Deputy Director HR People Strategy

Department Specialist Roles
Location(s) Cheltenham, London, Manchester

Salary 

You will receive a minimum salary of £96,981 plus a non-concessionary payment of £3030 (subject to security compliance) and London Pay Addition of £6250 if contracted to a London work location, the yearly Pay Award is currently pending.

Job description 

Primary Location – The role can be based in Cheltenham, London or Manchester, but the successful candidate would be expected to spend time in each of the three locations.

Working Pattern:

This is a full time or minimum of 30 hours per week role that can be based at any of our large sites (London, Manchester, Cheltenham), but will require frequent travel to Cheltenham for leadership presence.  It is also a hybrid role which can include approx. 20% homeworking, along with office attendance and working in a collaborative team space.

Requests for flexible working patterns will be considered and should be discussed with the Hiring Manager upon application.

About us

GCHQ is the nation’s intelligence, cyber and security agency. We work to make the UK the safest place to live and work online; connect the national security community securely; and provide insights and counter threats through SIGINT and effects. Our people work closely with MI5 and MI6 as well as defence, international, and industry partners across a variety of locations, with major hubs in Cheltenham, London and Manchester as well as other sites in the UK and overseas. We live by the values of ingenuity, integrity, impact and teamwork as we work to keep the UK safe, resilient and prosperous in an uncertain world. A role with us means you will do unique and challenging work in a supportive environment, making a meaningful difference to national security. 

The role

Reporting to Chief People Officer, this is an exciting and broad opportunity.  We are seeking a HR Professional to act as Deputy Director to lead the delivery of key HR initiatives across the organisation, focusing on Pay, Pensions, and Careers and Skills. The successful candidate will be a strategic HR professional with a proven track record of delivering complex projects and managing stakeholder relationships.

This post will work closely with the leadership team in GCHQ and across UKIC HR and as a team you will cover all HR functions so an ability to work with others to drive genuine transformation is critical to succeeding in this role.

Key Responsibilities:

Pay:

Lead the development and implementation of the organisation's annual pay award remit, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and regulations.
Negotiate with trade unions and other stakeholders to secure agreement on pay awards and related terms and conditions.
Analyse and interpret data to inform pay decisions and ensure fairness and equity across the organisation.

Pensions:

Oversee the policies and administration of the organisation's pension schemes, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and legislation.
Develop and implement pension strategy, including communicating changes to employees and stakeholders.
Collaborate with pension scheme administrators and other stakeholders to resolve issues and improve processes.

Careers and Skills:

Lead the design and development of career pathways for specific professional groups in conjunction with heads of profession.
Lead the career and skills alignment across UKIC.
Collaborate with heads of profession and other key stakeholders to identify skills gaps and develop targeted interventions.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is critical to our mission and we expect all our leaders to demonstrate a commitment to its delivery. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve and therefore would like to encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds for this role.

Senior roles within GCHQ are responsible for ensuring effective engagement with Safety, Health and Wellbeing processes, including actions related to allocating resourcing and monitoring compliance.  This extends to the management of psychological risk and the nomination of an individual/individuals responsible for assessing and recording roles in the Management of Psychological Risk (MPR) tool and to lead on liaison with the Wellbeing team.

About you

You will be an experienced HR professional with relevant skills and experience in the HR field; a leader with excellent personal resilience, ability to demonstrate strong teamwork, and also commitment to self-awareness and professional development.  You’ll be a leader who demonstrates GCHQ’s values of Integrity, Ingenuity, Impact and Teamwork, who works inclusively, collaboratively and takes a learning approach to agile delivery.  You should be an excellent communicator in person and in writing, able to explain complicated issues and identify solutions that work for the business.

You will have:

Professional HR qualification CIPD Level 7 and significant experience in a senior HR role.
Proven track record of delivering complex HR projects and managing stakeholder relationships.
Strong knowledge of employment law, pensions, and pay practices.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret data and inform decision-making.
Strong communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with stakeholders.
Ability to work at a strategic level, influencing organisational decision-making.
Experience of working in a large or complex organisation.
Knowledge of careers development and talent management principles.
SCS Competency Framework

The role is broad and varied in scope, but particularly focused on the following SCS1 Competencies  (Level 5):

Driving Innovation and Change
Leading Inclusively
Providing Customer Value
Working Collaboratively
Delivering Outcomes
Selection Process

To apply to for this role please complete the relevant sections of the application and copy and paste your Suitability Statement (limit to 2 sides of A4) and CV into the required fields. Please note that you will be required to complete a short initial eligibility application, before being progressed to the full application form.

Your application will be sifted to assess your evidence against the essential criteria above. 
If longlisted, you will participate in a telephone interview with our recruitment partners – scheduled for week commencing 25/05/26.
If shortlisted at telephone interview, you will be invited to participate in a Staff Engagement Session with a small group of GCHQ staff. This will be held virtually. Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates – scheduled week commencing 15/06/26. 
You will be invited to attend a panel interview held in person in London, where your motivational fit, values, competency evidence and technical experience will be assessed. - scheduled week commencing 06/07/26.
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Rewards and Benefits

You will receive a minimum salary of £96,981 plus a non-concessionary payment of £3030 (subject to security compliance) and London Pay Addition of £6250 if contracted to a London work location, other benefits including: 

25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
Interest-free season ticket loan
Excellent pension scheme
Cycle to work scheme
Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
Paid parental and adoption leave
Equal Opportunities

At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person-to-person interviews to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are: 

Meeting the eligibility criteria
Meeting the essential criteria for the role at initial sift
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our website for information on the reasonable adjustments we can offer.

Before You Apply

To work at GCHQ, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. 

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. 

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.

The role can be based in Cheltenham, London or Manchester, but the successful candidate would be expected to spend time in each of the three locations. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities associated with the location and travel require for the role before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. 

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation. Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hard copy receipts for reimbursement. 

Right to Withdraw Statement: 

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.