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Hybrid working with regular travel to our London Bridge Office
What the job involves
As our Senior People Services Manager, you’ll lead the day-to-day heartbeat of People Services and make sure every colleague has a smooth, supportive and high-quality experience throughout their time with us.
You’ll be the person who keeps things running brilliantly: setting the pace for operational delivery, supporting managers with confidence, and making sure our processes are simple, clear and compliant – ensuring delivery through an experienced and high-performing People Services Team. You’ll work closely with People & Culture, Finance, IT and leaders across the charity to drive a consistent, joined up service that helps people do their best work.
This is a hands-on leadership role partnering with People & Culture leadership and peers to drive the People Strategy and foster a high-performance, inclusive culture. You’ll shape how we deliver People Services, spotting ways to improve, simplify and modernise what we do. You’ll lead a team covering critical activity relating to all stages of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding, contracts, HR systems and data, payroll oversight, policies and employee relations, and you’ll be the operational authority and escalation point for complex or high-risk issues.
Some of the work you and your team will be getting involved in includes:
- Leading and developing the People Services & Payroll team so they have clarity, support and space to thrive.
- Making sure onboarding, contracts, and offboarding all run smoothly and consistently, with a great colleague experience.
- Overseeing HR systems and data to maintain accuracy, insight and compliance.
- Working with People Experience & Communications colleagues to refresh and embed people policies in a way that feels simple and supportive and encourages co-creation.
- Coaching managers on inclusive, confident people leadership and helping them handle tricky issues with care and clarity.
- Taking the lead on complex employee relations cases, change processes or emerging risks, and ensuring we handle things fairly and consistently.
- Driving continuous improvement - whether that’s simplifying a workflow, introducing a digital tool, or building capability across the organisation.
- Providing operational insight to support strategy, planning, resourcing and decision-making at leadership level.
This is an influential role with real scope to strengthen how our People Services function supports the organisation every day.
What we want from you
We’re looking for someone who brings a blend of operational confidence, sound judgement, people leadership and a passion for improving how things work and who is comfortable and able to thrive in a fast-paced and reactive enabling function.
The ideal candidate will bring:
- Strong HR operations experience at a senior level, with CIPD Level 5 or equivalent knowledge.
- Expertise in employee relations, including handling complex or sensitive cases with fairness, clarity and confidence.
- Experience overseeing payroll operations and HR systems, with a practical understanding of data accuracy, GDPR and people metrics.
- A natural adaptability to changing priorities and an ability to build trust and influence across all levels - someone who can coach managers, support colleagues and work in partnership with senior leaders.
- A continuous improvement mindset: you enjoy simplifying processes, solving problems and creating clarity – and you naturally collaborate and take the team with you on journeys of change rather than imposing a singular view.
- Experience leading or developing a team, with a supportive, inclusive and empowering approach.
- Strong organisational skills - you can juggle priorities, manage workflow pressures and keep the team focused on what matters most.
- A balanced blend of empathy and pragmatism, with a confident, solution focused approach to decision-making.
- A genuine belief in the role People Services plays in creating a positive, high performing organisation.
You’ll thrive here if you enjoy improving systems, supporting people, leading a committed team and making day-to-day People services work brilliantly.
Why work with us?
Every man needs to know about the most common cancer in men – prostate cancer. It’s a real and present danger that takes over 12,000 of our dads, grandads, brothers and friends each year.
Prostate Cancer UK is the largest men’s health charity in the UK. We have a simple ambition – to stop prostate cancer damaging lives. We invest millions in research to revolutionise testing, treatment and care. We’re blazing a trail to a screening programme that could save thousands of lives with regular, accurate tests for all men at risk. And we work tirelessly to spread the word about risk and offer specialist support to people living with the disease.
Work with us and you’ll see your efforts pay off as we give men and their families the power to navigate prostate cancer.
Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion
At Prostate Cancer UK we’re committed to righting health inequalities across the UK, starting with those faced by Black men. This includes ground-breaking research into Black men's risk and working with communities directly to overcome barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. To make this happen, we're dedicated to being an inclusive, proactive organisation, as we strive to be Allies to Black communities. We’ll achieve this by advocating and working alongside those communities to promote change. We're also working to be Allies to each other, not only protected groups. In 2024, we launched our New Allyship Training Programme. All colleagues at Prostate Cancer UK will be trained to act and identify as an Ally.
We've also signed Business in the Communities Race at Work Charter, as a dedication to our Black health equity work and wider EDI priorities. As a signatory, we're responsible and accountable for driving positive change.
How and where we work
Colleagues attend the office at least four days per month (pro rata for part-time colleagues) to collaborate, build relationships, and support projects and decision-making. You can choose where to work the rest of the time. Travel to the office is a commute, so we pay our own travel costs.
Additional in-person attendance will be required during your first few months for induction and training, to support you to learn the role and get to know colleagues.
We trust colleagues to work flexibly while balancing personal commitments with the needs of the charity, and we are committed to making reasonable adjustments for colleagues with a disability, neurodiversity, or a long-term physical or mental health condition.
How to Apply
Visit our Prostate Cancer UK Careers page to learn more about this role and the benefits we offer. On the vacancy advert, you’ll find everything you need to know about the role, how to apply, and what to include in your application.
You can also download a copy of the job description and access the link to our careers portal to submit your application.
Got a question? Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements or questions – we’re here to help.
The closing date is Sunday 12 April 2026. Applications must be submitted by 23:45 UK time.
Interviews: By arrangement. We expect this recruitment campaign to have three interview stages:
· First Interviews (online): currently scheduled for the week of 20 April 2026.
· Meet the team (online): currently scheduled for the week of 27 April 2026
· Final interviews (in-person at our London Bridge office): currently scheduled for the week of 6 May 2026
Thank you!
**PLEASE NOTE: To apply for this vacancy, please ensure you firstly download a copy of our application form from the documents section on our portal using the application link, and complete it. Click the 'apply' button and fill out your personal details in the relevant sections. Once you have submitted these you will be asked if you would like to attach any documents. At this stage please submit the completed version of the application form.**
Position: Senior People Advisor
Salary: £45k-49,500k per annum
Hours: 35
Reports to: People Director
Location: Shoreditch, East London (Hybrid Model)
Key relationships: Department Heads, Line Managers, Staff
JOB PURPOSE
We’re looking for a proactive, inclusive and insightful HR generalist to manage the day-to-day People advisory and operational support across our medium sized charity, while contributing to a range of forward-thinking HR projects that align our processes, policies and practice with our strategic goals. As our Senior People Advisor, you’ll work closely with our Director of People and partner daily with our managers and staff to build confidence in our People systems and strengthen understanding of good practice. With a passion for building inclusive cultures, wellbeing and employee experience, you’ll be an empathetic relationship builder who brings strong problem-solving skills, sound HR knowledge and a data informed, test and learn approach. You’ll be comfortable being hands on and working with a varied portfolio of activity. Your insights will help shape a safe, inclusive, healthy and agile culture, support organisational learning and development, and drive continuous improvement across our People function.
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
United Kingdom for UNHCR is the United Nations Refugee Agency’s national charity partner for the United Kingdom. We generate public awareness of the plight of refugees and raise funds to help protect them through UNHCR’s humanitarian operations across the world.
Our supporters include UK private individuals, communities, corporate partners, trusts and foundations. The funds we raise help UNHCR deliver emergency relief such as shelter, medical care and basic supplies to people fleeing conflict and persecution, as well as healthcare, education and livelihoods opportunities for those who remain displaced over the long term.
Nobody chooses to be a refugee, but we can all play a part in their protection, and we want those who work with us to share our values and passion for the cause.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING
We strongly value diversity and recognise that it is critical to our success and the cause that we serve. We are committed to providing an inclusive environment for all who work with us and strongly welcome applications from diverse backgrounds, particularly those with lived experience of being a refugee, asylum seeker, internally displaced person, or a stateless person.
UK for UNHCR is proud to have Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. The Diversity & Inclusion Working Group is a group of colleagues focusing on tasks that drive action in the implementation of our D&I Approach. The group also works to create safe spaces that brings colleagues together for events, discussions and learning experiences that celebrate and support diversity and tackle barriers to inclusion.
We are also open to flexibility in many ways, including an element of working from home and flexible hours. Please don’t be afraid to speak to us about this at the interview stage, so we can explore what’s possible.
Role Responsibilities
- Manage and/or advise on employee relations work with a resolution-focused approach to disputes, disciplinaries, grievances, absence, change management processes.
- Responsible for overseeing our current HRIS system, ensuring it is used effectively, information is up to date and compliant, and more widely ensuring all HR data is sufficiently protected and compliant with GDPR in all systems and processes
- Manage the day-to-day relationship with a range of our People-related suppliers
- Produce and use People data to analyse trends and help make decisions. To include producing dashboards for managers, leadership where required.
- Oversee the planning and delivery of key activities in the HR calendar such as Employee Engagement surveys, the organisation appraisal process, and associated Internal Communications within the organisation
- Develop and evaluate the confidence and capability of managers and staff in our People practices, and systems
- Develop, update and communicate our People policies and procedures, in line with organisational strategy, best practice and employment legislation.
- Ensure our People practices have safety, diversity, equity and inclusion at their core and play a key role in championing the delivery of our ED&I roadmap.
- Provide first line advice on our Total Reward offer to managers and staff and liaise with benefits suppliers to help us continually evolve our Employee Value Proposition.
- Support managers in inclusive recruitment processes, ensuring compliance, best practice and use of appropriate metrics to continually inform our recruitment strategy.
- Use and update reward benchmarking in line with our reward policy
- Design and deliver wellbeing related initiatives
- Work with and contribute to the evolution of competency frameworks and development pathways and advise staff and managers around these.
- Accountability for discrete budget lines
The above list is not exhaustive, and the post holder may be required to perform duties that are not detailed above.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential Experience
- Level 5 CIPD qualified or equivalent proven generalist HR experience
- Advising and leading confidently on a range of HR policies, UK employment law and best practice
- Design and delivery of inclusive HR processes and improvements
- Experienced in developing and supporting managers and staff through change
- Experienced in advising managers and staff around learning and development
- Scoping, managing and overseeing delivery of a varied range of HR projects to enhance efficiency and the employee experience.
Essential Skills/Knowledge
- Solid knowledge of UK employment and relevant GDPR legislation and its application
- Skilled in using HRIS systems and using them for reporting and streamlining processes
- Strong Excel skills, and skilled in Microsoft Office suite, including SharePoint
- Analytical skills to interpret data, identify trends and make informed recommendations
- Understanding of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion considerations and best practice
- Knowledge and experience of using Reward data and benchmarking tools
- Knowledge of Safeguarding principles and practice
- Excellent communication skills, ensuring our policies and practices are accessible
Essential Attributes
- Able to thrive in a small, dynamic and evolving organisation, showing initiative and adaptability.
- Collaborative and skilled at building strong, trust-based relationships across teams.
- Personally aligned to values of fairness, inclusion, wellbeing and integrity.
- A growth mindset
Desirable Skills/Experience
- Lived experience of or a strong affinity to the refugee cause
- Understanding and experience of competency frameworks
- Experience of contributing to staff wellbeing and engagement programmes
- Experience of line managing or task managing the work of others
- Experience of taking a coaching approach to develop others
WHY JOIN UNITED KINGDOM FOR UNHCR?
You will be part of a high performing agile team of talented people, all committed to build solidarity and raise funds for refugees and displaced people worldwide. You will be working in a flexible, supportive, and inclusive environment, where your work will be recognised and appraised.
What else?
Wellbeing
- 28 days’ leave per annum plus bank holidays
- Employee Assistance programme providing 24/7 access to online GP, mental health support and virtual wellbeing.
- Access to 100s of perks with discounts on everyday purchases.
- Office wellness perks.
- Discount on gym memberships.
- Hybrid and Flexible Working.
- Staff socials.
Financial
- Pension scheme with an employer contribution of 8%.
- Non-contributory group life assurance scheme
- Non-contributory Income protection scheme.
- One-off contribution towards homeworking set up.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay.
- Enhanced sick pay scheme.
Development
- Comprehensive training and continuing development opportunities.
- Individual training budget.
HOW TO APPLY
If you have the relevant skills and the passion to use them to support refugees, please apply by completing our application form which is available in the documents section.
Closing date: Midnight 6th April 2026
Interviews date: Friday 10th and Monday 13th April
If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments to the application or hiring process that may better facilitate your participation, please contact us using the email address provided when you click through to our online portal. We will make every effort to respond to your request for assistance as soon as possible.
United Kingdom for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is registered with the Charity Commission (England & Wales), charity no. 1183415. It is the UK national partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency.
Registered Charity
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We stand with refugees – will you join us?
