People Project Manager

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. For 90 years we have shaped brighter futures through education, arts, culture, language, and creativity. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. We connect. We inspire.

Location: London, Cardiff, Edinburgh or Belfast. Applicants currently employed by the British Council on an existing UK homeworking contract, and other applicants who are not within reasonable commuting distance of these locations, may be considered for a homeworking contract subject to business need.

Contract Type: Two (2) Year Fixed Term Contract

Pay Grade: 8

Remuneration: £38,820 - £46,203 Annual Gross Depending on Experience

Closing date: 15 July 2026 at 21:59 UK Time

Requirements: You must have the legal right to work in UK at the time of application. We are unable to support with visa sponsorship and relocation.

Role Context - About The Team: The British Council is embarking on a significant commercial and digital growth agenda to achieve continued impact with a reduced footprint. This entails significant change and restructuring programmes across all areas of the business. The business aligned People Partnering team sits within the Talent & Organisational Development Directorate (T&OD), which exists to bring focus to the design and development of organisation, and the development and growth of our people, partnering with leadership teams to embed new operating models and build the diversity, future skills, capabilities & ways of working needed so that we continue to renew and strengthen our global impact. The scale of business change currently underway presents a need to scale up our people business partnering capacity for the next six months, to effectively implement global change programmes including significant restructures.

Role Purpose - The Job: The People Project Manager will work in partnership with the People Business Partners, business leaders and the Director of People Partnering to lead the people aspects of major transformation and organisational change activity within allocated business workstreams. They will project manage the delivery of People activity, coordinating inputs from specialist teams including Advisory, Employee Relations, Talent Acquisition, Reward, People Insight and Talent, Learning and Performance. They will ensure that people implications are fully considered in business decisions, that organisational change is implemented effectively and responsibly, and that leaders are supported to deliver sustainable outcomes for colleagues and the organisation. They will support the People Partners to translate business requirements into practical people solutions, overseeing implementation activity, identifying and mitigating people risks, and supporting the embedding of new operating models, structures and ways of working. They will also ensure alignment between workstream activity, the wider People Function and be a key point of contact into the People function’s Strategy, Planning and Insight team, ensuring that plans feed into the overall People Function workstream plan.

Main Accountabilities:

• Project management
• Lead the scoping of people requirements for business workstreams, translating transformation objectives into clear deliverables, dependencies, milestones and implementation priorities.
• Develop, maintain and drive integrated People workstream plans that support end-to-end change delivery, including restructuring activity, consultation readiness, stakeholder and communications planning, implementation activity and the successful embedding of new operating models and ways of working.
• Establish and maintain robust governance, reporting and decision-making processes, ensuring that progress, risks, issues and dependencies are visible and managed effectively across People and business workstreams.
• Drive implementation readiness by ensuring that consultation materials, impact data, change interventions, decision points and execution activities are completed to the required quality and timescales.
• Track delivery outcomes and implementation progress, using insight and feedback to adjust plans, resolve barriers and support the sustained adoption of new structures, processes and ways of working.
• Monitor delivery progress, identify risks, issues and interdependencies, and escalate through People and business governance forums to maintain momentum, manage impact and enable successful transformation outcomes.

Generalist People expertise

• Support the People Partners to understand business priorities and translate these into effective people strategies and interventions.
• Identify and manage people-related risks associated with organisational change, ensuring alignment with policy, governance requirements and employee relations frameworks.
• Support leaders through complex people decisions, balancing commercial, operational and people considerations.
• Use workforce and organisational data to inform recommendations, assess impacts and support evidence-based decision-making.
• Ensure employee experience, engagement, inclusion and wellbeing considerations are integrated throughout change activity.

Relationship and Stakeholder management

• Identify key stakeholders and develop and own the stakeholder management plan where appropriate.
• Manage relationships with all key stakeholders and build relationships across the People function to facilitate delivery of the plan.

Consultancy, analysis and problem solving

• Provide high level consulting and problem solving in the scoping, planning and delivery of the People plan for global change programmes.

Requirements Of The Role:

• Minimum/essential
• Experience in delivering projects or initiatives within a People function environment.
• Experience of working within a People generalist role, supporting business leaders through organisational change.
• Experience working across multiple People disciplines including talent, reward, employee relations and organisational development.
• Proficient using data and excel based applications.

Desirable:

• Experience of modern project management methodologies.
• Experience of working within a global environment or large-scale transformation programmes.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement: We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

Safeguarding Statement: The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you experience any difficulties with submitting your application, please email askhr@britishcouncil.org