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Head of People Strategy

Job details
Posting date: 24 February 2026
Salary: £67,730 to £81,535 per year
Additional salary information: £67,730 - £75,480 National, £73,165 - £81,535 London. For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’.
Hours: Full time
Closing date: 09 March 2026
Location: York
Company: Government Recruitment Service
Job type: Permanent
Job reference: 449844/8

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Summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Defra Group is undergoing significant change and transformation to deliver better outcomes for the environment, deliver on our Spending Review commitments and improve our services to our customers in line.

Our people are at the heart of this journey across Defra Group, and within the HR function we have established a workforce transformation programme to work within the Change portfolio to drive this change. You will be the People Strategy lead, defining and shaping our collective approach, against the 4 pillars of our transformation programme.

These being:

  • A smaller, sustainable and cost-effective workforce
  • Cultivating the right skills and capabilities for the future
  • Effective, agile and healthy organisation
  • Place based organisation

As part of this approach you will be developing the thought-leadership in how we tackle some of the key people challenges, and shape the people strategy out to 2035 to address these areas. You will work across all HR functions and disciplines, to bring together a coherent set of priorities and principles, and partner with our strategic change portfolio to see these put into practice.

1. Set the Direction for Strategic Business Design – Shaping our workforce:

  • Define how Defra Group’s capabilities, corporate functions, and organising principles must evolve for 2035.
  • Work with the OD&D team to lead thinking on future operating models, including integration opportunities, ALB functional reviews, and Common Business Capabilities.
  • Partner the Service Transformation Programme to provide high-level challenge, insight, and design expertise to senior leaders on future organisational direction.

2. Embed Strategic Job Design – Shaping our job roles of the future.

  • Develop a “north star” vision for future Defra Group jobs in 2035.
  • Map the journey and define the decision points required to move from the current state to the 2035 vision.
  • Lead analysis on whether Defra should operate as a jobs-based or skills-based organisation, and define the implications for people, processes, systems, career models, and workforce planning.

3. Develop principles for future teams – Shaping how we organise and lead our teams.

  • Lead thinking on spans and layers, future leadership models, and the relationship between people-team and bot-team leadership.
  • Provide evidence-based recommendations for the future structure and shape of teams across Defra Group.
  • Build healthy team indicators to identify teams which are struggling, work with business partners to shape interventions

4. Place-based Delivery and Thriving Communities – Where our people work.

  • Partner with Property Optimisation Programme to design and articulate a forward-looking workforce location strategy.
  • Develop an approach to workforce segmentation (e.g., specialists, hub/core, transition groups).
  • Build a 10-year roadmap for managing the “transition” in a respectful, consistent, and strategically aligned way.

5. Strategic Leadership and External Influence.

  • Maintain strong relationships with GPG, OGDs, and other external partners to ensure alignment, shared learning, and influence.
  • Lead HR’s contribution into Defra Group Strategy.
  • Shape and coordinate the Group’s contributions to cross-government people priorities and strategies.

6. Delivery Approach and Team Leadership.

  • The role is responsible not only for creating strategy but for ensuring it is a living roadmap—continually tested, iterated, and delivered.
  • You will work across all HR expert services and Business Partnering teams to develop an engaging Defra Group offer.
  • This role has direct line management of 3 x G7s, with wider matrix management across project resources and expert services.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

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