Head - Chief National Office

Job summary

Closing Date: 17/06/2026 at 23:59

Interviews from wc 29th June

Working closely with Ian Workman, Chief National Officer, the Head of Chief National Office will play a critical leadership role in driving the strategic direction and operational effectiveness of the Directorate. You will join a small but highly skilled and collaborative team committed to delivering meaningful impact across the Social Housing, Safety and Ownership Directorate and the wider Agency.

Ian is committed to delivering a first-class internal customer experience, ensuring that challenges are addressed proactively and resolved efficiently wherever possible. He champions innovative and creative approaches to complex organisational and operational issues, and values a collaborative and flexible way of working that embraces diverse perspectives to enable strong decision-making and problem solving. He is passionate around creating a brilliant colleague environment to work and a key part of the role will be delivering colleague engagement and supporting initiatives to improve colleague NPS scores in colleague surveys.

Job description

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of the Chief National Office within a fast-growing, nationally significant organisation with a clear social purpose. Working with senior stakeholders and corporate service partners, you will ensure the efficient, consistent and effective delivery of priorities across the Directorate, while helping to design and embed improved ways of working, strengthened business planning, and enhanced organisational capability.

The role will support the design and delivery of key strategic initiatives across the Directorate, including business planning, budget oversight, colleague engagement, and communications. There are a number of high-profile and ambitious programmes underway, making this an excellent opportunity to balance day-to-day leadership responsibilities with driving innovation and continuous improvement across the function.

While the core focus is enabling the Directorate to deliver against its strategic objectives, you will be comfortable managing multiple priorities simultaneously and will actively seek opportunities to improve processes, strengthen collaboration, and enhance service delivery.

Person specification

You will be confident supporting the Chief National Officer and Senior Leadership Team in navigating complex strategic and operational challenges, providing clear insight and ensuring alignment with wider Agency priorities. You will bring strong experience in business management, stakeholder engagement, and organisational leadership within a complex, multi-disciplinary environment.

Delivering on an ambitious mission requires resilience and strong influencing skills. You will be comfortable engaging with senior stakeholders across the Agency and at the Minstry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with a clear understanding of the commercial, operational and people impacts of decisions. You will bring energy and enthusiasm to your work, alongside the ability to negotiate, influence and drive outcomes in a fast-paced and evolving environment.

As an experienced business management or executive office professional, you will have a proven ability to lead teams, exceptional organisational skills, develop capability, and foster an inclusive, collaborative culture. You will demonstrate a strong commitment to continuous improvement, effective communication, and delivering high-quality outcomes through partnership working.

Benefits

Homes England is an executive non-departmental public body with its own terms and conditions, benefits and pension scheme. We are a government agency working in partnership with the private sector and want to employ and retain great people. In return we offer a range of excellent benefits, some of the key benefits include:

Holiday - Homes England offers all staff 33 days annual leave per year in addition to 8 statutory bank holidays.

Working Flexibly - At Homes England we have a strong culture of flexible working and encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance. We offer a wide range of potential working patterns, including part time, job share and compressed hours.

Health and Wellbeing - We offer health screening with Nuffield Proactive Health Clinics, a free Employee Assistance Programme which offers confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as access to Occupational Health.

Professional Development - At Homes England we are committed to your continued professional and personal development with learning as one of our core values. We pay for one job-related professional membership subscription per year for our employees.

We also offer an excellent range of family friendly benefits, for example, maternity, paternity, shared parental leave.

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

How to apply?

To apply please follow the links to our careers page.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Selection process details

For more information on the role, please see the attached Job Description.

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application and interviews held as soon as practical after the closing date. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this role and Homes England.

Please note – Homes England has a responsibility to ensure compliance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard to address the potential problems of identity fraud, illegal working and deception generally. To ensure compliance we will carry out a pre-employment Personal Identity and Vetting Report through Experian to meet the standard and you will therefore be asked to provide certain information in order that the verification check can be carried out if you are successful in your application.

Homes England are an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer that values and respects the people who work for us. Our aim is to be an employer of choice, enabling everyone to reach their full potential.

Homes England is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. For further information please refer to our Privacy Notice which can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england/about/personal-information-charter

Nationality requirements

Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed disability confident interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.

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

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Recruitment Team
• Email : recruitmentinfo@homesengland.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitmentinfo@homesengland.gov.uk