Employment Compliance Lead (UK Projects) in England

The SZC Jobs Service supports local people into exciting, long-term careers across our Project.

Principal Accountabilities, Activities and Decisions

• Employment Compliance & Risk
  • Ensure adherence to employment legislation and workforce regulations, including (but not exclusive): IR35, Immigration Act/Right to work, Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), TUPE, Working Time Regulations (WTD), GDPR, Health & Safety, and Visa Sponsorship.
  • Lead and coordinate regular compliance audits, internal reviews, and risk assessments.
  • Monitor changes in legislation, assess impact, and ensure appropriate updates to policies and processes.
  • Maintain clear, auditable records for all compliance checks.
• Contingent & Embedded Workforce Governance
  • Oversee all processes relating to contingent, embedded, and non-embedded workers, ensuring compliance with agreed frameworks and client-side collective agreements.
  • Lead monthly AWR and annual IR35 compliance audits, including approval and issuance of CEST status determinations and supporting commercial approval for agency worker instructions via statement of work (SoW).
  • Act as subject matter expert for the Agency Worker Policy, providing clear guidance to HR, managers, and suppliers.
  • Partner with Procurement, Finance, Legal, and Tax to ensure consistent application of governance standards across suppliers and frameworks.
• Immigration & Visa Sponsorship
  • Manage SZC's Visa Sponsorship Licence, ensuring full compliance with Home Office and UKVI regulations.
  • Oversee Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) allocation, visa applications, renewals, and right-to-work checks.
  • Maintain audit-ready documentation and accurate records for all sponsored employees and non-sponsored employees, i.e. those on personal visas.
  • Oversee regular auditing of agency and framework supplier immigration/right to work records to assure Sizewell C has confidence of compliance, not only of our employees' status.
  • Provide expert advice, training, and support to Human Resource Business Partners and hiring managers on immigration matters.
• Policy, Process & Systems
  • Contribute to the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of HR governance policies and procedures.
  • Support enhancements to HR systems (e.g., MyHR, onboarding tools) to strengthen compliance and reporting capability.
  • Produce accurate, timely management information and compliance reports for internal and external stakeholders.
  • Champion the use of data and management information to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Stakeholder & Change Management
  • Act as a trusted partner to business leaders, HR, Legal, Finance, Tax, and Trade Unions on all compliance-related matters.
  • Support the HR Governance Manager in delivering change programmes linked to legislative updates, supplier transitions, and system improvements.
  • Build strong relationships with regulatory and industry bodies to represent SZC's compliance interests and maintain external assurance.
• Competency & Qualification Framework
  • Oversee the SZC Competency and Qualification Matrices, ensuring alignment with project requirements and regulatory standards.
  • Provide leadership and direction to internal stakeholders to maintain consistency and accuracy across disciplines.

Qualifications

• Essential: Degree or equivalent experience in HR, Law, Business, or related discipline. CIPD qualification (Level 5 or above) or equivalent HR/compliance accreditation.
• Desirable: Immigration Law certification or Home Office Level 1 User status.

For this role you must have evidence of right to work in the UK. As a project, we do not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, race, colour, religion, disability or sexual orientation, and we welcome applications from all sections of the community.

Why Join Us?

For more than 60 years, nuclear power stations in the UK have been quietly keeping Britain fuelled with massive amounts of home-grown energy. Our teams up and down the country are proudly continuing to serve the nation – but they also have an eye on the future. EDF is leading the UK's nuclear renaissance with the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C and plans for a new power station at Sizewell C in Suffolk. Nuclear power is the most reliable, low-carbon energy source currently available to the UK. EDF is playing a key role in the development of nuclear sites, while Hinkley Point C will provide low-carbon electricity to meet 7% of the UK demand. The project is already making a positive impact on the local and national economy as well as boosting skills and education. We’re not just building new nuclear power stations. We’re developing careers, upskilling generations and creating thousands of employment and apprenticeship opportunities across a variety of skills areas. It takes a special kind of person to work in the nuclear energy industry and although we have thousands of them there’s always a need for more. Our industry has a mind-boggling range of opportunities and more jobs, and in more places, than you might think. But it’s also an industry which is changing. We’re a responsible business and proud to be Britain’s biggest generator of zero carbon electricity. With size, age and experience, we believe we can do even more.