Zoe Watson · Available for engagements
Strategy & Transformation|Operational Transformation|Target Operating Model|Product and Technology Change
Executive leader working at the intersection of strategy, product, design and delivery — turning strategic ambition into practical, technology-enabled outcomes.
- 20+
- Years senior leadership
- £3m+
- Efficiencies delivered
- 150k+
- Users & stakeholders impacted
Profile
Brought in when it matters
Extensive experience leading enterprise transformation across complex, regulated environments, designing products, services and operating models that align business needs with technology and eliminate inefficiency.
Trusted to influence executive stakeholders, shape strategic direction and lead multidisciplinary teams to deliver sustainable change that strengthens governance and improves customer outcomes.
Comfortable in the boardroom setting direction and alongside delivery teams making it real — from Target Operating Model design through to Microsoft Dynamics implementation and adoption.
- —Designed the Executive-approved Target Operating Model for a national regulator.
- —Improved productivity by up to 75–80% without headcount increase, through process redesign.
- —Delivered more than £3m in efficiencies, enabling fee reductions for over 100,000 licensed individuals.
- —Delivered recurring annual cashable savings of approximately £190k through policy and process optimisation.
- —Led operational teams of up to 60 staff and managed multi-million-pound operational and programme budgets.
- —Influenced Executive decision-making through governance, strategic insight and business cases.
What I do
Three practice areas
Interim Operational Leadership
A steady pair of hands in the seat, from week one.
Read more →ChangeChange & Transformation
Programmes that finish, and changes that hold.
Read more →ProductProduct & Technology Design, Delivery and Implementation
Systems that land, get used, and pay back.
Read more →How I work
A predictable approach
Diagnose
A fast, honest read of where things actually stand — the numbers, the team and the risks nobody has written down yet.
Stabilise
Put the basics back in place: clear priorities, a working management rhythm and decisions being made at the right level.
Deliver
Run the change and the technology together, so the new process and the system that supports it arrive at the same time.
Hand over
Leave behind a capable team, documented ways of working and a successor set up to keep the gains.
Experience
Career highlights
Core expertise
- Business transformation & process re-engineering
- Target Operating Model design
- Business architecture
- Digital & product-led transformation
- Microsoft Dynamics business design & agile delivery
- Business analysis & process mapping
- Governance, risk & benefits realisation
- Performance metrics, KPIs & management information
- Executive stakeholder engagement & influence
- Change leadership & adoption
2023 – Present
Operations Design Lead | Product Owner
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Leading enterprise operating model and business architecture transformation.
- —Designed and oversaw implementation of a new triage function with supporting technology and resource/event planning tooling for over 500 users.
- —Designed the end-to-end Microsoft Dynamics case management solution.
- —Aligned strategy, governance, technology, people and investment decisions; prepared Executive papers and facilitated strategic workshops.
2020 – 2023
Case Examiner Lead
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Improved productivity by almost 80% without increasing headcount through process re-engineering.
- —Redesigned statutory guidance, enabling more proportionate regulatory decision making.
- —Delivered recurring annual savings of approximately £190k through policy optimisation.
- —Designed management information and performance frameworks improving consistency, quality and oversight.
2019
Target Operating Model Lead (Secondment)
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Led Executive workshops to establish organisational design principles.
- —Conducted value chain analysis and designed the future Target Operating Model.
- —Secured Executive approval of the TOM as the organisation's strategic direction for transformation.
2017 – 2020
Statutory Decision Maker
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Acted as an independent statutory decision maker within a complex regulatory framework.
- —Designed and implemented quality assurance and organisational learning frameworks to improve decision quality.
2013 – 2017
Change & Programme Manager
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Led strategic change programmes, governance, risk management and stakeholder engagement.
- —Designed PMO and benefits realisation frameworks to improve programme oversight.
- —Established two new organisational functions to improve quality, consistency and operational efficiency.
2012 – 2013
Head of Case Preparation
Nursing and Midwifery Council
- —Turned around a failing operational function following organisational restructuring.
- —Reduced caseloads from approximately 1,900 to 1,300 within six months and to around 900 within twelve months, while improving quality and reducing temporary staffing.
- —Managed commercial supplier contracts and performance.
2003 – 2012
Progressive Leadership Roles
Security Industry Authority
- —Senior Delivery Manager, Senior Operations Manager, Project Manager and Investigator across nine years within a national regulator.
- —Led operational teams of up to 60 staff and oversaw high-volume outsourced service delivery, including KPI management.
- —Moved a business process outsource contract to an IT managed service, generating more than £3m in efficiencies and enabling licence fee reductions for over 100,000 licence holders.
- —Oversaw OJEU procurement and government-led programme assurance, reporting through the Home Office and senior Government stakeholders.
Credentials
Qualifications
- MBA Business (AI Specialism) — in progress
- BA (Hons) Law & Business (2:1)
- MSP Practitioner
- PRINCE2 Practitioner
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
- Understanding Microsoft Dynamics
Have a mandate in mind?
Tell me the situation and the timeline. If I am the right fit I will say so quickly — and if I am not, I will tell you that too.
Start a conversation