Institute of physics jobs
The IOP exists to help physics and the physics community deliver on their potential for our lives, our society, our planet.
Together with our members and leaders from the world of physics and beyond, we have identified three priorities of Skills, Science and Society which must shape our work over the next five years if we are to achieve our mission.
We are very proud of our new innovative strategy, our priorities and our principles.
Here at the IOP we are looking for a People & Policy Partner (Maternity Cover) until mid-November 2026 to support us in our mission.
What is it like working at the IOP?
The IOP is a friendly and ambitious organisation. Inclusion and diversity are central to our work and we have a ‘work anywhere’ in the UK policy to make working at the IOP as flexible as possible. This is complemented with competitive salaries, professional development opportunities and generous benefits.
Our comprehensive benefits package including:
- An excellent pension scheme - (up to 12% company contribution)
- Private medical insurance, life assurance, dental insurance, health care cash plan (via salary sacrifice) eye care vouchers, annual flu vaccinations, long service awards, employee assistance programme
- Floating bank holidays (choose when to take your bank holidays throughout the year)
- Generous annual leave (25 days starting as a standard)
- Flexible working
The Role
The role is ideal for someone with strong ER and policy writing experience and good knowledge and understanding of UK employment legislation, key HR legislation and HR systems to appropriately advise and lead on ER cases. Ideally you would need to be CIPD part qualified or studying towards a qualification.
We are looking for an organised, resilient and dependable individual who has proven ability to work within a small team, as well as under their own initiative, and who can communicate effectively across the organisation both in written and oral form.
Strong interpersonal skills with ability to listen, discuss, negotiate and provide advice on difficult, complex or sensitive issues is essential.
What will I be doing?
- First point of contact on IOP’s ER issues and responses, replying to queries in a timely manner
- Taking the lead on IOP HR policies, assessing and updating them on an ongoing basis in line with employment law changes
- Soley managing employee relations’ activities, ensuring that outcomes are proportionate, reasonable, timely and in line with legislation and the Institute’s policies
- Guiding, advising and assisting management and senior management through employee relations processes
- Providing people management advice and support to line managers, to enable them to fully undertake their people management role and ensure they are fully aware of the risks / implications associated with their decisions
Who will I work with?
- Internally, the role works across all departments as well as IOP Publishing HR and Finance
- Externally, the role works with employment lawyers, occupational health providers and EDI professionals
Ideally, your skills include:
Essential Criteria
- A sound knowledge of employment legislation and its application
- Strong sense of professional boundaries and the importance of confidentiality
- Strong interpersonal skills with ability to listen, discuss, negotiate and provide advice on difficult, complex or sensitive issues
- Experience working in a busy and varied role in a fast-paced environment, autonomously
- Strong working knowledge of employment law and HR best practice
- Absolute attention to detail
- HR qualification
Desirable
- Level 5 CIPD qualification (or working towards it)
- Experience using HR systems, ideally iTrent (Electric Theme)
Application
Alongside your CV, please ensure you include a brief cover letter stating how you meet the person specification.
Why should I want to work for the IOP?
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics in the UK and Ireland - we seek to raise public awareness and understanding of physics and support the development of a diverse and inclusive physics community. As a charity, we’re here to ensure that physics delivers on its exceptional potential to benefit society.
Should you require any reasonable adjustments to support you in your application and / or throughout the recruitment process please do not hesitate to reach out to us for support.
The Institute of Physics is an open and inclusive organisation that welcomes and celebrates diversity.
To apply for this role please click the link below, best of luck with your applications!
We strive to make physics accessible to people from all backgrounds.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are recruiting a Project Coordinator - Strategic Implementation within the Education and Workforce team at the Institute of Physics.
This position will support the Education and Workforce team in its mission to build a thriving, diverse physics teaching community and will see you working across multiple projects to help ensure that all people, no matter their background or where they live, have access to world-class physics education and training.
What is it like working at the IOP?
The IOP is a friendly and ambitious organisation. Inclusion and diversity are central to our work and we have a ‘work anywhere’ policy to make working at the IOP as flexible as possible. Looking after our colleagues and supporting them in life and work is our priority, ensuring they can live their best lives, with competitive salaries, professional development opportunities and generous benefits.
The Role
What will I be doing?
Working for our Strategic Implementation Manager the focus will be on supporting our affiliated schools and the broader physics teaching community. These priorities could change as our work programme evolves. Initial key responsibilities of the role include:
- Providing project support and coordination for projects across the department working in tandem with the Strategic Implementation Manager.
- Contact and communications administration for our Professional Community of Teaching, including through Salesforce.
- Managing relationships with affiliated schools and supporting plans for growth.
Projects you work on may include:
- Coordinating events for teachers and other key groups. This will involve managing event bookings, liaising with event venues and event contributors, following budgets, liaising with colleagues for promotion and evaluating impact.
- Sending out regular newsletters to teachers. Working with the Managers this will require maintenance of mailing lists and the distribution of electronic newsletters.
- Collating data from our communities, including from surveys and forum discussions.
- Supporting the coordination of the IOP Teacher Awards scheme.
Who will I work with?
You will be line managed by the Strategic Implementation Manager and support the Manager Education Community in the delivery of their projects.
Ideally, we hope you’ll apply if your skills include:
Essential Criteria
- Communication – ability to express information clearly and effectively in written and oral form, Strong customer care skills, writing and editing engaging copy, web pages, social media
- Organisational and planning – ability to work with minimum supervision, prioritise workload, high attention to detail, handle multiple tasks ability to work under pressure and to deadlines
- Team player – the ability to work co-operatively with others to achieve common goals
Nice to have
- Event management experience
- Website maintenance experience
- Experience using customer relationship management software, such as Salesforce.
Application
Alongside your CV, please ensure you include a cover letter stating how you meet the person specification.
The Institute of Physics is an open and inclusive organisation that welcomes and celebrates diversity. We know that not every candidate fits into a neat little box, and that's okay!
So, even if your experience looks a little different from what we’ve identified but you believe you’d bring passion, creativity, and a willingness to learn, we’d love to learn more about you!
How will I be working?
The Institute of Physics is an inclusive employer and our people are at the heart of our approach to delivery. Following the impact of COVID-19, we have developed a new, innovative and exciting trust-based model of flexible working called How We Work. This empowers our staff to choose both individually and as a team how, when and where they work to deliver the goals of the organisation, acknowledging that there will be occasions where in-person meetings, collaborations and events will help generate greater impact. The How We Work initiative is based on the principles of collaboration, trust, flexibility and agility. You will be allocated a ‘base’ office which can also be a chosen place of work.
To apply for this role please click the link below, best of luck with your application!
We recognise personal unique characteristics, should you require any reasonable adjustments to support you in your application and/or throughout the recruitment process please do not hesitate to reach out to us for support.
The Institute of Physics is an open and inclusive organisation that welcomes and celebrates diversity.
We strive to make physics accessible to people from all backgrounds.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.