Senior People Services Manager in London

Hybrid working with regular travel to our London Bridge Office.

As our Senior People Services Manager, you’ll lead the day-to-day heartbeat of People Services and make sure every colleague has a smooth, supportive and high-quality experience throughout their time with us. You’ll be the person who keeps things running brilliantly: setting the pace for operational delivery, supporting managers with confidence, and making sure our processes are simple, clear and compliant – ensuring delivery through an experienced and high-performing People Services Team. You’ll work closely with People & Culture, Finance, IT and leaders across the charity to drive a consistent, joined up service that helps people do their best work. This is a hands-on leadership role partnering with People & Culture leadership and peers to drive the People Strategy and foster a high-performance, inclusive culture. You’ll shape how we deliver People Services, spotting ways to improve, simplify and modernise what we do.

You’ll lead a team covering critical activity relating to all stages of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding, contracts, HR systems and data, payroll oversight, policies and employee relations, and you’ll be the operational authority and escalation point for complex or high-risk issues. Some of the work you and your team will be getting involved in includes:

• Leading and developing the People Services & Payroll team so they have clarity, support and space to thrive.
• Making sure onboarding, contracts, and offboarding all run smoothly and consistently, with a great colleague experience.
• Overseeing HR systems and data to maintain accuracy, insight and compliance.
• Working with People Experience & Communications colleagues to refresh and embed people policies in a way that feels simple and supportive and encourages co-creation.
• Coaching managers on inclusive, confident people leadership and helping them handle tricky issues with care and clarity.
• Taking the lead on complex employee relations cases, change processes or emerging risks, and ensuring we handle things fairly and consistently.
• Driving continuous improvement - whether that’s simplifying a workflow, introducing a digital tool, or building capability across the organisation.
• Providing operational insight to support strategy, planning, resourcing and decision-making at leadership level.

This is an influential role with real scope to strengthen how our People Services function supports the organisation every day.

We’re looking for someone who brings a blend of operational confidence, sound judgement, people leadership and a passion for improving how things work and who is comfortable and able to thrive in a fast-paced and reactive enabling function. The ideal candidate will bring:

• Strong HR operations experience at a senior level, with CIPD Level 5 or equivalent knowledge.
• Expertise in employee relations, including handling complex or sensitive cases with fairness, clarity and confidence.
• Experience overseeing payroll operations and HR systems, with a practical understanding of data accuracy, GDPR and people metrics.
• A natural adaptability to changing priorities and an ability to build trust and influence across all levels - someone who can coach managers, support colleagues and work in partnership with senior leaders.
• A continuous improvement mindset: you enjoy simplifying processes, solving problems and creating clarity – and you naturally collaborate and take the team with you on journeys of change rather than imposing a singular view.
• Experience leading or developing a team, with a supportive, inclusive and empowering approach.
• Strong organisational skills - you can juggle priorities, manage workflow pressures and keep the team focused on what matters most.
• A balanced blend of empathy and pragmatism, with a confident, solution focused approach to decision-making.
• A genuine belief in the role People Services plays in creating a positive, high performing organisation.

You’ll thrive here if you enjoy improving systems, supporting people, leading a committed team and making day-to-day People services work brilliantly.

Every man needs to know about the most common cancer in men – prostate cancer. It’s a real and present danger that takes over 12,000 of our dads, grandads, brothers and friends each year. Prostate Cancer UK is the largest men’s health charity in the UK. We have a simple ambition – to stop prostate cancer damaging lives. We invest millions in research to revolutionise testing, treatment and care. We’re blazing a trail to a screening programme that could save thousands of lives with regular, accurate tests for all men at risk. And we work tirelessly to spread the word about risk and offer specialist support to people living with the disease.

At Prostate Cancer UK we’re committed to righting health inequalities across the UK, starting with those faced by Black men. This includes ground-breaking research into Black men's risk and working with communities directly to overcome barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. To make this happen, we’re dedicated to being an inclusive, proactive organisation, as we strive to be Allies to Black communities. We’ll achieve this by advocating and working alongside those communities to promote change. We’re also working to be Allies to each other, not only protected groups. In 2024, we launched our New Allyship Training Programme. All colleagues at Prostate Cancer UK will be trained to act and identify as an Ally. We’ve also signed Business in the Communities Race at Work Charter, as a dedication to our Black health equity work and wider EDI priorities. As a signatory, we’re responsible and accountable for driving positive change.

Colleagues attend the office at least four days per month (pro rata for part-time colleagues) to collaborate, build relationships, and support projects and decision-making. You can choose where to work the rest of the time. Travel to the office is a commute, so we pay our own travel costs. Additional in-person attendance will be required during your first few months for induction and training, to support you to learn the role and get to know colleagues. We trust colleagues to work flexibly while balancing personal commitments with the needs of the charity, and we are committed to making reasonable adjustments for colleagues with a disability, neurodiversity, or a long-term physical or mental health condition.

Visit our Prostate Cancer UK Careers page to learn more about this role and the benefits we offer. On the vacancy advert, you’ll find everything you need to know about the role, how to apply, and what to include in your application. You can also download a copy of the job description and access the link to our careers portal to submit your application. Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements or questions – we’re here to help. The closing date is Sunday 12 April 2026. Applications must be submitted by 23:45 UK time. Interviews: By arrangement. We expect this recruitment campaign to have three interview stages: First Interviews (online): currently scheduled for the week of 20 April 2026. Meet the team (online): currently scheduled for the week of 27 April 2026. Final interviews (in-person at our London Bridge office): currently scheduled for the week of 6 May 2026.