Profession Lead

Posting date:	28 April 2026
Salary:	£57,204 to £68,558 per year
Additional salary information:	National: £57,204 - £63,953 London: £62,988 - £68,558
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	10 May 2026
Location:	Glasgow
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	458828/1

Summary

We are seeking an experienced People professional for the role of Profession Lead. Following the launch of the Government Grants Profession in September 2025, for grants professionals in government, ALBs and the wider public sector, we are looking for someone to lead the continued development of the profession. Working closely with the Head of Profession and Capability, you will lead on embedding the Grants Professional Standards across government. Along with developing the Government Grants Professions talent, careers and community initiatives for government and the wider public sector.

As part of the role, you will lead on standardising job families, roles and competencies, along with delivering and aligning member benefits, ensuring government-wide adoption and demonstrable value. You will develop talent-management strategies for acquisition, retention and development. You will be responsible for overseeing the profession's EDI, ensuring all provisions align to the professions strategy, are accessible, fair and inclusive, and foster a positive professional culture.

As Profession Lead you will work closely with the Head of Capability to establish the Grants Profession and align initiatives with the broader strategy.

The Profession and Capability team comprises three areas—Profession, Capability & Training, Engagement—working in close partnership with colleagues, you will lead on Profession.

You will lead on Professional Standards and develop new approaches for talent management, reward, recognition and progression, whilst defining clearer career pathways and lead on member experience - ensuring the Grants Profession is a great place to work and build a career.

The role will involve contributing to the broader profession strategy. Professional Standards will underpin your work and you will be responsible for socialising and championing the standards across government, articulating value and embedding them in grant-making policy, training and best practice.

The role will require you to design and deliver brand new initiatives including generating clearer career pathways, talent strategies, recognition and cross-government profession value - this will require you to collaborate internally with colleagues and consult across government and into the wider public sector to capture diverse input, understand needs and build strong collaborative relationships - your aim being to ensure the profession serves members, departments and the grants functions strategic objectives. You will also build links with other professions and the centre professions team to learn from other professions.

You will lead oversight of compliance across the team - including accessibility, GDPR, fairness and equalities duties, ensuring we are maintaining a diverse environment with fair progression opportunities.

In this role you will be responsible for:

• Professional Standards: Lead and maintain the Grants Professional Standards; socialise and embed them across government; partner with departmental Heads of Profession to champion jointly defined standards and ensure they underpin grant-making policy, training and best practice.
• Member Experience: Manage a comprehensive calendar of events, networks, and forums to facilitate knowledge sharing and professional connection. Foster an active community where members can collaborate, access news, and see clear value from their membership.
• Talent, Career Pathways and Progression: With the Head of Capability, develop talent strategies, define clear career pathways and progression; collaborate with departments to establish advancement routes and guidance on capabilities, accreditations and experience at all levels.
• Stakeholder Management and Consultation: Engage cross-government and wider public sector; use a consultative approach to shape initiatives; ensure alignment with function needs and secure broad buy-in via diverse input.
• Equity, Inclusion and compliance: Oversee accessibility, GDPR, fairness, inclusivity and equalities duties; lead EIAs, DPIAs and accessibility assessments; ensure robust policies and procedures across the team.
• Networks and Connections to Other Professions: Develop links with other professions and central HR/GSU to enable learning transfer
• Continuous improvement and evaluation- Work with analytics to assess value and enable evidence-based continuous improvement.
• Local Government/Non-Government grants learning - responsibility for ensuring a clear and defined profession approach for LG/non-government members
• Line management - Manage one direct report.

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