Head of HR Policy, Pay and ALB HR

Posting date:	05 March 2026
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	Competitive
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	04 April 2026
Location:	Manchester, M2 3AW
Company:	inploi
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	75790836

Summary

Job summary

DCMS People and Workplace Directorate is looking for an experienced HR leader to take on a maternity cover heading up our teams delivering HR Policy, Pay, Employee Relations, Complex Casework and HR governance and partnering of our Arm’s Length Bodies.

This team is a centre of expertise working closely with internal and cross-government stakeholders to support delivery of the DCMS People Strategy and Ministerial priorities. You will lead a team of 8, each with specialist knowledge and experience in their work areas.

Job description

You will have a broad awareness of wider Pay & Reward, HR Policy and Employee

Relations matters within the Civil Service and externally, and provide consultancy and deliver to meet customer needs. You will use your expertise in these areas to inform and influence senior leadership groups within the department and in our ALBs, and engage with staff networks across DCMS and Trade Union representatives.

Key responsibilities

• Lead a team of experts to deliver high quality, specialist advice and services to stakeholders
• Provide leadership across the Directorate, contributing to the delivery of the People Strategy and modelling the DCMS values.
• Support delivery of the upcoming Matrix project, working closely with the Matrix team, the other departments within our cluster and internal stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.
• Build flexible and integrated Policy and Employee Relations strategies/plans to support departmental strategy and transformation.
• Ensure DMCS pay and reward strategy is aligned with and responsive to organisational strategy and provide analysis and advice to Senior Leaders as required.
• Drive and lead delivery of annual pay awards and any pay flexibility business cases required to respond to organisational and workforce strategies.
• Support ALBs to understand and navigate the central controls on pay and exits that apply to them, ensuring compliance.
• Provide an escalation point for particularly complex or high risk HR Casework.
• Lead the team to maintain constructive engagement and negotiation with Trades Unions.
• Lead and embed an inclusive, diverse culture in your team, nurturing talent and managing performance.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience, please note that desirable skills will only be used in the event of tied candidates:

Essential requirements:

• Expertise across core HR disciplines, employment law, employee relations and HR policy including specialist areas such as pay and reward.
• A proven ability to build, lead, and sustain influential partnerships with executives, senior leadership, and trade unions, securing alignment across diverse stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills
• Dynamic, inclusive leadership with experience building, motivating and developing highperforming teams delivering HR services at pace to quality and time.
• A track record of creating innovative, evidencebased people solutions that drive organisational effectiveness, supported by strong business acumen and data confident.
• Chartered member of CIPD or willing to work towards it.

Desirable Skills:

• Political, contextual and government understanding.
• Strong influencing and consultancy skills
• Ability to problem solve and make strong evidence based decisions.
• Experience leading through change

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Tinu Saide, and will take place on:

• 4th March at 2-3pm

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest by filling out this Registration form by 3rd March, 4pm and you will be sent an invitation. Invites will only be sent after this deadline has passed.

Please note that the session will not be recorded and will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to resourcing.team@dcms.gov.uk

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

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