Associate Director, People & Culture

Met Office; Devon and Torbay; On-site; GBP 74,000 - 114,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading weather and climate organization seeks an Associate Director of People & Culture to shape and deliver the People Strategy. This pivotal role involves managing delivery in strategic planning, operational delivery, and health & safety. Candidates should be transformational leaders with substantial HR experience, adept at driving strategic initiatives and managing relationships across various stakeholders. An attractive salary package of £103,591 to £113,446 is offered, making this an outstanding opportunity to impact the work culture significantly.

Benefits

Civil Service pension

Discretionary performance-related bonus

Annual leave up to 32.5 days

Relocation package available

Qualifications

• Experience leading large teams across various HR disciplines.
• Extensive knowledge of corporate budgeting and financial processes.
• Ability to balance strategic and operational priorities.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategic leadership in People and Culture.
• Engage with Director community on people matters.
• Lead talent and succession planning initiatives.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to drive sustainable change.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Change management

Team management

Communication

Education

Chartered Member or Fellow of CIPD

Job description

We are pleased to bring to the market the role of Associate Director, People & Culture at the Met Office.

As our Associate Director, People & Culture you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the Met Office People Strategy, ensuring the organisation has the engaged, skilled, and flexible workforce needed to achieve its strategic objectives.

Based in Exeter, you will be operationally responsible for delivery of all elements of the People and Culture area encompassing Strategic Planning, Operational Delivery, People Development and Health & Safety teams - ensuring that the Met Office remains an exceptional place for people to work, grow and thrive.

World changing work

As one of the world's leading weather and climate organisations, the Met Office provides the most accurate weather forecasts, severe weather warnings and climate projections which are built on our deep scientific expertise. Our work supports everything from daily life and travel, to defence, agriculture, energy and emergency response.

Your world of expertise

As a strategic HR leader, you report to the Chief People Officer, driving operational delivery and continuous improvement across all elements of the People and Culture area, Strategic Planning, Operational Delivery, People Development and Health & Safety teams.

Equipping leaders to succeed, you will ensure a central focus on championing leadership excellence, inclusion, health and safety and wellbeing, and Met Office values.

Your key duties:

• Engage effectively with the Associate Director community and Executive to provide advice and direction on people matters across the organisation.
• Lead and empower the People Directorate promoting and implementing new ways of working and data driven decisions. Embedding strategic workforce planning as a discipline, overseeing talent and succession planning. Ensuring the organisation has an engaged, skilled flexible workforce and the organisational capability to deliver its strategic objectives.
• Developing relationships inside and outside of the Civil Service to be able to bring best practice to the organisation and become recognised externally.
• Collaborate constructively with trade unions, stakeholders, and senior colleagues to help drive sustainable change, organisational stability, and measurable improvements in engagement.
• Provide strategic leadership as the Head of Profession for Leadership and Management, partnering with the Chief People Officer as sponsor to champion best practice. Lead the development of leadership capability-strengthening confidence and competence in line with the Met Office skills framework and organisational culture.
• Working with the Head of Health and Safety to ensure health, safety and wellbeing is culturally embedded in the Met Office.

Essential Criteria, skills and experience

We are seeking a permanent appointment for an passionate leader whose experience aligns with our criteria:

1. Chartered Member, or ideally Chartered Fellow, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent.
2. Demonstrable experience leading large teams, across the full range of HR disciplines (Organisational Development, workforce planning and resourcing, people systems and technology, pay and reward, conduct and capability, learning, leadership and management, talent management, employee and industrial relations) in a senior leadership capacity.
3. Proven track record of managing significant budget and headcount within agreed limits and extensive knowledge of corporate budgeting and financial processes.
4. Highly developed strategic thinking ability with proven track record in change management and capable of balancing both strategic, tactical and operational priorities; able to deliver strategy at pace, resilience to sustain the strategy, often through high levels of ambiguity and organisational change.

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

As our Associate Director of People & Culture, your annual total reward package is potentially worth in the range of £103,591 to £113,446, which includes:

• Base pay in the region of £74,856.
• An outstanding Civil Service pension.
• A discretionary performance related bonus.
• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years and option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave.
• A relocation package is available.

How to apply

If you share our values, we'd love to hear from you. Apply below using your CV and a Cover Letter/Supporting Statement with evidence against each of the essential criteria. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date Sunday 8th February 23:59. Interviews will be in person at Exeter HQ and will commence from 26th February 2026.

How we can help:

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via . You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don't always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information.

We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible, 2 of these years must be immediately preceding the point of your application. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.