Head of Strategic Resourcing and People Operations in Cardiff, Wales

We are looking for an exceptional HR professional to lead one of our most critical functions: attracting, mobilising and retaining brilliant talent so our organisation can thrive, now and in the future. This is a senior, influential role at the heart of our People function. You will ensure we have the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, while driving innovation, simplicity and excellence across the whole employee lifecycle.

Alongside setting and delivering our strategic resourcing agenda, you will design and implement a modern HR Hub, a central, intuitive service that streamlines, automates and elevates the end-to-end employee journey, from joiner to leaver.

What you will do:

• Lead and evolve our strategic resourcing function, aligning workforce capability with organisational priorities.
• Shape and deliver our People Plan, influencing business strategy at the highest levels.
• Design, build and embed an HR Hub that simplifies and automates people processes across the employee lifecycle.
• Champion data-driven decision making and continuous improvement.
• Build a high-performing team and foster a culture of excellence, curiosity and collaboration.
• Be a visible, trusted leader across the organisation.

Why choose Companies House?

At Companies House, we take a proactive approach to wellbeing by promoting a welcoming culture, healthy work-life balance and supporting colleagues to be their best in work because we know people are the key to our success. Our benefits include:

• Flexible working with no core hours (between 6am and 8pm)
• 30 days annual leave
• 8 bank holidays & 1 privilege day
• Enrolment into the Civil Service Pension scheme, with an average employer contribution of 28%

Please note: You will be based at either our Cardiff or Edinburgh office where you will be expected to attend on a regular basis. Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. Security Check (SC) Clearance is an essential requirement (you must have been present in the UK for at least 3 out of the last 5 years).

Role Purpose

To lead Strategic Resourcing, ensuring the organisation is sustainably resourced with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time. The role spans the full joiner-to-leaver lifecycle and enables the delivery of organisational priorities through strategic planning, deployment of skills and supported by modern people operations processes.

Core Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership for resourcing, workforce planning and people operations, ensuring plans are evidence-based, future-focused and aligned to organisational priorities, enabling effective and sustainable delivery of business objectives.
• Work closely with senior leaders to understand current and future workforce and skills requirements, shaping organisational design, resourcing strategies and deployment models that build long-term capability, resilience and flexibility.
• Lead enterprise-level workforce, resourcing and skills discussions, ensuring headcount and capability are planned, deployed and redeployed responsibly across the organisation, balancing delivery priorities, affordability, workforce risk and colleague experience.
• Establish and embed strategic approaches to the deployment and redeployment of skills, enabling the organisation to respond quickly to changing priorities, make best use of internal talent, and support workforce mobility and retention.
• Lead the design, implementation and continuous improvement of a HR Hub covering the end-to-end employee life journey (joiner to leaver), providing a streamlined, automated and customer-focused experience for colleagues and managers.
• Drive the development and ongoing refinement of the employer offer, supporting the attraction, deployment and retention of a diverse, inclusive and highly skilled workforce in a competitive labour market.
• Use workforce insight, skills data and labour market intelligence to inform strategic workforce planning, ensuring the organisation has the capability it needs today while building capacity for the future.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Lead and develop the Strategic Resourcing team, fostering a professional, inclusive and high-performing culture with a strong focus on service quality and colleague experience.
• Provide clear direction, coaching and support to enable the team to work effectively with hiring managers and senior leaders.
• Oversee performance management and capability development across the team, ensuring skills and capacity remain aligned to organisational priorities.
• Work collaboratively across HR and the wider organisation to deliver joined-up, consistent and effective people solutions.

Operational Excellence

• Provide oversight of end-to-end resourcing and people operations, including recruitment, onboarding, loans and secondments, contingent labour, redeployment and workforce mobility.
• Drive continuous improvement of processes, systems and governance to improve efficiency, value for money and service delivery.
• Promote the effective use of people data, performance metrics and insight to inform decision-making and identify emerging workforce risks and opportunities.
• Ensure a consistent, fair and positive experience for candidates and colleagues across the joiner-to-leaver lifecycle.
• Lead delivery of skills and capability initiatives aligned to workforce plans, supporting long-term organisational resilience.

Stakeholder Management and Influence

• Build strong, effective working relationships with senior leaders and hiring managers, providing constructive challenge and professional advice to support sound workforce decisions.
• Act as a trusted advisor on resourcing and workforce planning matters, offering pragmatic, proportionate and evidence-based solutions.
• Work in partnership with HR Business Partners and specialist teams to support delivery of organisational priorities and respond effectively to complex workforce issues.

Person specification

• Demonstrable experience of designing, building and embedding resourcing or people operations functions, including setting up new teams, services or operating models from the ground up, or leading significant transformation of existing services to improve efficiency, consistency and user experience.
• Proven ability to design and implement automated and digitised HR processes, including self-service models and end-to-end workflows across the employee lifecycle, with experience of integrating HR processes with payroll and associated systems.
• Deep understanding of current recruitment trends, technologies and best practice, including the effective use of digital and social media platforms for talent attraction, outreach and employer branding.
• Exceptional leadership, coaching and people management skills, with a strong track record of building, inspiring and developing high-performing, inclusive teams through change and growth.
• Highly analytical and data-driven, with the ability to translate workforce insight, skills data and labour market intelligence into clear, actionable strategies and recommendations.
• Outstanding communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the credibility and confidence to build trust and productive relationships at all levels of the organisation.
• Demonstrable experience in developing and delivering strategic resourcing and workforce plans that have materially improved organisational capability, agility and delivery outcomes.

Qualifications

A CIPD Level 7 qualification and/or Chartered Member (MCIPD) or Chartered Fellow (FCIPD) status is required. Candidates invited to interview will be asked to provide evidence of their qualification and/or membership.

We believe that our success is driven by the well-being and satisfaction of our team members at all levels of the organisation. At Companies House, we are committed to providing a comprehensive benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary, ensuring your career journey with us is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. We pride ourselves on offering a quality work-life balance with our employee wellbeing being central to our working practices.

We celebrate diversity as an equal opportunity employer, being committed to ensuring we are representative of the citizens we serve and creating an inclusive environment. Everyone in Companies House brings something different, and so will you. To fulfil our commitment to recruiting and attracting diverse talent we welcome applications from underrepresented groups. We also welcome applications from Welsh speakers. We are proud to be a disability confident leader. Our recruitment process is fully inclusive and we can make adjustments as needed through our process.

Where will you be working?

You will be based at either our Cardiff or Edinburgh office where you will be expected to attend on a regular basis. We are currently using a hybrid approach to the way we work which provides opportunities for you to be adaptable in the way you work so that you can achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life. The degree of choice you have will depend on your role and your day-to-day work activities. Your manager will agree regular patterns of attendance with you; however, you may be required to make yourself available to attend the office more frequently when required to meet business needs.

Key dates

Closing date - 28th June 2026, at 23:55. Sifting - 29th June 2026 onwards. Main panel interviews - 13th and 14th July 2026. All Cardiff interviews will be conducted in-person in our Cardiff office. All Edinburgh interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams.

* Alongside your salary of £74,089, Companies House contributes £21,463 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.