Senior HR Business Partner (Senior People & Culture Partner) – AWE
AWE is recruiting a Senior HR Business Partner to drive a high‑performance culture, lead organisational change and enable impactful leadership and talent management.
Location: RG7 4PR, Reading and Basingstoke (free onsite parking). The role will relocate to Green Park, Reading from December 2025.
Package: £61 040 – £85 000, depending on suitability, qualifications and experience.
Working pattern: AWE operates a 9‑day working fortnight. This role requires close working with the business stakeholders; flexibility around working arrangements is agreed informally (typically three days onsite per week).
Role Overview
As a Senior HR Business Partner, you will align with Function Executive Directors and Business Unit General Managers. You will deliver people strategies that support business milestones, our Cultural Deal and the effectiveness of People Experience, Change, Talent, Leadership, Performance and Strategic Workforce planning.
Key Responsibilities
* Build trusted relationships with senior leaders to align people plans with business strategy.
* Develop and deliver integrated people roadmaps.
* Ensure organisational design and health support strategic goals through effective change initiatives.
* Champion business needs within the People function to shape strategy and service delivery.
* Drive engagement with People programmes, operating models and cultural initiatives.
* Lead end‑to‑end talent strategy, including succession planning, capability building and skills analysis.
* Maximise talent brokerage and succession tools to build workforce resilience.
* Own performance frameworks and embed a performance‑driven culture.
* Ensure the customer voice informs People Function priorities and delivery.
Qualifications & Experience
We are looking for:
* Business partnering expertise with proven experience leading organisational change and working with senior leaders.
* Coaching experience for senior leaders to enhance performance.
* Strong understanding of reward and talent/succession planning methodologies.
* CIPD qualification, ideally Level 7, or equivalent experience and knowledge across the HR field.
* The ability to obtain and maintain security clearance.
Desired experience (not exhaustive):
* Technical knowledge in restructure, redundancy and TUPE.
* Driving effective talent management and succession activity.
* Working with Trade Unions.
* Presenting confidently when information is ambiguous.
* Working effectively as part of a team.
* High resilience and adaptability to changing stakeholder needs.
Benefits
* 9‑day working fortnight – every other Friday off and 270 hours of annual leave.
* Market‑leading contributory pension scheme (9%–13% of pensionable pay).
* Family‑friendly policies: Maternity leave – 39 weeks full pay, Paternity leave – 4 weeks full pay.
* Professional career development – funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
* Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
* Life Assurance (four times annual salary).
* Discounts on everyday spending.
* Special leave policy: paid time off for volunteering, public service and caring.
Next Steps
We recognise that great people don’t always tick every box. If you feel this role and AWE are a good fit, please apply. We’d love to receive your application.
Important Things You Need To Know
* Apply promptly – the role may close before the stated closing date if applications are high.
* The role requires a British Citizen resident in the UK for the past five years (security clearance). AWE will fund the clearance process.
* Let us know if you need any adjustments or accommodations during the recruitment process.
* Interviews are typically conducted over Teams and usually involve a single stage.
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