About the job

Job summary:

The Civilian HR Director is a key strategic and leadership role in one of the biggest departments in central Government. Your influence, tenacity and drive will be critical to the successful operation of the HR function in Defence, and you will lead a large departmental HR team to achieve this.

You will work closely and effectively with civil service and military colleagues across all of MOD’s business areas, providing direction and building capability to enable us to achieve our People strategic objectives, as set out in the Defence People Strategy 2024.

Job description

•    Effective Strategic workforce planning, ensuring we have optimal civil servants to deliver a Whole Force workforce that meets future Defence outputs.
•    Leading the skills strategy for Civil Servants, to deliver an enhanced learning and development offer and continue to develop our world leading expertise in international policy, STEM skills and essential enabling functions.
•    Driving leadership behaviours across defence through civilian programmes, delivering an inclusive and highly engaged organisation.
•    Embed an improved Civil Servant Offer, reviewing all reward mechanisms to support the employee cycle.
•    Play a leading role in corporate services modernisation and commissioning service from our in-house HR provider
•    Act as Head of HR profession, providing leadership for HR across the Department, and member of the HR Executive across Government.
•    Overall responsibility for around 130 people within the HR function and directly managing six Deputy Directors, both civil servant and military.
•    Provision of HR advice to senior leaders and Strategic HR Business Partner to the Permanent Secretary.

Person specification

•    The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:
•    Proven leadership of a high performing HR function in a complex organisation and demonstratable evidence of driving a collaborative and inclusive culture.
•    Considerable professional experience in delivering people-focused senior HR transformational change with an ability to prioritise the work of a function, taking into account present and future goals of the department, and take responsibility for outcomes and results. You must also demonstrate your ability to energise and engage HR colleagues around the transformation ahead.
•    Board or Senior Executive level experience, with the confidence to represent the functional agenda with other senior leaders. An ability and understanding in when to take a broader, strategic perspective and when to get ‘into the detail’ to really understand a situation or problem.
•    Excellent Senior Stakeholder Management in a matrixed organisation with a reputation as a trusted advisor, ability to engage with colleagues at all levels to surface and tackle complex issues as well as a track record of building a network of professional relationships. You will also need to be able to communicate effectively through high standards of written briefing.
•    Experience of leading a complex Business As Usual agenda, alongside a programme of change, with a proven track record of implementing significant successful programmes to drive cultural change, including industrial relations aspects.
•    Relevant professional qualification or knowledge - Chartered Fellow/fully qualified member (Level 7) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with at least 5 years’ experience in an HR Leadership role in a sizeable organisation.

Benefits

•    Learning and development tailored to your role
•    An environment with flexible working options
•    A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
•    A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.