Chief People Officer

Location: We operate a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our core locations in London, Newport, Titchfield (Fareham) or Darlington, and working between office and remote throughout the week.

Salary: £100,000

Working Patterns: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Closing date: Apply before 11:55 pm on Thursday 11th December 2025

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.

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.

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 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. We recommend that you give clear examples for each describing your own contribution and the impact and value of your actions.

For more detailed information on the duties and requirements, please view the candidate pack and click the APPLY button below!

In return we offer you:

✔Hybrid working in an organisation voted top in the UK for work-life balance

✔A market leading pension scheme - our employer contribution rate is around 27%

✔ A choice of working patterns *for every role* full-time, part-time, job-share.

✔Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of 26 weeks full pay (subject to qualifying criteria)

✔Employee Assistance Programmes

✔Diversity Network Groups

✔Mental Health Allies

✔Civil Service Sports and Social club

✔Generous holiday allowance – 25 days annual leave, rising to 30 days after 5 years service in addition to 9 public holidays

✔Blocked out Learning & Development time, with courses & certifications paid for

For more information about this role and to apply, please click the APPLY button to be taken to Civil Service Jobs.