Chief People Officer, Civil Service

World-class transformational leader

The Civil Service is one of the UK’s biggest and most complex employers. Every day over 400,000 civil servants serve Ministers and the public.  It is responsible for delivering the priorities of the Government of the day.  These include high-risk and complex major projects with a lifecycle cost of around £500bn, as well as programmes and services that affect everyone.  

Reporting to the CEO of the Civil Service, the CPO will be accountable for evolving and implementing the workforce strategy for the Civil Service, and driving forward reform.  The CPO will be of critical importance in reforming public services and in using different delivery models to achieve better outcomes for citizens.  

The CPO will lead, partner and advise at the most senior levels.  As head of the Civil Service HR function, the CPO will be responsible for the professional standards of circa 3,000 HR professionals, as well as leading and building strong central HR expertise.

This role requires an exceptional, world-class senior leader.  They will have grounded professional experience across large-scale, highly complex organisations in order to take on the most senior HR leadership role in government. They will be an experienced top team player with a strong background of functional leadership and development.

Candidates will need a proven track-record of creating the mandate for and leading transformational change at a Group and divisional level.  Success in leading a group model with scale and complexity and evolving operating models across multiple senior stakeholders is vital.

The CPO will be able to demonstrate a track record of being the coach, confidante and advisor at the most senior board, CEO and Chairman levels.  They will show evidence of organisation-wide talent management and succession planning resulting in a tangible shift in depth and diversity of pipelines.

Please apply by visiting www.ekornferry.com, click on opportunities and enter the opportunity code MZ199 to register on the website and upload your CV, a covering letter, a completed monitoring questionnaire and, if you believe it applies to you, a guaranteed interview scheme form.  Please also enter your salary details.  Alternatively send CV, covering letter and salary details to CivilServiceCPO@kornferry.com.  

Please note that the closing date for applications is Wednesday, 8 July 2015.

For an informal and confidential discussion or any questions please contact Anna Penfold on +44 (0)20 7024 9275.