People Operations Advisor, Workforce, Capability & Systems Lead

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.

This People Operations Advisor role sits within the People Team in the Corporate Services Directorate, supporting the delivery of GIAA’s People and Culture and workforce strategies. Working in close partnership with a counterpart role, you will contribute to a collaborative and resilient People Operations function, sharing responsibility for delivering high-quality, customer-focused HR services across the Agency.

With a primary focus on Workforce Capability & Systems, you will lead on HR systems, workforce data, and reporting, ensuring accurate insights to inform decision-making and improve organisational effectiveness. Alongside your specialist responsibilities, you will support wider People Operations activity, driving continuous improvement, strengthening people management capability, and promoting inclusive, consistent practices across the organisation.

This role will operate on a rotational basis within the People and Culture structure, working in close partnership with The People Operations Advisor – People Risk & Casework Lead by providing reciprocal cover and flexible support to ensure effective delivery across the function in response to changing business priorities and demand.

Job description

Role responsibilities

• Support workforce planning by providing data-driven insights, aligning capacity with organisational needs, and developing capability frameworks to enable effective resourcing and succession planning.
• Ensure compliant, consistent recruitment and employee lifecycle processes, delivering a high-quality onboarding experience and maintaining accuracy and fairness from hire to exit.
• Support and improve learning, development, and performance frameworks, including trainee pathways, to ensure capability-building, progression, and consistent application across the organisation.
• Lead the use of HR systems and workforce data to ensure accurate reporting and insights that inform decision-making, improve understanding of workforce trends, and support effective people management.
• Analyse employee exits and retention data to identify drivers and support evidence-based actions that improve retention and workforce stability.
• Support EDI reporting and compliance, including pay gap and PSED requirements, by ensuring workforce data enables transparency and adherence to equality standards.
• Support management of benefits suppliers and HR systems to ensure effective delivery, value for money, and continuous improvement of efficient, user-focused processes.
• Support workforce governance and risk management by contributing to compliance frameworks and identifying and mitigating risks in systems, data quality, and operational delivery.
• Work collaboratively across the People Team to align workforce systems and priorities, improve processes using data and feedback, and support operational resilience.
• Provide leadership and oversight through the people management of a team, supporting their development and performance across multiple regional locations.

Person specification

1. Ability to problem solve and make effective decisions, tailoring HR solutions and guidance to meet the needs of the business.
2. Excellent communication skills, including communicating confidently about HR issues and solutions providing constructive challenge and feedback, whilst remaining objective.
3. Proactive worker with a positive mindset with the capacity to adapt to change and drive continuous improvement across the organisation.
4. Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to develop effective working relationships with a wide variety of senior stakeholders.
5. Evidence of providing practical advice and an assessment of risk to managers.
6. Evidence of experience of using reporting and analysis with a high degree of accuracy to support workforce planning, capability, or resourcing decisions.

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.

At interview you will be assessed on experience, strengths and the following technical skills:

• HR Systems
• Workforce Data
• Workforce Capability

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:

• HR Systems
• Workforce data
• Workforce Capability

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: 11 June 2026
• Shortlisting: 19 June 2026
• Interviews: 30 June 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 : Adam Goodall
• 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-Workforce Capability Systems Lead-Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1011kB)Success Profiles - Candidate Overview Opens in new window (pdf, 616kB)