Senior HR Business Partner

Job summary

DWP is looking to recruit a Senior HR Business Partner (SHRBP) into Strategic People Partnering Services (SPPS), a community of around 300 HR professionals partnering Director General led Groups across the Department of a workforce of over 85,000 colleagues.

SHRBPS are senior leaders within People and Capability Group, acting as trusted strategic partners to DWP’s most senior leaders. They shape and deliver the people agenda, lead complex transformation, and enable evidence-based decision making that improves outcomes for colleagues and customers.

This role partners directly with the Area Director for Southern England for the Jobs and Careers Service, with accountability of 120 Job Centres (across 6 districts: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; Kent; Surrey and Sussex; Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight; Devon and Cornwall; Avon Somerset and Gloucestershire) and leads a team of 7 HR Business Partners, fostering a high-performing, inclusive culture.

To provide senior leadership visibility and work with colleagues and senior stakeholders, you can expect to be in the office at least 60% of your working hours as a core part of this role. Some travel to other DWP sites (nationally) for meetings with client business areas and People and Capability colleagues will also be essential.

Job description

Key Purpose

The Senior HR Business Partner ensures strong alignment between DWP Business and People Transformation and priorities. The role provides strategic consultancy, constructive challenge, and innovative people solutions, operating within best practice, policy, and legal frameworks to deliver sustainable business outcomes now and in the future.

Role and Responsibilities

Strategic Influence and Insight:

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior leaders, influencing decisions and shaping organisational direction.
• Use data, analytics, and business insight to identify key people issues and support evidence-based leadership decisions.

Change and Transformation Leadership

• Lead and manage the people impacts of organisational change, including capability, leadership, culture, and systems.
• Design, deliver, and embed transformation activity, demonstrating measurable impact on performance and outcomes.

Workforce and Talent Strategy:

• Shape workforce planning and talent strategies, using robust insight and metrics to ensure the right capability is in place to meet current and future business needs.

Leadership and Role Modelling:

• Lead, develop, and empower a diverse team of HR Business Partners to deliver high quality outcomes at pace.
• Be a visible and credible senior leader, role modelling DWP values and behaviours and championing inclusive, engaging leadership.

If you are an exceptional leader and experienced HR Business Partner looking to broaden your impact in a large and complex organisation, this role offers the opportunity to partner with and influence senior leaders, deliver organisational change at scale and drive outcomes that matter.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Leadership: You will be a confident, credible and recognised HR leader with experience of motivating, developing and guiding teams to high levels of performance. You will demonstrate how you cultivate accountability, maintain resilience and adaptability, and lead effectively within demanding and complex environments. Your leadership approach should maximise the impact and value of people related work and support positive organisational outcomes. You will show how your leadership style influence others, particularly senior stakeholders (LEAD CRITERIA).
• Driving Change and Transformation : You will bring a strong and proven track record of leading and delivering people related change within complex organisations. This includes a deep understanding of the people impacts associated with transformation and the ability to design and implement effective solutions. Examples may include leading people transition activity, delivering organisational change initiatives, implementing new ways of working, or restructuring and redesigning operating models. You should be able to clearly demonstrate how you have successfully led transformation at scale and delivered measurable outcomes.
• Business Focused Approach : You will be able to quickly understand the priorities, challenges and context of the business you support. Using insight and evidence, you will analyse and diagnose people challenges and translate business needs into effective HR and organisational change solutions. You will demonstrate how you align people processes and systems to deliver clear, measurable benefits that drive organisational performance.
• Stakeholder Management: You will have extensive experience of HR Business Partnering within large, complex and multi stakeholder environments. This includes building strong, trust-based relationships with senior leaders, confidently managing diverse and demanding stakeholders, and influencing or challenging effectively at senior levels to achieve the right outcomes. Evidence of credibility and impact in your stakeholder relationships is essential
• Effective Communication : You will possess strong communication skills and personal impact, enabling you to engage, influence and advise senior officials with confidence. You should be able to act as a coach and trusted confidante to leaders, offering clear, credible advice and effectively managing risk during complex change. You will demonstrate how your communication supports well informed decision making and contributes to the successful delivery of transformation
• Professional Credibility : You will role model professionalism, integrity and resilience, demonstrating a commitment to continuous personal and professional development. You will act ethically and with tenacity, set high standards, and inspire others across the HR profession to invest in their own growth and development.

Qualifications/Accreditations

You must hold CIPD Chartered Membership or be willing to work towards achieving this upon commencement of the role.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes

£21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

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 Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the following actions:

Written Sift:

A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. The CV is an on-line tool accessed through the Civil Service Jobsite and there is no requirement to upload your personal CV. Our CV element is short and allows an initial check of eligibility but is not scored so please put the main content of your evidence and skills in your Personal Statement .

A Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words), explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities, and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role against the essential criteria in the person specification. If we receive a large number of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criteria:

• Leadership: You will be a confident, credible and recognised HR leader with experience of motivating, developing and guiding teams to high levels of performance. You will demonstrate how you cultivate accountability, maintain resilience and adaptability, and lead effectively within demanding and complex environments. Your leadership approach should maximise the impact and value of people related work and support positive organisational outcomes. You will show how your leadership style influence others, particularly senior stakeholders .

If you pass the initial sift, you will be progressed to a full sift or directly to interview.

Interview:

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview lasting up to 60 minutes. This will take place face to face at Jobs and Careers Service Bristol Temple St. The interview panel will be a minimum of two people and will assess Behaviours and Strengths.

During the first 5 minutes of your interview, you will be asked to deliver a presentation assessing Experience. Please note that visual aids will not be permitted.

To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the presentation topic 7 days prior to your interview.

Indicative Sift and Interview Timeline:

• Sift week commencing 5 October 2026
• Interviews week commencing 2 November 2026

Locations:

The role available will be based at a Job Centre in Southern England, subject to capacity limits. Travel to other locations will be necessary for the role.

Hybrid Working:

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office. If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Important Information – Visa Sponsorship

For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidan