Executive Director – People and Culture

Job summary

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) plays a vital and visible role at the heart of Scotland’s justice system. As an independent, national organisation, we are entrusted with supporting fair, efficient and accessible justice for the people of Scotland.

The Executive Director: People and Culture is a strategic Executive leader who role models our values and behaviours with responsibility for shaping and leading organisational strategy. They will work across organisational boundaries, driving change and efficiencies to translate our vision into clear common goals, building a kind and inclusive culture, where all employees can contribute and feel valued to enable sustainable delivery of justice, now and into the future.

As a core member of the Executive Team, the Executive Director: People and Culture is the principal adviser to the Chief Executive, Executive Team and People Committee on people, culture and organisational delivery and effectiveness.

This newly created role is an exciting opportunity as part of the Executive team to lead the people of SCTS through the next stages of reform, developing organisational design across SCTS, setting principles and governance for how the organisation is structured and led. The postholder will lead on building a clear and strong organisational culture. Through enhancing organisational development focused on empowered leadership and collaboration at all levels, you will build high performing teams working to the organisational values of service, excellence and respect.

The organisation is responding to rising user expectations, financial pressures, and the expanding role of digital technology. The Executive Director: People and Culture will partner with the Executive Team to lead our reform agenda to ensure that SCTS’s people, structures and systems are aligned to strategic priorities, resilient to ongoing reform, and capable of delivering modern, sustainable and high-quality services in a complex and demanding environment.

Reporting and Governance

• Reports directly to the Chief Executive
• Member of the SCTS Executive Team
• Primary Executive lead for the People Committee of the SCTS Board
• Accountable for effective partnership working with PCS, our recognised trade union
• Provides strategic leadership of the People and Culture functions, integrating Human Resources and Education & Learning to deliver a cohesive, organisation-wide approach to workforce capability, development and cultural transformation.

Job description

Responsibilities

• Lead and shape an inclusive, high-performing organisational culture, embedding SCTS values, accountability, collaboration, trust and leadership consistency across the organisation.
• Provide strategic leadership for people and workforce planning, ensuring people priorities align with business objectives, service delivery and financial planning.
• Direct organisational development and design, ensuring structures, roles and governance support effective decision-making, organisational effectiveness and future business needs.
• Oversee workforce capability and readiness, including workforce planning, succession planning, future skills development and digital capability to support reform and transformation.
• Lead organisational change and transformation programmes, ensuring the organisation is equipped to deliver continuous improvement, digital transformation and strategic reform.
• Provide executive oversight of the employee lifecycle, including recruitment, talent management, learning and development, performance, reward and succession planning.
• Champion equality, diversity, inclusion, wellbeing and employee engagement, ensuring SCTS remains a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace where employee voice informs decision-making.
• Maintain effective employee and stakeholder relations, leading engagement with recognised trade unions, public sector partners, Scottish Government and external stakeholders to support shared priorities.
• Ensure compliance and governance standards are met, overseeing adherence to employment legislation, public sector requirements and workforce-related risk management.
• Lead a high-performing People function and model values-driven leadership, fostering continuous improvement, accountability, professional excellence and the development of others across SCTS.

Person specification

Qualifications

Chartered Fellow of the CIPD (FCIPD) professional membership, or equivalent, is desirable.

Experience

• Senior Executive leadership experience at Director or Board‑equivalent level in a large, complex organisation
• Demonstrable success in leading organisational change, cultural transformation and organisational development
• Experience of advising Boards or governance committees on strategic people and organisational matters
• Significant experience of strategic workforce planning and leadership development
• Credible experience of trade union engagement in a complex or unionised environment

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £93,667, Scottish Government contributes £27,135 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Apply online before 23:55 on the 27th September 2026, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 750 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the advert.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview with presentation, leadership assessments and staff engagement panel.

Assessments are scheduled for w/c 12 October and final panel interviews are scheduled for 30 October , however this may be subject to change.

Recruitment Principles

As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Scottish Government Recruitment Team
• Email : recruitment@scotcourts.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@scotcourts.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, please contact our recruitment team at: ScottishGovernmentRecruitment@gov.scot

If you are unsatisfied with the outcome of our complaints resolution process, you can proceed to make a complaint to the Civil Service Commission.