Innovate UK
Senior HR Business Partner
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Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect:
Applications must be submitted by 25-07-2026
Vacancy for Senior HR Business Partner
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced HR Business Partner to join the Innovate UK HR team in a senior role. You will build excellent relationships with leaders across the organization and lead a team providing a full HR service, working to deliver key initiatives and support the UKRI People Strategy. There will be a particular focus on organizational change.
Please note this advert will close on 23.59 on the 24th July 2026.
Title: Senior HR Business Partner
Band: UKRI Band F
Salary: £58,589 gross per annum
Reports to: Deputy Director HR - Innovate UK
Location: Swindon. Hybrid Working (2/3 days average per week in the office, with some travel)
Contract: Fixed Term/contractor for 9 months
Interviews will take place on Wednesday 29th July 2026.
UKRI recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.
Employees applying for any opportunity which may mean being away from your substantive role for a temporary period of time, please refer to the Recruitment Policy for further information in the first instance. If you are made an offer, please ensure you liaise with your Line Manager and the designated HR Team as soon as possible in order that implications of any move are clear and understood, prior to a move taking place.
Context:
The role holder will operate within the Innovate UK HR Team. The role holder is responsible for managing 3 direct reports, with a total team size of c5.
Job Purpose:
Partnering with senior leaders to develop and direct a HR agenda that supports the delivery of the Innovate UK strategy and goals, and builds organisational and people capabilities.
Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
- To support the development of our local people strategy to deploy appropriate processes and solutions throughout the business (including workforce planning, reward and performance management, culture and values)
- Deliver local people change management, organisation design and restructuring programmes
- Work together with HR and Innovate UK colleagues to ensure that HR initiatives and proposed changes are prioritised, appropriate, well planned and well delivered, working closely with Innovate UK senior leadership as required.
- To provide expert advice and guidance on Employee Relations, HR queries and ER casework.
- To deputise as needed for the Deputy Director of HR to ensure appropriate levels of support and management are available to the Innovate UK HR team at all times.
Stakeholder Relationships
- Develop trusted partnering relationships with leaders/managers, building professional credibility and mutual trust.
- Support leaders/managers in navigating business transformation and culture change activities through providing advice, challenge, coaching and being ‘a critical friend’.
- Ensure effective HR service delivery to managers and employees, meeting regularly to review themes arising from queries, requests, casework and initiatives; address any issues and develop as appropriate ideas and solutions.
HR Strategy & Implementation
- Co-develop and deliver a programme of interventions to ensure that current and future skill/capability requirements are captured and prioritised as part of the Talent and Skills strategy and incorporated into learning and development programmes, alongside the Talent and Learning Business Partner.
- Provide challenge, proposals and interventions for organisational design and restructuring, improved ways of working, team effectiveness, productivity and morale, and changing working practices – sharing insights and drawing on UKRI COE support and People Strategy actions
- Support the rollout of new initiatives (e.g., workforce planning, performance management, leadership and learning), engaging effectively with leaders/managers to ensure their buy in to the changes, and delivery against UKRI and Innovate UK objectives.
- Oversee the development and delivery of people related planning initiatives (e.g., workforce and budget plans, risk registers) to ensure the agenda is understood and debated by managers/leaders.
- With Resourcing, other HR Business Partners and HR colleagues, support the employee life-cycle – with effective attraction/selection/hiring, appointment, redeployment, secondment, exit and termination as needed
- Support the delivery and local implementation of the annual HR business lifecycle and manage the local deployment of reward and performance management to deliver alignment and compliance.
- Support the development of local people management capability, working with colleagues in HR to ensure access to good advice and encourage adoption of self-service.
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HR Metrics & Data Reporting
- Analyse and gather insight from HR data, surveys and other feedback to monitor and report on KPIs, and EDI to diagnose issues/trends/concerns, ensuring that mitigations/plans are in place and escalating as necessary.
- With the colleague IUK HR Senior Business Partner, the Talent and Learning Business Partner keep oversight of the IUK casework portfolio for the team, identifying risks, themes, and interventions required.
- Liaising with UKRI HR Policy team where guidance would benefit from improving or updating.
Project Management
- Create and deliver HR programmes to embed initiatives, support cultural and behavioural change and deliver transformation projects of varying scope.
- Provide MI on projects/initiatives, giving the appropriate risk assurance to stakeholders.
- Support the local delivery of a range of HR projects and programmes, ensuring that initiatives are prioritized and delivered with impact and pace, follow recognized portfolio, programme and project management methods, consider all people implications, opportunities and risks, and deliver agreed people benefits.
Casework
- Support and embed good practice methodologies for all types of case work across the HR team.
- Coach and support the team managing cases–to ensure that cases are consistently and appropriately handled.
- Create opportunities to improve communication and guidance to staff and line managers –ensuring up to date, clear and consistent information on HR policies and processes and answers to routine questions is available.
- Lead on the more complex casework within your business areas, working with line managers to conduct investigations and lead (and coach) them through processes that carry more risk or may lead to legal challenge (e.g., disciplinaries, complex grievances)
This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.
Shortlisting criteria
(S) – Assessed at shortlisting
(I) – Assessed at interview
(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview
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Person Specification:
Experience, Skills & Qualifications:
- Essential – University degree in HR or Organisation Development or equivalent relevant professional experience (S).
- CIPD membership and/or equivalent relevant professional experience (S).
- In depth knowledge and experience of successfully leading in a variety of HR roles in complex organisational environments/specialist workforces (including demonstrable organisational development and people change experience) (S&I).
- Experience in developing local people focused interventions (set within an overarching HR strategy and frameworks) that support performance management, talent, leadership and capability development, workforce planning, recruitment, behaviour and culture change (S&I).
- Demonstrable collaboration skills, and experience of influencing stakeholders and decision makers (I).
- Experience in using data and analytics to bring new insight, demonstrate impact and return on investment (I).
- Strong influencing and communication skills with experience of empowering diverse teams to drive change, engagement and capability development, inclusion and diversity (S&I).
- Experience of managing and prioritising multiple change management and project management workstreams (S&I).
Competencies:
All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:
- Thinking and Problem Solving
- Stakeholder management
- Communication skills
- Influencing
- Self-awareness/self-management
- Strategic awareness
- Working with others
- Project management
Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.
Travel Requirements:
Swindon/London-based: There may be the occasional requirement for national travel.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:
Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.
Equal Opportunities:
We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.
UK Research and Innovation:
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.
Employee Benefits:
We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance
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