This is an extremely exciting time to join NPL as the organisation embraces the mission and opportunity to provide the measurement capability that underpins the UK’s prosperity and quality of life.  

NPL’s vision is to deliver extraordinary impact from their excellent science and engineering as an exemplary national laboratory. This mission reaffirms the pivotal role the organisation plays in supporting the UK’s national challenges as well as the needs of industry. For example, NPL has recently been given the task of leading the new UK Telecoms Lab which is a world leading, national facility. Under NPL’s leadership it will boost the security, resilience, and performance of the UK telecoms networks. NPL is reimagining what the national and global challenges might be and expects industrial, digital and government insights to shape their future direction.  

Joining as a pivotal member of the People Team promises a unique and stretching experience with the opportunity to positively impact the NPL journey and boost the engagement of a diverse and talented workforce. 

This is an opportunity to join as a member of the People leadership team. Working together with the Head of Organisation Development and a team of two experienced Strategic People Partners, this role partners with senior business leaders to drive success through people across a range of activities that attract, reward, retain, develop and engage. 

Focus of this role: 

Sitting within the People Solutions Team, you will work together with People Specialists to define and deliver the People Strategy. The Strategic People Partner role is critical in providing strategic people centred activities to support business capability and individual/team improvements, using well established relationships with senior leaders to provide feedback and insights to the wider team working on business focused solutions. 

You'll be working closely with the specialist People Partners in talent, reward and D&I to optimise the performance of the people solutions team. Specifically this role will; 

• Work as a trusted partner, to provide strategic support and advice to senior business leaders to enable them to meet their Directorate ambitions and strategic people plans
• Support the development of and deliver against the People Strategy that reflects NPL’s overall strategic direction and delivers against the organisations’ attraction, retention, performance, development, change and engagement needs
• Identify and manage opportunities to optimise the performance of employees across NPL to support the delivery of organisational goals
• Work closely with the People Operations Team to ensure complex ER cases and risks are managed 
• Lead, shape and embed people solutions and continuous improvement across Depts.
• Through partnering with business leaders, support continuous improvement by providing feedback to the People Operations Team to ensure efficient and effective operational delivery and support
• Lead people change projects to support the delivery of business goals and offer technical expertise pragmatically and creatively to deliver for success

To be successful in the role you'll need to have the following skills and experience

Essential criteria 

• Alongside being a proven HR generalist/business partner, this person will be able to demonstrate a greater depth of experience in organisational design, talent management and change management.
• Demonstrate the relevant knowledge and experience built up in a complex environments. Able to set out and advise on the risk management landscape.
• Understand strategic objectives of the business to advise on and manage the people strategies for success.
• Thorough understanding of UK Employment Law and its practical application to facilitate effective outcomes. Able to translate this knowledge into relevant and strategic people actions.
•  Able to partner and develop positive and effective stakeholder relationships that support and enable business outcomes.
• Able to set the performance standards and to hold others to account. Underpinning this with providing the necessary coaching, mentoring and development opportunities across the team.
• CIPD qualified (or equivalent)

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading centre of excellence that provides cutting-edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK. Find out more about what it is like working here - The measure of us - Overview

NPL and DSIT have strong commitments to diversity and equality of opportunity, and welcome applications from candidates irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or age, providing they meet the required criteria. Applications from women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in particular are encouraged. All disabled candidates (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) who satisfy the minimum criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme. 

At NPL, we believe our success is a result of the diversity and talent of our people. We strive to nurture and respect individuals to ensure everyone feels valued by treating everyone on the basis of their own individual merits and abilities regardless of their own or perceived identity, as part of our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we hold memberships and accreditations to ensure we’re creating an environment where all our colleagues feel supported and welcome, please see our Diversity & Inclusion page.

 We are committed to the health and well-being of our employees. Flexible working and social activities are embedded in our culture to create a positive work-life balance, along with a broad range of benefits. Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success. 

To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we’re always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss, please contact us.