Chief People Officer

Chief People Office, UKRI

Salary: Band Y

Full time, Open Ended. Job shares also considered.

The post will be based at Polaris House in Swindon for 3 days a week but with flexibility for the remainder of the week. There will be travel to London and across the UK as the role requires.

Closing Sunday 2nd March 2025 at 23:59pm

Interviews are expected to be held in London on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 April 2025.

Are you an inspirational HR leader who is passionate about driving a strategic people agenda, cultivating talent, and delivering a professional HR function? If so, we encourage you to explore this role and the opportunity it presents to shape the UKRI people strategy and to deliver a culture that aligns with our overall goals and values.

About UKRI

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is an independent, non-departmental public body, which invests £8bn per annum in research and innovation. We bring together nine executive council partners (the seven Research Councils, plus Innovate UK, and Research England) with a shared vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. UKRI also provides coordinated strategic advice to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the balance of funding between research disciplines.

We employ 8,000 staff who support some of the world’s most exciting and challenging research projects. We develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world and work collaboratively with industry, academia and government in exciting partnerships. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through blue skies research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world-class research and business-led innovation.

The Role

The Chief People Officer is the HR Professional Leader for UK Research and Innovation and a member of the UKRI Executive Committee; the role leads in determining the organisation’s strategic People agenda, its culture and the professional HR function that works to deliver on it.

As a member of the UKRI Executive Committee, the Chief People Officer will work with Council and UKRI functional leadership to ensure sound delivery of the people strategy and management of people risk across UKRI throughout its governance structures including the UKRI Board.

As one of UKRI’s senior leaders, the Chief People Officer will be a strong and visible role model and will collaborate with and convene the wider people functions across UKRI to build cohesion and maximise UKRI’s understanding of the priorities of our stakeholders.

The appointed Chief People Officer will be joining UKRI at a time where there is a palpable enthusiasm both politically and across the wider community for change and this will present an incredibly exciting opportunity to effect it at the highest level in one of the most important public sector areas, namely research and innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• The Chief People Officer is responsible for the delivery of the UKRI People Strategy and delivery of the following capabilities for the organisation:
• Ensure strategic plans are in place to implement the longer-term people strategy to support the principles, values and philosophy of UKRI.
• Translate strategic plans into deliverable objectives which add value to UKRI in delivering its strategy.
• Ensure proactive and responsive approaches are in place to react to complex people issues. Lead crisis / incident management when required.
• Operate within and provide functional leadership for the UKRI Governance, Risk and Assurance frameworks with a focus on managing public money well.
• Deliver the most professional and engaging HR support, advice, counsel and coaching through high calibre Business Partnering Teams and personally to the executive team.
• Deliver a cohesive package of fixed and variable reward, benefits, and pensions, in line with public sector pay policy. Simplify and harmonise Employee Policies and guidance alongside maintaining a positive Trades Unions relationship to support ongoing negotiation and consultation for our 9 recognised Trades Unions.
• Resourcing – enhance our performance management, talent management and succession planning offer into an integrated framework from Operational to Strategic Workforce Planning alongside specific talent programmes including our Early Careers.
• Culture, Inclusion & Learning – Develop the heart of our employee experience through leadership in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, creation of a holistic wellbeing offer, developing our leadership journey with and alongside a strong Learning and Development offer.
• Ensure the customer (employee, leader, manager, team) is at the heart of our approach when we are delivering high quality products in challenging time frames to enable and help our clients achieve business as usual and transformational goals.

What we’re looking for:

The successful candidate will be an excellent strategic leader, operating at Executive and Board level, with a breadth of experience gained whilst working in complex organisations. While we have no preconceptions as to what sectors or industries you will have worked in; the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the following essential skills:

• Experience in partnering with, constructively challenging and supporting the executive team, helping them consider approaches and fully evaluate options.
• Solid HR generalist experience gained through leadership in complex organisations where transformation and change are delivered alongside a focus on continuous improvement of Business as Usual.
• Proven ability to persuade, influence and secure the confidence of others and to build collaborative working relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders across organisational boundaries inside and outside of UKRI.
• Management of diverse and complex stakeholders and with the ability to negotiate successfully to meet the needs of individual parties.
• Ability to think strategically and then translate into actionable and achievable plans.
• Highly developed analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to quickly understand new and complex issues and to apply creative solutions.
• Proven ability to work at Board and Executive level.
• Able to demonstrate excellent commercial and political judgement.
• A dynamic leader, able to inspire a large multi-site HR team around a common vision.
• A role model for high standards, instilling a clear sense of purpose, priority and direction.

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package! We are committed to supporting employees’ development and promote a culture of continuous learning! A list of benefits below:

• An excellent defined benefit pension scheme
• 30 days’ annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent)
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
• Flexible working options.

How to Apply

Applicants are required to provide an up-to-date CV and a cover letter outlining their suitability for the role. Please click ‘apply’ for further information and to visit our careers page.