Head of HR Services

We are at the heart of Birmingham City Council’s most essential asset – its People. Playing a vital role in shaping the future of the city and ensuring that key services reach those who need them most. With a focus on aligning workforce needs with organisational goals, our team supports, engages, and motivates the workforce to deliver exceptional services to Birmingham's citizens.

Whether it’s managing accurate payroll, ensuring safe recruitment, fostering positive employee relations, or driving inclusive policies, every decision we make has a direct impact on both employees and the community. We’re committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive, guided by our core principles of being helpful, open-minded, and delivering positive outcomes.

By working collaboratively across service areas, we provide expert guidance and support to colleagues, empowering them to focus on delivering vital front-line services. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this role gives you the opportunity to contribute to a forward-thinking, diverse, and vibrant city, creating lasting impact for both our employees and citizens.

Role Overview

This is a key leadership role with strategic responsibility for managing and delivering the Council’s HR, Payroll, and Pensions services. As Head of Service, you will drive a culture of high performance, continuous improvement, and exceptional customer service ensuring employees and managers have a consistently positive experience throughout their journey with the Council.

You’ll lead and inspire high-performing teams, shape and streamline services, and use data-driven insights to influence decision-making at the highest levels. Acting as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, you will play a vital role in shaping and delivering strategies that support the Council’s vision and operational goals. This role is central to modernising and transforming services, ensuring compliance, cost-effectiveness, and innovation are embedded in everyday practice. You’ll work closely with senior stakeholders and external partners to deliver solutions that are both strategic and people-focused positioning the Council as an exemplar in public service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of HR, Payroll, and Pensions services, ensuring a customer-focused, efficient, and compliant service aligned with KPIs and SLAs.
• Inspire and manage high-performing teams, fostering a culture of excellence, continuous improvement, and professional development.
• Act as a strategic advisor to senior leaders, using data and policy to influence decision-making and drive service transformation.
• Oversee service performance and delivery, identifying opportunities to streamline processes, improve user experience, and manage risk.
• Collaborate with key partners including Finance, Trade Unions, and external stakeholders to support wider organisational goals and ensure effective budget control.

About You

You’ll be a credible and strategic HR leader with a proven track record of delivering results in large, complex organisations. You bring strong leadership capability, with experience of directing high-performing, multi-functional teams in fast-paced environments.

You’re confident working at a senior level, partnering with stakeholders to drive transformational change, manage competing priorities, and deliver a best-in-class service. With excellent communication and influencing skills, you’re politically astute, commercially aware, and able to navigate sensitive and complex issues with confidence and clarity.

You’ll have experience managing budgets, leading strategic planning, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement. Above all, you’re committed to delivering inclusive, customer-focused services that reflect the highest standards of equality, diversity, and professionalism.

Please upload an up-to-date CV via the attachments part of your application. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV attached.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.

We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

For any informal enquiries please contact us. We welcome applications from people with caring responsibilities and flexible working options will be considered. Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.