Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a HR leader with extensive experience in people operations and organisational change and transformation to join us as our Head of People Operations and Change. 

In this role, you will work closely with the Director of People to drive the strategic evolution of the People function, deliver high-impact, customer-centred services, lead change and transformation, and embed modern, agile ways of working to maximise impact for children.

This is a maternity cover contract for approx 14-months, to start at the beginning of March 2026.

About us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the role

As Head of People Operations and Change, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the People function, delivering high-impact, customer-centred services and systems that enable organisational effectiveness and transformation. You will lead the strategic design and delivery of the people technology strategy, whilst embedding agile and design thinking principles to drive innovation, efficiency, and a seamless employee experience.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the development and implementation of People strategy, services, and operating models, embedding agile and design thinking principles to drive innovation and efficiency.

• Champion digital transformation across HR systems, automation, AI tools, and self-service solutions to enhance the employee experience and operational performance.

• Provide visible leadership and coaching to HR Business Partners, developing their capability as strategic talent partners and change leaders.

• Deliver complex organisational change programmes, restructures, and high-risk employee relations matters with legal compliance, risk mitigation, and a people-centred approach.

• Build strong, collaborative relationships with recognised trade unions and senior stakeholders to support sustainable business outcomes.

• Embed a proactive safeguarding culture and ensure safeguarding expertise is integrated into all relevant projects and initiatives.

About you

You're a confident change agent with experience leading organisational and people transformation within an HR environment. You bring an agile mindset, a strong understanding of HR roles and systems, and a genuine interest in using technology as an enabler of change.

Comfortable leading diverse teams through complexity and restructure, you know how to build trust, bring people with you on that journey, and embed lasting change.

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Significant experience in HR operations and people transformation, including leading large-scale change programmes and restructures.

• Proven experience in developing and delivering products, services and operating models, ideally within a People / HR function, using Agile and Design Thinking principles.

• Strong understanding of digital HR systems and technologies, including experience leading system implementations, automation initiatives, and innovation.

• Strong understanding of employment law, risk mitigation, and people-centred change delivery, including managing high-risk employee relations matters with sound judgement, legal awareness, and a balanced, solutions-focused approach.

• Experience of engaging and negotiating with trade unions in a constructive and outcomes-driven way, with the ability to navigate sensitive and high-impact issues confidently.

• Strong coaching and people development capability, with experience building high-performing teams, especially in developing HR Business Partners into strategic talent and change leaders.

• Analytical and outcome-focused, with experience using data, KPIs and user feedback to drive decision-making, improve services and demonstrate value.

•   Resilient, adaptable, and future-focused, with a commitment to continuous improvement and building inclusive, modern people practices that meet evolving organisational needs.

• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission, and values.

What we offer you

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance. 

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work. 

• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here. 

To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents. 

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Location & Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact.

This will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. 

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here. 

To see our full statement please visit this link: https://jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/our-policies/diversity/

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• receipt of satisfactory references
• proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here.

For anything else you can email us on: careers@savethechildren.org.uk