Administrative assistant for engagement group jobs

HR and Governance Manager

Orbis UK
12-month Fixed-Term Contract
Circa £42,000 per annum (day rates will also be considered)
Hybrid working with an expectation of around 2 days per week in the office (typically Tuesdays and Thursdays, although flexibility is available)
Full-time (flexible working will also be considered), starting ASAP

Charity People is delighted to be partnering with Orbis UK to recruit for their HR and Governance Manager.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced HR professional to join Orbis UK on a 12-month fixed-term contract, helping the organisation strengthen and embed excellent people practices while delivering key HR priorities.

This role is critical to supporting a highly performing group of staff and trustees as they seek to transform lives through the prevention and treatment of blindness. The role sits within the Business Support Team, which is responsible for the day to day running of the organisation and will be crucial in co-creating a revised HR strategy and ensuring that the organisation's compliance with key statutory and regulatory requirements are maintained, working with the Senior Management Team (SMT). The successful postholder will work collaboratively with the Director of Finance and Operations to meet these objectives, but also will have a central role in identifying opportunities for growth within the HR and Governance function to ensure that good practice, wellbeing and compliance work hand in hand with one another and is embedded within the ethos of the organisation for the benefit of its staff and, ultimately, the communities Orbis supports.

The Opportunity

Over the next twelve months, success in this role will mean:

• Completing and progressing key HR priorities across the organisation
• Reviewing, updating and embedding the HR handbook
• Supporting and advising the SMT to develop and deliver a strong HR strategy embedding best practice while continuing to build a positive, inclusive and high performing culture strongly aligned with Orbis' values.
• Support the Director of Finance and Operations to provide high-quality, responsive and effective support to the Orbis Board and its sub-committees.
• Supporting the continued development of an effective in-house HR function
• Provide a responsive problem solving and supportive HR service to colleagues across the organisation.
• Overseeing governance administration where required
• Line manage and work with the Business Support Administrator
• Working in close partnership with the Director of Finance and Operations to deliver both strategic and operational HR priorities

About You

We're looking for someone who can hit the ground running from day one. You'll be a knowledgeable and hands-on HR professional who combines strategic thinking with the ability to deliver operationally. You'll be comfortable managing multiple priorities and bringing structure, pace and confidence to a busy environment.

You'll have:

• Significant experience supporting and developing a HR strategy
• Good knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice
• Experience leading organisational people projects and delivering tangible outcomes
• Experience supporting organisational culture and employee engagement initiatives
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills
• A pragmatic, solutions-focused approach
• Experience managing or mentoring team members

Desirable

• Undertaking (or qualified) CIPD Level 5 qualification (or equivalent experience)
• Experience at an Executive Assistant level for governance matters
• Knowledge of the NGO sector. We are open to applications from across disciplines and expertise if you can demonstrate your aptitude for the role with a hunger to learn, or for someone who is keen to translate their HR experience into this broad and interesting role.

Interview Process

Interviews will be informal, conversational and focused on understanding your HR experience and approach. Interviews are expected to last approximately 30-45 minutes and, where possible, will be conducted in person.

Please note: We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis and encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible. Due to the urgent nature of this appointment, we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is identified.

Charity People is a forward thinking, inclusive organisation that actively and deliberately promotes equity, diversity and inclusion. We know organisations thrive when inclusion is at the forefront. We evidence our commitment by matching charity needs with the skills and experience of candidates irrespective of background e.g. age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We do this because we believe that greater diversity leads to greater results for the charities we work with.

Unifrog’s mission

We’re on a mission to level the playing field when it comes to young people finding and applying for their next step after school. We're achieving this by bringing all the available information into one single, impartial, user-friendly platform that helps students to make the best choices, and submit the strongest applications. We also empower teachers and counsellors to manage the progression process effectively.
 

Our outlook is global - we work with schools and universities all over the world, from the US to New Zealand, and from Italy to Hong Kong. We want to make it so that young people can compare every opportunity taught in English, wherever it is in the world, and have all the support they need to make successful applications.
 

We have a clear social purpose, and we’re hugely ambitious. We already work with over half of UK secondary schools, and more than a thousand international schools. We are growing rapidly in terms of the number of our customers, in terms of how much they use our platform, and in terms of the breadth of products we offer.
 

Our team is at the heart of our business and it is integral to our success. We work hard to foster a culture of openness, happiness and innovation, and we commit to helping every individual learn and grow so that they can reach their full potential. We want to hire talented people, whatever their background. If you are excited by our mission and are ready to work hard, please don’t hesitate to apply. We look forward to hearing from you!
 

We believe in the power of diversity. If you are from an ethnic minority background, we would like to strongly encourage you to apply. In advance of applying if you have any questions about working at Unifrog, please contact our Recruitment Lead (details on our website). 

The role and responsibilities

As People Lead, you will play a key role in supporting Unifrog employees to work at their best. You’ll help us to retain a happy and effective team by developing great relationships with team members and making sure that all our internal systems and processes are as efficient as possible.

Your key responsibilities:

People operations

• Review, improve, and automate our people processes, including engagement and retention, as well as our people platforms and tools.
   

• Develop, update, and communicate our policies and the employee handbook, ensuring they reflect current laws and best practices.
   

• Collaborate with our People Assistant to manage and maintain Bamboo - our HR system.

  • Maintain employees’ electronic people files, ensuring documents are filed efficiently and that employee data is up to date on Bamboo.

  • Update and track employee time off.
     

• Support the Head of People Operations by maintaining key HR metrics and reporting to support data-driven people decisions.

• Support the onboarding and offboarding processes.

Employee experience 

• Learning and development:

  • Using Learnerbly, track and encourage high-quality usage of our training budgets. 

  • Continually review our professional development policies and processes to support this high take-up.

  • Promote and set up mentorship, shadowing, coaching, and cross-team learning opportunities.

  • Coordinate year-round, team-led training sessions, including an annual “Learning at Work Week”. 

  • Facilitate team training as needed.

• Plan and implement stand-alone People projects to improve employee experience (e.g. employee engagement, recognition initiatives).
   

• In time, help collate feedback from team surveys and work with the People and Leadership teams to put ideas from the team into action.

Unifrog support

• Monitor and manage our People inbox, being the first point of contact for queries and requests from the team (1 day a week equivalent).

• Book hotels, conference rooms and training courses for other teams.

• Work with the Finance team to support the expenses process.

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

At Unifrog, everyone is responsible for creating an equitable and inclusive place to work. In addition, each person on the People team also has specific EDI responsibilities which link to their role.

• Work with the Head of People Operations to:
   

  • Support with EDI projects such as EDI data collection and progression initiatives.
     

  • Develop and implement new policies and processes that promote inclusion at all levels of Unifrog (e.g. support for returning to work after parental or long-term sick leave). Make sure that these policies and processes are consistently applied across the team.
     

  • Regularly review our current policies and processes to ensure they’re inclusive and equitable.
     

Working together

You’ll work closely with our current People team, including our: Recruitment Lead, additional People Lead, People Assistant, Internal Communications and Events Lead, Head of People Operations and People and Operations Director. You will also work with our Finance team on a regular basis when processing expenses and making bookings. 

You’ll have regular contact with people across all of our teams, and you should build great professional relationships with team members to deliver an excellent employee experience.

You’ll be line-managed by the Head of People Operations. 

What we’re looking for

Essential:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Personable and able to build great professional relationships with multiple stakeholders.

• Ability to manage sensitive employee information, maintaining confidentiality.

• Excellent attention to detail.

• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.

• Excellent project management and organisation skills.

• Experience of managing multiple and competing priorities.

• Experience of managing HR administration processes linked to the employee life cycle, including new starter paperwork, contract changes, and leavers.

• Comfortable working both as part of a team and independently, and happy to ask for support when it’s needed.

• Proactive attitude and willingness to get stuck in.

Desirable:
 

• Experience managing an HR system, ideally BambooHR or similar.

• Experience analysing and presenting people data.

• CIPD Level 5 qualification, or working towards it.

• An interest in education, careers and development.

Benefits 

On our jobs page you’ll find a full list of the benefits we offer our team. Here’s a snapshot:

• Mission focussed
  
  Join one of Escape the City’s top 1% employers and help transform careers and destinations in schools.

• Be part of a growing company
  
  Become part of a committed, dynamic, and growing company. We want to build our team for the long term: if you do well, we will do our best to make sure you want to stay at the company for a long time.

• Grow individually
  
  Professional development is important at Unifrog. You will define your own 6-month objectives and will be supported by your line manager and the rest of the team to achieve them. You will have an annual training allowance to spend on what you need to grow and progress.

• Have impact
  
  Influence the company’s direction: we love to promote great ideas, wherever they come from.

Key details 

• £38,000 - £42,000 per year dependent on experience (Grade B). 

• Full time.

• Split your time between home and our office in Hoxton, London (a minimum of 2 days per week).

• 28 days paid holiday per year (plus bank holidays).

• Working hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm, or 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am to 4:00pm or 9:00am to 4:30pm on Friday.

• Start date: as soon as possible, though we will be flexible for the right candidates.

• We can only consider candidates who have the right to work in the UK.

Application process  

• Deadline: 10:00am (BST) on Friday 21st August 2026. 

• We may need to close applications early if we receive a lot of interest. As long as you’ve already started applying, we’ll give you 48 hours’ notice of the deadline changing - so if you’re thinking of applying, please start an application so we can keep you updated. 

• Stage 1: Application form (~1 hour) 

• Visit our website to upload your CV and complete the questions below:

• Please note that we do not review CVs at this stage of the application process, so please be as specific as possible about your experience.

• With reference to examples of your recent experience, what would make you an excellent candidate for this role? (250 words) 

• Tell us about a time you created or improved a process. What problem were you trying to solve, what steps did you take, and how did you know it was successful? (250 words)

• Stage 2: Phone interview (15 minutes) 

• Stage 3: Video call interview (1 hour) 

• Standard Q&A from a panel of three, including questions about your experiences and how these relate to the role, and scenario questions based on common situations you might face (plus time for your questions).

• Phone interviews will be held throughout the application window. Video call interviews will be held w/c 7th September 2026. 

• Your answers are an opportunity to let us know more about your motivations and experience. While we understand that candidates might want to use AI to improve parts of their application, we strongly encourage you to write your answers independently. 

Please note, we compare all answers to an AI generated answer. Where we suspect AI has been used to write the majority of the answer, this will be taken into consideration when scoring

Inclusion and diversity at Unifrog

• How we communicate

Within the company we try to foster a culture of innovation, and a happy working environment, both because this is the right thing to do, and because we think this results in the most effective team. To this end we believe in open communication, celebrating successes, supporting each other, not being afraid to be wrong or to fail, and promoting good ideas wherever they come from.

• Embedded EDI

As a platform that supports teachers and students from a huge variety of backgrounds it’s important that our team and leadership reflects this diversity. This is something we are actively working towards and prioritising. We embed diversity, equity and inclusion across everything we do, continually evaluating policies and practices to make sure they are inclusive and equitable.

To make sure everyone’s voice is heard and people have the opportunities to learn to be better allies in the workplace, we encourage the team to share what they’re celebrating, facilitate training and group discussions, and seek regular feedback about what more the company could do to help people feel included.

• Recruitment processes
  
  To ensure that our recruitment process is consistent and fair, we anonymise your application and therefore do not see your name, personal, educational or professional background. We also randomise the order of responses so that it’s less likely that a candidate is advantaged or disadvantaged by where their answers appear compared to other candidates.