People Operations Advisor – Policy Development Lead (FTA 12m)

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

As part of the People Team within the Corporate Services Directorate the HR Policy Development Officer will play a key role in shaping and delivering GIAA’s People and Culture and workforce strategies. In this role, you will lead the development, review and continuous improvement of HR policies and guidance, ensuring they are clear, compliant, accessible and aligned with organisational priorities and best practice.

Working collaboratively across the People Team and with stakeholders throughout the Agency, you will help drive consistent, high-quality people management by embedding effective policies, supporting tools and engaging communications that enable our workforce to succeed.

Role responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end development, review and maintenance of HR policy products, including research, design, benchmarking, implementation and evaluation.
• Ensure all policy products are inclusive, fit for purpose, compliant with legislation, and aligned with organisational priorities and best practice.
• Maintain and manage a structured HR policy review schedule, ensuring policies remain up to date, relevant and effective.
• Support the development of associated frameworks, including employee relations policies, guidance, templates and supporting documentation.
• Support the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs), toolkits and template documentation to enable consistent application of policy across the Agency.
• Provide input into wider People and Culture initiatives, including contributing to learning materials to strengthen manager capability.
• Use data, insight and feedback to evaluate policy effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the People Team and wider organisation to support effective policy development and implementation.
• Engage with stakeholders to ensure policies are understood, accessible and meet business needs.
• Work flexibly with peers to support wider team priorities and respond to changing organisational demands.
• Maintain awareness of HR practice, employment legislation and organisational context to inform policy development.
• Comply with organisational systems, processes and information security requirements, ensuring sensitive data is handled appropriately.
• Contribute positively to a professional, collaborative and high-performing team environment.

Person specification

Person Specification:

1. Recent experience in developing and implementing HR policies, products/toolkits, or a strong HR generalist background with experience of advising on and applying HR policies and procedures.
2. Experience of designing and delivering user-friendly HR products, guidance or toolkits that support effective people management and improve employee experience.
3. Experience of researching and applying best practice using external sources and professional networks, with the ability to interpret and apply employment law and legislative changes in a practical way.
4. Experience of interpreting legislation centrally issued guidance and organisational policy requirements, and translating these into clear, accessible documentation.
5. Experience of managing multiple workstreams or competing priorities, delivering high-quality outputs to agreed timescales.
6. Experience of maintaining governance arrangements for policies or procedures, including version control and scheduled review cycles.

To apply for this role, you will need to submit your employment history, personal details and provide a statement of suitability of no more than 750 words, referring to the person specification.

Please note only your statement of suitability will be assessed at the sift stage.

Interviews will be held on Teams.

Candidates invited to interview will be required to give a short presentation to the interview panel followed by questions. At interview you will be assessed on experience, strengths and the following technical skills:

• Policy development and governance
• Delivery and Continuous Improvement
• Knowledge of HR practice and employment legislation

Qualifications

Level 5 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) qualification or equivalent experience at an Associate level within the HR Profession Framework

Technical skills

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

• Policy development and governance
• Delivery and Continuous Improvement
• Knowledge of HR practice and employment legislation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £48,889, Government Internal Audit Agency contributes £14,163 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, Experience and Technical skills.

Recruitment Timeline

• Closing date: 22 June 2026
• Shortlisting: 29 June 2026
• Interviews: 13 & 16 July 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

SEO-People Operations Advisor-Policy Development Lead-Candidate Pack_ Opens in new window (pdf, 980kB)Success Profiles - Candidate Overview Opens in new window (pdf, 616kB)