Chief People Officer

Job summary

The Scottish Government is seeking an exceptional Chief People Officer (CPO) to lead the vision, strategy and delivery of our people agenda.

This is a new unique, high‑impact and organisation‑wide leadership role. The CPO is a member of the Scottish Government Executive Team and is the most senior HR professional providing advice to the Permanent Secretary and the senior leadership team. This is an ideal opportunity for a strategic, innovative and people‑centred HR leader who can inspire transformation and build capability for the future with a focus on modernisation and delivery.

As our Chief People Officer, you will play a vital role in shaping and strengthening our workforce, developing our leaders and ensuring we remain a values‑driven, inclusive organisation where people can thrive.

You will be operating within a complex environment across a challenging landscape where the people agenda is under a degree of scrutiny and where actions, and decisions, taken by the CPO are highly visible. The Scottish Government currently has a workforce of around 9,000 FTE and responsibility for a budget of £67.9 billion.

A key priority for the CPO in 2026/27 will be supporting the organisation’s leaders who will themselves be serving a new Government that will have a new and refreshed set of priorities. Translating these Government priorities into tangible outcomes for the people function will be a key focus for the new CPO. As we head towards 2030, the organisation will need to be smaller, more efficient, flexible and capable of delivering cross-government priorities.

The CPO is supported by a People Directorate leadership team of Deputy Directors and a wider team of c280 people. The CPO also works closely with the new People Operations Director, who will have responsibility for the operational aspects of the people function (e.g. payroll, pensions, resourcing). Within Scottish Government through the CPO and new People Operations Director, we provide the full suite of HR services delivered in-house, including HR strategy and partnering, strategic workforce planning, talent, learning and development, employee relations and reward, HR policy and casework, resourcing, diversity and inclusion, people analytics and a significant transactional service centre which operates a payroll of circa £870m per annum.

The People Operations function also delivers shared service operations to a base of over 25k customers comprising core Scottish Government staff, and those in around 14 public bodies.

Job description

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and strategic direction for the Scottish Government’s people agenda, advising the Permanent Secretary and senior leaders.

• Develop and deliver comprehensive strategic plans that ensures the organisation has the capability, capacity and culture required to deliver Government priorities, now and in the future.
• Lead the modernisation of the organisation, ensuring people policies, structures and services enable a smaller, more agile, efficient and integrated Civil Service by 2030.
• Lead workforce strategy and planning, using data, evidence and strategic workforce planning to shape future workforce models and support organisational reform.
• Oversee the full suite of HR services, ensuring high‑quality delivery across HR strategy, workforce planning, talent and leadership development, employee relations and reward, HR policy, casework, diversity and inclusion, people analytics; working closely with the People Operations director on overseeing the operational people function.
• Drive a values‑led culture that fosters inclusion, supports wellbeing, strengthens psychological safety and drives high performance.
• Strengthen leadership capability across the Civil Service through modern, approaches to leadership development, succession planning and talent management.
• Build trusted and influential relationships with senior leaders across the Scottish Government, and wider UK Government Departments, enabling alignment of people priorities with organisational objectives.
• Champion innovation, digital transformation and continuous improvement, ensuring that all HR services are modern, customer‑centred and compliant with relevant policies, legislation and Civil Service standards.

Person specification

Qualifications

Chartered FCIPD is a requirement of the role.

Proof of qualifications will be checked throughout the process.

Success Profile It is essential that you can provide evidence in your application of the professional experience and skills required for this role.

In addition, candidates applying for roles with the government agencies and public bodies in Scotland are assessed in line with the Success Profiles framework that is used across the Civil Service. This means that as well as evidencing the professional experience and skills you will also be expected to evidence behaviours at the level required for this Senior Civil Service role.

Experience: The ideal candidate will bring substantial strategic HR leadership experience, having led large, multi-specialist teams across People functions. They will have a proven ability to shape and deliver long-term people strategies/plans that support organisational goals, alongside a strong track record of driving major transformation programmes and guiding organisations through periods of significant change.

As an influential senior leader, they will be confident working with Executive Team, Boards and complex stakeholder groups, bringing political awareness, sound judgement and the ability to build trusted relationships.

Critically, they will be an inspiring and empowering leader across the organisation as well as for their own People Directorate team - able to set a compelling direction, develop capability and create a collaborative, high‑performance culture within the function.

Behaviours:

You are expected to provide evidence of the following behaviours at Level 6.

• Leadership

• Communicating and Influencing

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Changing and Improving

• Managing a Quality Service

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £111,916, Scottish Government contributes £32,422 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please