Head of Staffing & Workforce Planning (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds and London)[...]

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future. Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

We are hiring a Head of Staffing & Workforce Planning to lead the Staffing & Workforce Planning function, overseeing workforce planning, staffing governance and resourcing operations across Genomics England. Working closely with the Director of Strategic Talent & Workforce Planning, People colleagues and senior leaders, you will ensure workforce plans are robust, data-driven and aligned with organisational priorities, whilst providing a trusted single source of workforce insight, enabling informed decisions on role creation, prioritisation, contractor use and workforce deployment.

Using data, governance and continuous improvement, you will identify workforce risks and capability gaps, strengthen planning approaches, and help build a sustainable workforce for the future. Everyday responsibilities include:

• Own and maintain the organisational Workforce Plan as the single source of truth for agreed roles, staffing status, position IDs, approvals and key workforce movements.
• Manage day-to-day staffing governance processes, ensuring role creation, role changes, transfers and resourcing decisions are recorded accurately, consistently and transparently.
• Work with Service Owners, Product Managers, Chapter Leads, hiring managers, Talent Acquisition and People colleagues to understand workforce requirements and identify the most appropriate resourcing options.
• Support workforce planning activity, including capacity planning, workforce optimisation, productivity analysis and role prioritisation across teams and squads.
• Work with Chapter Leads and Learning & Development to map skills and capabilities, identify skills gaps and support opportunities for internal mobility, career growth and effective deployment.
• Track contractor and contingent labour usage, including end dates, extensions, approval workflows and related workforce risks, escalating issues where appropriate.
• Produce clear, accurate and actionable MI to support leadership reviews, workforce planning discussions, staffing decisions and contractor oversight.
• Monitor workforce data quality, investigate discrepancies and implement improvements to strengthen accuracy, usability and confidence in workforce reporting.
• Review resourcing-related procurement and approval requests, including relevant JIRA tickets, ensuring actions are progressed and governance requirements are met.
• Contribute to People projects and continuous improvement initiatives, identifying opportunities to simplify processes, improve workforce visibility and enhance stakeholder experience.

Skills & experience for success:

• Extensive experience leading workforce planning, staffing or resource management activities in a complex organisation.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience using workforce data and tools such as Power BI, Tableau or Power Query to support planning and decision-making.
• Experience developing workforce plans, including capacity planning, forecasting, prioritisation and resource allocation.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and build effective relationships with senior leaders (including executive level) and cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience preparing and presenting reports, business cases and recommendations to support strategic decisions.
• Strong project and operational management skills, with the ability to lead multiple priorities, improve processes and deliver organisational outcomes.
• A collaborative and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to identify workforce risks, capability gaps and opportunities to strengthen workforce planning and governance.
• Commercially astute, with experience managing budgets, assessing value for money and making resourcing decisions that balance quality, cost and organisational need.
• Experience working across different organisational environments, ideally including public and private sector settings, with the adaptability to operate in start-up, scale-up or established organisations.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity, identifying skills and capability gaps, improving processes and using third-party or contingent resources to support a flexible workforce model.

Qualifications

While qualifications are important, we place even greater value on the depth of your skills, experience, and the expertise you can bring to the role. We encourage you to highlight how your background aligns with the requirements and how you can make a meaningful contribution to our team.

Additional Information

• Salary from: £71,000
• Closing date for applications - Wednesday 19th August

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), an Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor. Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.

Culture

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other.

Blended working model

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum.

Onboarding background checks

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.