavioral change, not just delivery milestones.
Executive Alignment & Governance Build strong working relationships with executive leadership, senior leaders, and delivery teams across the enterprise.
Design and operate governance forums for executive steering, investment decisions, architecture standards, and prioritization.
Align decentralized delivery with enterprise outcomes while respecting local accountability.
Act as a key integrator across technology, digital, operations, marketing, medical education, and customer care teams.
Escalate and resolve conflicts between local priorities and enterprise value.