The ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for this role are Newport, Titchfield (Fareham), London and Darlington.
All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 60% of their working time.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Job Summary
The UK Statistics Authority is a non-ministerial government department responsible for overseeing the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.
Job Description
As the Chief People Officer and Head of Profession, the successful candidate will lead the ONS and OSR People Function on all aspects of Human Resources (HR) and Organisation Design (OD), including business partnering, expert services and delivery functions such as resourcing. As a member of both the department’s Executive Committee and the Government People Group HR executive team, the Chief People Officer will partner closely with Permanent Secretary, National Statistician and Directors General and the Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation, to enable the delivery of key organisational priorities and Civil Service wide priorities, enabled by a strong, employee-centric HR function.
You will also lead the Estates and Property Services team, who are responsible for the management of our offices across Newport, Titchfield, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Darlington.
You will act as the trusted adviser to the Permanent Secretary and the Executive Board on people and property, providing strategic direction and leadership on corporate reputation and employee voice. Leading the development of high-quality people strategies to deliver the strategic long term aims of the Office for National Statistics. ONS and the wider UK Statistics Authority.
You will be an integral member of our executive committee, directing on a broad range of people related workstreams to ensure the organisation has an engaged, skilled, and flexible workforce and the organisational capability to deliver its strategic objectives.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as a trusted adviser and strategic partner to the Permanent Secretary and executive board on people related issues.
- Working at a whole system level – with stakeholders across the business and externally – to develop innovative people, estate and property approaches based on a deep understanding of customers, and the levers to effect positive outcomes.
- Provide empowering, inspiring and inclusive leadership to a team of 157 colleagues with a £19m budget – who span a wide range of responsibilities across the employee lifecycle on resourcing, employee experience, strategic workforce planning, talent management, reward, designing and delivery of corporate learning, staff engagement, culture, property professionals and health and safety professionals.
- Influencing and managing complex senior stakeholder relationships. Build positive and productive relationships with stakeholders, customers and suppliers, to enable the continued support and development of ONS and UK Statistics Authority.
- Providing visible and collaborative leadership within a complex organisation with an ability to build high performing teams – particularly those which operate across organisational boundaries, growing confidence and capability, employee engagement and an inclusive culture.
- Be an active senior leader in cross-departmental governance as a member of the Executive Committee (ExCo) and other key governance forums for the Office for National Statistics and UK Statistics Authority.
- Provide HR Leadership to the Analysis Function and Government Statistical Service, working with the Boards and the champions to deliver our work and improve outcomes for 17k colleagues across government.
Further information on this role can be found in the candidate pack attached.
As the Chief People Officer and Head of Profession, the successful candidate will lead the ONS and OSR People Function on all aspects of Human Resources (HR) and Organisation Design (OD), including business partnering, expert services and delivery functions such as resourcing. As a member of both the department’s Executive Committee and the Government People Group HR executive team, the Chief People Officer will partner closely with Permanent Secretary, National Statistician and Directors General and the Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation, to enable the delivery of key organisational priorities and Civil Service wide priorities, enabled by a strong, employee-centric HR function.
You will also lead the Estates and Property Services team, who are responsible for the management of our offices across Newport, Titchfield, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Darlington.
You will act as the trusted adviser to the Permanent Secretary and the Executive Board on people and property, providing strategic direction and leadership on corporate reputation and employee voice. Leading the development of high-quality people strategies to deliver the strategic long term aims of the Office for National Statistics. ONS and the wider UK Statistics Authority.
You will be an integral member of our executive committee, directing on a broad range of people related workstreams to ensure the organisation has an engaged, skilled, and flexible workforce and the organisational capability to deliver its strategic objectives.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as a trusted adviser and strategic partner to the Permanent Secretary and executive board on people related issues.
- Working at a whole system level – with stakeholders across the business and externally – to develop innovative people, estate and property approaches based on a deep understanding of customers, and the levers to effect positive outcomes.
- Provide empowering, inspiring and inclusive leadership to a team of 157 colleagues with a £19m budget – who span a wide range of responsibilities across the employee lifecycle on resourcing, employee experience, strategic workforce planning, talent management, reward, designing and delivery of corporate learning, staff engagement, culture, property professionals and health and safety professionals.
- Influencing and managing complex senior stakeholder relationships. Build positive and productive relationships with stakeholders, customers and suppliers, to enable the continued support and development of ONS and UK Statistics Authority.
- Providing visible and collaborative leadership within a complex organisation with an ability to build high performing teams – particularly those which operate across organisational boundaries, growing confidence and capability, employee engagement and an inclusive culture.
- Be an active senior leader in cross-departmental governance as a member of the Executive Committee (ExCo) and other key governance forums for the Office for National Statistics and UK Statistics Authority.
- Provide HR Leadership to the Analysis Function and Government Statistical Service, working with the Boards and the champions to deliver our work and improve outcomes for 17k colleagues across government.
Further information on this role can be found in the candidate pack attached.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
- Experience of operating successfully at Executive level in a large, multi-divisional, multi-site organisation where there is interdependence between different parts of business;
- Strong evidence of successfully managing complex senior stakeholder relationships, with the confidence and credibility to challenge when necessary, using both data and influencing skills to enact people and cultural change;
- A clear record of success in leading multi-disciplinary teams (notably in conjunction with Strategy, Finance, Commercial and Digital) in the attraction, implementation and retention of a resilient and agile workforce that harnesses data and technology to deliver better shared outcomes;
- A strong track record of technology-orientated, organisational transformation with experience in organisation design, industrial and employee relations, while embedding continuous improvement and future proofing organisational sustainability.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to quickly distil large amounts of information from a variety of sources into sound recommendations and communicate complex issues clearly;
- Extensive experience of leading a well-developed, corporate services HR function within a complex organisation with a proven ability to build high performing teams – in particular, teams that operate across organisational boundaries, growing confidence and capability, employee engagement, and an inclusive culture.
Alongside your salary of £100,000, Office for National Statistics contributes £28,970 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
Selection process details
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link
, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
Artificial intelligence (AI) software such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini are powerful tools that can create and review text in ways that mimic what people can do. These tools can help you enhance your application and prepare for the process, but it is essential you use them appropriately.
They must also not be used to provide misleading or false information at any stage of the application journey.
It is also important to understand that while AI can help you prepare for an interview, you must not use it to produce responses during an interview.
For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please click here.
Selection Process
Applications should consist of your
CV and
Personal Statement combined as one document and uploaded as a single attachment through Civil Service Jobs.
A
Curriculum Vitae of no more than 2 pages of A4 consisting of:
- Details of your education and/or professional qualifications.
- Full employment history, giving details (where applicable) of budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant key achievements in recent posts.
- Details of your latest remuneration.
A personal statement detailing in no more than 2 pages of A4 how you meet the
essential criteria listed in the person specification. We recommend that you give clear examples for each describing your own contribution and the impact and value of your actions.
Applications will be acknowledged shortly after receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within one week of applying for the post, please contact our SCS Recruitment Team. at: SCS.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
Further information on the assessment approach for this role can be found in the candidate pack.
Expected Recruitment Timetable
Shortlisting meeting: WC 15th December 2025
Employee Engagement Exercise (EEE) - WC 12th January 2026
Interviews - WC 26th January 2026 - Held in 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
Dates are subject to change.
Full terms and conditions are attached at the bottom of this advert
If you meet the required standard but the recruiting department is unable to offer you the job, you may be given the option of being added to a reserve list. Reserve lists may be shared with other Civil Service departments and professions who are recruiting for similar roles.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact :
- Name : Darren Tierney
- Email : Permanent.Secretary@ons.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : SCS.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission
