If you are a specialist in learning and capability or bring a broader HR background and if this opportunity excites you wed love to hear from you" Theres never been a more exciting time to join the Capability, Learning and Talent function at the Department for Work and Pensions the largest capability function in the Civil Service. As the department continues its bold transformation journey, the skills and potential of our people are at the heart of our success. Were building a future-ready workforce. That means investing in our leaders and managers, embracing digital and AI capabilities, and anticipating the skills well need to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. In this pivotal role, youll help shape strategy and lead the delivery of impactful capability initiatives. Youll bring ambition, insight, and leadership to a dynamic environment guiding your team to deliver, identifying capability needs and gaps, and helping us respond with agility and purpose. Please see the candidate pack attached to the advert for Key Responsibilities. Its an exciting time to be part of DWP! Person specification The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their knowledge, experience and skills against the following essential criteria: A senior leader in the HR/People Function, demonstrating breadth of HR experience and/or depth of capability and learning expertise. You will be able to set direction and shape the outputs of a team of expert learning professionals. Experience of leading professional HR teams. You will use your people management and leaderships skills to create an inclusive, collaborative and high performing culture, building capability and flexing resources to ensure customer needs are met. You will be able to draw on data and insight to develop evidence-based strategies and translate them into deliverable plans that have an impact on the business. Experience of communicating, engaging and influencing, building collaborative and productive stakeholder relationships across an organisation, system and enterprise. You will have a track record of using Project Management principles and practices to deliver outcomes, tracking progress, projecting future delivery and measuring risk and impact. You must have achieved CIPD Chartered Fellow membership or be willing to work towards this upon commencement of your role. Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Leadership Communicating and Influencing Seeing the Big Picture Delivering at Pace Benefits Alongside your salary of 81,000, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes: Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing and compressed hours. Generous annual leave at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave. Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme. Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly). Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service. Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes. An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more. Things you need to know Selection process details This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. If you think you have the experience and energy to take on these stretching and demanding role, we would be very keen to hear from you. To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process outlined below no later than 23:55pm on 8th September 2025. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years; A personal statement (maximum 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities, and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. For more information about the roles and the applications process, please see the candidate pack attached. Reasonable Adjustments At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, especially those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk as soon as possible, before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the Reasonable Adjustments section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what additional support or adjustments you might need during the recruitment process. For further information regarding reasonable adjustments, please see following link: Reasonable Adjustments, Civil Service Careers Artificial Intelligence For further information regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within applications, please see following link: Artificial intelligence and recruitment, Civil Service Careers Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise. As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks. Nationality requirements This job is broadly open to the following groups: UK nationals nationals of the Republic of Ireland nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020 Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy. Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window). Apply and further information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : DWP Senior Recruitment Email : Senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk Recruitment team Email : Senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk Further information Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commissions Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DWP by email: Senior.Recruitment@DWP.GOV.UK. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission. Attachments SCS1 Head of Capability Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 497kB)