Chief People Officer

Met Office; Ebford; On-site; GBP 149,000 - 156,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading weather and climate organization in the UK seeks a Chief People Officer to provide strategic HR leadership. This role involves managing a team, driving cultural change, and advising the executive board. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in HR leadership, budget management, and a track record of implementing effective people strategies. A competitive salary package of up to £156,000 is offered, along with extensive benefits.

Benefits

Civil Service pension

Performance related bonus

Generous annual leave

Relocation package

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a senior leadership capacity across various HR disciplines.
• Track record of advising executives on people transformation and culture change.
• Experience managing a significant budget within set limits.

Responsibilities

• Act as trusted adviser to Chief Executive on people-related issues.
• Lead transformation and change management initiatives.
• Manage a team of 130 FTE with diverse HR responsibilities.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Change management

Leadership in HR

Budget management

Employee engagement

Education

Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)

Job description

Overview

We are pleased to bring to the market the role of Chief People Officer at the Met Office. As our Chief People Officer, you will act as the trusted adviser to the Chief Executive and the Board on people, providing strategic direction and leadership on corporate reputation, and brand issues and to develop high quality people and communication structures to deliver the strategic long term aims of the Met Office.

Based in Exeter or Reading, with regular attendance at our Exeter Headquarters, 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 flexible workforce and the organisational capability to deliver its strategic objectives.

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 built on deep scientific expertise. Our work supports everything from daily life and travel, to defence, agriculture, energy and emergency response. As a member of the Met Office Executive Committee, reporting to Managing Director of Enabling Capabilities, you will be key in realising our new 2025-2030 strategic plan and helping the Met Office to deliver the most trusted weather and climate intelligence in a radically changing world. You will be accountable for developing the organisational capabilities we need to realise our ambitions and enable the organisation to be an inclusive and great place to work.

Key duties

• Act as a trusted adviser to Chief Executive and wider executive board on all people related issues, leading the People Strategy, Corporate Value Proposition and Engagement strategy.
• Lead transformation and change - successfully managing the delivery of people focused transformational change management programmes.
• Manage significant and successful cultural change through the use of organisational development, behavioural insight techniques and change management, in a complex and diverse multi-stakeholder environment.
• Lead a team of 130 FTE with a £7.2m budget - spanning a wide range of responsibilities across the employee lifecycle including resourcing, employee experience, strategic workforce planning, talent management, reward, design and delivery of meteorological training, design and delivery of corporate learning, staff engagement, social media and content, culture, internal and external communications, the press office, health and safety professionals and change management.
• Deliver the People strategy, ED&I strategy, Employee Value Proposition, Health & Safety improvement plans, Wellbeing and engagement strategy.
• Act as chief negotiator on pay bargaining with the trade union side, ensuring accuracy and compliance of pay remits and pay and reward policies.
• Continually improve staff engagement, measured through increasing engagement scores from the People survey, including through effective deployment of skilled and professional change management resources.
• Provide leadership of employer brand and values to attract, retain and develop our employees and implement change initiatives to ensure the Met Office is seen as a “great place to work” based on the Employee annual survey.
• Play an effective role in Civil Service working with HR Directors across government.

Requirements

1. Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent.
2. Experience 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. Experience delivering in a high performing executive team with a track record of advising the board and delivering people transformation and culture change in a complex environment.
4. Proven track record of managing a significant budget (£7.2 million) within agreed limits and knowledge of corporate budgeting and financial processes.
5. Experience leading large, multi-disciplinary People, Communications and Wellbeing teams with a history of using innovation to solve people-related issues.
6. Strong strategic thinking with proven change management capabilities; able to balance strategic, tactical and operational priorities and deliver at pace in ambiguity.

Desirable additional qualities include: portfolio of commitment to professional development; experience realising people benefits from data, analytics and AI; experience of pay negotiations and innovative pay Flexibility; experience advising or sitting on Remuneration Committees; establishing executive reward, retention, recruitment and incentive schemes.

Alongside your salary of £149,000, Met Office contributes £43,165 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

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 has achieved recognition on UK lists for Best Workplaces in Tech and Best Workplaces for Women. The Chief People Officer role offers a total reward package in the range of £149,000 to £156,000 annually, including:

• Executive level base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension
• A discretionary performance related bonus
• Annual leave from 27.5 days (rising to 32.5 days after five years) plus bank holidays; option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year
• A relocation package

We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all protected characteristics. We require eligibility to live and work in the UK and security clearance to be obtained within the first six months of employment. See GOV.UK for details.