Head of People, Learning & Organisational Change

Job summary

The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is driven by its unparalleled access across government to build better insights, better outcomes for our clients. This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider civil service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government. The Agency’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully, and continue developing professionally.

Job description

GIAA has an ambitious People and Culture Strategy that sets a clear framework for attracting, developing and inspiring our people to deliver the Agency’s vision and mission. This role sits at the heart of People Operations and Organisational Change, ensuring our workforce is equipped to meet strategic objectives.

The Head of People, Learning & Organisational Change will support the Deputy Director of People and Culture in driving the Agency’s people, learning and change agenda. Leading the delivery and continuous improvement of HR services across the employee lifecycle, including workforce planning, resourcing, people partnering, complex casework, learning and development, and HR policy, ensuring services are high-quality, efficient and responsive to business needs.

The post holder will also support the design and delivery of strategic and transformational people and organisational change programmes, translating strategy into effective, embedded delivery across the organisation.

Role responsibilities

• Supporting the Deputy Director, People and Culture, translating the Agency’s People and Workforce Strategies and Organisational Change portfolio into actionable programmes and projects.
• Leading and developing the People, Learning and Organisational Change team, creating an inclusive, motivated, and high-performing environment.
• Delivering operational HR services across the employee lifecycle, including workforce planning, resourcing, business partnering, learning and development and HR policy.
• Providing specialist HR and OD advice to managers and teams, supporting the Deputy Director by addressing people challenges at a practical and operational level.
• Driving continuous improvement and innovation in people processes, supporting modernisation, efficiency and capability building across the Agency.
• Supporting governance for key people forums, including the People Committee preparing high-quality advice, data and papers to enable informed decision-making and support senior leaders in operational delivery.
• Supporting leadership and management capability building, helping managers across the Agency develop confidence and effectiveness in people management.
• Working closely with HMT to ensure accurate and timely HR data, metrics and reporting are available to inform operational decisions.
• Contributing to employee engagement and consultation activities, working with senior leaders, staff networks and Trade Union representatives to ensure operational delivery of initiatives that support engagement, wellbeing and inclusivity.
• Providing expert support on complex HR and employee relations matters.
• Taking an active operational lead on the Agency’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda.
• Ensuring compliance with GIAS, HR legislation, and internal policy standards, delivering operational assurance and supporting the Deputy Director in mitigating people-related risks that could impact the Agency.

Person specification

1. Experience of leading and managing generalist HR activity across employee relations, talent, L&D, organisational development, performance, retention, D&I, and people engagement.
2. Excellent people management skills with the ability to inspire, motivate and develop your team.
3. Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills with the ability to deliver at pace and under pressure without sacrificing quality.
4. Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to establish positive and collaborative working relations with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leaders and Trade Union representatives.
5. Strategic and creative problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and implement improvements, think and act effectively under pressure, and confidently provide advice, guidance, and constructive challenge when needed.
6. The ability to lead and manage innovation and improvements, identifying resistance, building engagement and involvement, and embedding change.
7. Experience of working effectively at a senior leadership level (or equivalent) and managing relationships between stakeholders.
8. Demonstrate the professional networks, personal resilience and emotional intelligence needed for success in a leadership role.

Qualifications

CIPD qualified to Chartered level with relevant experience of working in a HR leadership role.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £73,142, Government Internal Audit Agency contributes £21,189 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries and in-year rewards
• Flexible working
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Discount on big brands
• Volunteering days
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Schemes
• Free eyesight tests
• Family-friendly HR policies
• 25 days’ annual leave increasing by one day per year of service to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Geographically based Agency

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 Strengths and Experience.

Recruitment Timeline

• Closing date: 23 February 2026
• Shortlisting: 09 March 2026
• Interviews: 18-20 March 2026

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline.

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs profile.

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Eligibility Statement

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. Checks will be performed as part of pre-employment checks in line with this. Please refer to the Candidate FAQ document attached to the advert for more information.

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, individuals appointed to the Treasury group will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Security Check (SC).

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. In exceptional circumstances, for example if you have been working abroad on a government posting, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case-by-case basis once the advert closing date has passed.

Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you. Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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.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 : Katie Woodhouse
• Email : GIAARecruitment@GIAA.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : giaarecruitment@giaa.gov.uk

Further information

Complaints Procedure: The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact: GIAARecruitment@giaa.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Grade 6-Head of People, Learning & Organisational Change-Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 962kB)Success Profiles - Candidate Overview Opens in new window (pdf, 616kB)