Senior Manager, Culture and Engagement

Job summary

Student Loans Company is a non-profit making Government-owned organisation to provide loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK. Since 1989, we have enabled our customers to invest in their futures by delivering secure, accurate and efficient assessment, payment and repayment services.

Our Values

Culture is at the heart of everything we do at SLC and we are guided by our five values which help make SLC a great place to work:

• Honesty: We act with integrity and transparency, sharing information openly and addressing challenges with courage.

• Empowerment: We enable people to take initiative, make impactful decisions, and continuously learn and grow.

• Accountability: We deliver on commitments, own our successes and mistakes, and strive for quality outcomes.

• Respect: We value diverse perspectives, actively listen, and create an inclusive environment where everyone belongs.

• Trust: We collaborate across teams, build dependable relationships, and work as one to deliver for our customers.

These values are more than words—they guide our decisions, shape our collaborations, and strengthen our impact on the students we serve.

Job description

Join the Student Loans Company as our Senior Manager, Culture and Engagement, a newly created and pivotal leadership role responsible for shaping an inclusive, skilled and engaged future workforce by driving culture, EDI, wellbeing and engagement across SLC.

As the custodian of SLC’s values, you will translate these into practical behaviours and leadership expectations, embedding them into colleague frameworks and governance to build a culture that supports both performance and purpose.

You will lead and govern our enterprise colleague listening strategy (“Our Voice”), using people data and insights to design interventions that strengthen engagement and cultural transformation organisation‑wide.

You will provide expert leadership on cultural risk and readiness during major change programmes while building organisational capability through frameworks that embed culture, EDI and wellbeing into everyday leadership behaviours and colleague experience.

This 24‑month part‑time (0.6 FTE) post additionally offers the opportunity to scope and shape SLC’s EDI & Wellbeing agenda, act as a visible advisor to senior leaders and ensure meaningful, measurable progress in shaping SLC’s future culture.

Person specification

• Significant, proven expertise in organisational culture development, with a track record of diagnosing cultural challenges, shaping culture‑change strategies and successfully leading multi‑year culture transformation programmes in complex organisations
• Highly skilled in using culture, engagement, EDI and wellbeing data to generate insights, identify systemic issues, benchmark externally, and make informed recommendations to senior leaders
• Ability to influence, challenge and guide senior leaders, acting as a trusted expert on organisational culture and supporting behavioural change, leadership capability and inclusive workforce practices
• Strong understanding of modern People practices, including organisational development, change management methodologies, psychological safety, employee experience design and people analytics
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, able to convey cultural insight, complex data and strategic priorities in an engaging, compelling way to diverse audiences
• Ability to manage multi-dimensional, complex project design and delivery
• Experienced HR professional with specialism in Culture, Values and Purpose
• Demonstrated experience in leading organisation‑wide colleague engagement frameworks, including the design, delivery and interpretation of engagement surveys, listening strategies, and action‑planning approaches that drive measurable improvement
• Experience of being part of a senior leadership team and demonstrable experience of leading a specialist people team, creating a working climate which motivates and engages each member of the team, ensuring that they perform effectively individually and collectively
• Experience of building strategic relationships within HR, the wider organisation and a broad range of external stakeholders
• Significant experience in a range of stakeholder management roles within the private sector and/or in complex organisation within the public sector
• Substantial experience of providing insights (differentiated for different audiences) through analysing complex statistical data/reports

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £62,983, Student Loans Company contributes £18,246 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

SLC offer a blended working model which will typically be 2 days in the office and 3 days from home.

You can expect more from a career with SLC. We support colleagues to unlock their potential through our Career Pathways development programme and offer an excellent benefit and rewards package that includes:

• 28 days annual leave plus 8 public holidays

• Option to buy/sell annual leave

• Flexi-time and enhanced flexible working options available

• Option to join the Civil Service pension scheme

• Life insurance cover for 4 x annual salary

• Enhanced company sick pay and family leave including maternity, paternity and adoption

• Contributory lifestyle benefit options including discounts at hundreds of retailers, cycle to work scheme, access to the Civil Service Sports and Leisure Club for discounted gym memberships, and an optional dental insurance scheme

• To find out what’s it’s like to work at Student Loans Company click here SLC Careers

The Legal Bits

We’ll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK. If we offer you a job and you accept, there are some background checks we need to complete before you can start with us. This will include employment history, criminal record check, credit reference check and fraud check.

SLC are committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are inclusive for all candidates and will make reasonable adjustments for those who consider themselves to have a disability or long-term condition in line with the Equality Act 2010. Our application process provides candidates with the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments but if you would like to discuss this in more detail, please email ask_recruitment@slc.co.uk.

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

Please apply via the link.

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

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.

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

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 : Talent Acquisition
• Email : ask_recruitment@slc.co.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : ask_recruitment@slc.co.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact ask_recruitment@slc.co.uk in the first instance.