Strategic Workforce Planning Lead

Government Recruitment Service; Leeds; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A governmental department in the UK is seeking an experienced workforce planner to lead workforce demand planning and provide insights that influence strategic decisions. The role involves engaging with senior stakeholders, forecasting workforce trends, and supporting workforce strategies aimed at optimizing capacity and capability. This position comes with a comprehensive benefits package, including a generous pension scheme, flexible working options, and ample annual leave.

Benefits

Employer pension contribution of 28.97%

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Experience in workforce demand planning and forecasting.
• Ability to turn data into compelling insights for strategic decisions.
• Engagement with stakeholders at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead workforce demand planning practices.
• Report on in‑year workforce trends and deliver reviews.
• Translate workforce demand into a strategic plan.
• Engage in workforce planning for the Places for Growth programme.
• Use data to identify and communicate workforce risks.

Skills

Strong workforce planning experience

Numeracy and technical modelling skills

Collaboration and relationship-building

Job description

Can you turn data into compelling insight that shapes strategic decisions?

Do you enjoy solving complex problems and working with a wide range of stakeholders?

Have you built strong partnerships and used workforce analytics to drive meaningful change?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

This role offers a rare opportunity to combine analytical modelling with strategic storytelling, shaping the workforce behind some of the UK’s most significant transport decisions. You won’t just be modelling data, your insights will influence senior leaders’ decisions across the Department.

DfT is a high‑profile department at the heart of UK government. We work with agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country. We plan and invest to make journeys better.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work‑life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DfTc.

It’s an exciting time to join the Department for Transport’s Strategic Workforce Planning team. This is a high‑profile role that sits at the centre of bringing together a wide range of insights that shape both our current and future workforce plans. You’ll help craft the narrative that enables senior leaders to understand the changes needed to ensure we have the right workforce capacity and capability, and the part they play in achieving it.

We’re looking for someone with strong workforce planning experience, ranging from in‑year forecasting and reporting to longer‑term strategic planning. Strong numeracy and technical modelling skills are essential, but equally important is your ability to turn data into clear, compelling insight that informs decisions and drives action.

You’ll also enjoy working collaboratively and building strong relationships, as this role involves frequent engagement with stakeholders at all levels across the organisation.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Leading on the development and evolution of workforce demand planning practices to forecast the size and shape of the Department’s future workforce demand (grade, profession, directorate etc).
• Leading on the reporting of in‑year workforce trends and the delivery of quarterly workforce reviews and annual workforce business planning with senior stakeholders.
• Engaging with the Strategic Resourcing team and other HR colleagues to translate the workforce demand plan into a strategic workforce plan, including guidance on appropriate balances of build/buy or other options.
• Leading on workforce planning activity relating to the Department’s Places for Growth programme of work, re‑balancing more of our workforce from London to outside of London.
• Using internal and external data to understand trends and build insights in relation to the workforce to tell our workforce ‘story’. Use these to identify and bring to life workforce risks and issues.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only – whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.