Job Title: Head of People

Location: Bristol

Salary: £50,285 per annum - Grade J

Job Type: Full Time, Permanent

Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week, with minimum three days a week at our Bristol office. We work flexibly where roles allow, with core working hours typically between 10am and 4pm

Closing Date: 9am on Monday 3 August 2026.

About The Role:

We're looking for someone to lead and continue to develop CSE's People function, helping ensure we have the people, capability and culture needed to deliver our mission.

You'll shape and deliver our draft People Strategy, working across the full breadth of the People function, from strategic business partnering and organisational development through to ER, recruitment, L&D, wellbeing, EDI, people operations and HR digital transformation.

You'll have the opportunity to advise and work closely with our Senior Leadership Team, be a member of the Senior Management Team and will work with staff across the organisation, bringing workforce insight and a people perspective to organisational decision-making.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and deliver the People Strategy - Lead the development, delivery and ongoing evolution of CSE's People Strategy, ensuring it supports organisational priorities and helps CSE attract, retain and develop the people and capability needed to deliver its mission.
Partner with senior leaders - Act as a trusted advisor to the Senior Leadership Team and Senior Management Team, partnering with leaders to deliver organisational priorities, strengthen team effectiveness and address people-related challenges and opportunities.
Lead the employee experience and continuous improvement - Lead and continuously improve the employee experience across the full employee lifecycle, strengthening people frameworks, policies, processes, management capability, systems and ways of working to support organisational priorities.
Lead and develop the People function - Lead, develop and empower the People team, building capability, confidence and ownership while ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, proactive and people-centred service and continuing to strengthen people systems, services and ways of working across the organisation.
Develop line managers and organisational capability - Partner with line managers across CSE to build confidence, capability and consistency in people management practice.
Lead people operations, risk and compliance - Lead on complex ER matters, employment law, people policy, safeguarding and people-related risk, ensuring a fair, compliant and values-led approach while maintaining effective people operations and governance.

Other Key Aspects of the role involve:

Lead digital transformation and workforce insight
Champion an inclusive and values-led culture
Safeguarding

About you:

Experience leading or embedding HR/People systems and using data, reporting and insight to improve employee experience, support decision-making and strengthen organisational effectiveness.
Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills, with the ability to build trust quickly, adapt approach to different stakeholders and bring people with them through change.
Collaborative, pragmatic and comfortable working across competing priorities and organisational needs.
A collaborative, curious and pragmatic approach, with a genuine interest in understanding organisational challenges and delivering practical, lasting improvements.
Committed to creating an inclusive, values-led organisation where people can thrive.
Level 7 CIPD qualification and/or equivalent senior-level People experience.
Strong judgement, discretion and experience supporting colleagues through sensitive and complex situations.
Willing and able to undertake safeguarding training

Benefits:

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
Company pension scheme - 8% employer, 6% employee contributions.
Flexible TOIL for additional hours worked, which can be taken when needed. Hybrid working and flexible hours, with core hours of 10am-4pm (role dependent).
Access to our benefits platform (Glo), offering discounts, flexible payment options, and a range of optional benefits and services.
Cycle to Work Scheme.
Health cash plan (Medicash): offers compensation for a range of medical treatments, including dental check-ups and eye tests.
Life Assurance.
Critical illness.
Enhanced sick pay.
Weekly yoga classes.
Employee Assistance Programme.
Enhanced maternity and adoption pay.
Staff socials.

How to apply:

To apply, please click apply and check your emails and complete the application form sent to you. You can also download this from our CSE website.

To be considered for this role an application form must be sent to the email address provided.

Your application should demonstrate how your skills and experience relate to the person specification on the job description.

The closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 3 August 2026.

We aim to hold online first interviews w/c Monday 10 August and in person second interviews at our office in Bristol w/c Monday 17 August.

Candidates with the relevant experience or job titles of: Head of Human Resources, People Manager, HR Leader, Senior HR Advisor, HR Specialist, Head Of People, HR Team Leader may also be considered for this role.

Centre for Sustainable Energy

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Head of People