Executive Head of People & Culture

Job Summary

The salary for this permanent full-time position is circa £70,000 per annum 

War Child UK is a sector-leading charity with an extraordinary network of supporters, partners and advocates who help us deliver creative, innovative fundraising and life-changing impact for children affected by conflict. We're looking for an exceptional Executive Head of People & Culture to shape the future of our workforce and help build an organisation where people can do their very best work.

As the organisation's most senior people leader, you'll partner with the CEO and Directors to shape organisational culture, define our People Promise, strengthen leadership capability and drive a modern, inclusive and high-performing employee experience. You'll combine strategic vision with practical delivery, using insight, technology and innovation to create an environment where talented people choose to join, stay and grow.

This is a rare opportunity to influence organisation-wide strategy and lead the next phase of our People & Culture journey, ensuring our people, culture and ways of working enable us to maximise our impact for children affected by conflict.

Your Role

The Executive Head of People & Culture is a strategic leadership role at the heart of War Child UK, responsible for shaping and delivering our People Promise and ensuring we remain an empowered, motivated and values‑driven organisation. As our most senior people leader, you will partner closely with the CEO and Directors to define the organisation’s approach to culture, performance, wellbeing and growth, ensuring our people strategy enables us to achieve our mission for children affected by conflict. You will lead and develop an established People & Culture team, building on strong foundations and existing expertise to deliver an outstanding people experience across the organisation.

Your Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Lead the next phase of our People & Culture strategy, ensuring clear alignment to the organisation’s five-year strategy.
• Facilitate the creation, implementation and ongoing review of a long-term workforce vision and strategic plan with the CEO and wider Leadership Group.
• Lead on the creation and implementation of a ‘People Promise’ to support high levels of employee wellbeing, engagement, talent attraction and retention.
• Translate relevant strategic insight on people trends, organisational health and future workforce needs into appropriate structures, systems and interventions that promote efficient and effective working practices.
• Champion flexible, creative and modern ways of working that support innovation, agility and psychological safety.
• Create and implement a talent strategy for WCUK that supports future growth and delivers the People Promise.
• Create and maintain a culture committed to safeguarding, ethical practice and organisational values. 

Legal Compliance

• Responsible for ensuring organisational compliance with employment law, safeguarding requirements, DEI commitments and organisational policies.
• Lead on relevant policy development ensuring consistent, and timely implementation across the organisation.

Organisational Development

• Work closely with the CEO on any change, growth and new initiatives or programmes that impact employees within the organisation to ensure legal and ethical considerations are taken into account.
• Advise the CEO and Directors on communicating decisions, priorities and organisational updates with clarity and sensitivity, thinking though the impact on people and their wellbeing and motivation. Lead the implementation of any such programme.
• Embed appropriate employee voice mechanisms to inform organisational decision‑making.

Strategic People Initiatives

• Lead organisational development and workforce planning, including defining leadership and management expectations and organisational structures that support sustainable growth.
• Oversee people systems and technology, driving the responsible adoption of AI and emerging tools to enhance people processes, insights and employee experience.
• Lead recruitment and induction strategy, ensuring inclusive, values‑aligned, and future‑focused approaches to attracting and retaining talent.
• Identify leadership and management capability requirements across the organisation, developing and leading strategies to strengthen organisational performance and growth.
• Identify organisational skills, development and talent requirements, ensuring learning and development investment is targeted and aligned to strategic goals.
• Integrate performance, development and culture into a coherent, modern people approach that supports organisational success.
• Participate in Executive and Director‑level recruitment panels as required.

Team Leadership & Management

• Role‑model excellent people management, emotional intelligence and relationship‑building.
• Set clear expectations, objectives and performance standards for team members to deliver high‑quality, strategic people support.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive and high‑performing team culture supporting an experienced People & Culture team to continue delivering excellent service and strategic impact.
• Be the escalation point for especially complex or sensitive people scenarios.
• Build organisational capability through coaching, development and knowledge‑sharing.
• Hold accountability for the effective management of the function’s budget and resources, making decisions on allocation and prioritisation in line with organisational strategy and agreed financial parameters. 

Collaboration & Influence

• Be the principal People & Culture lead for the CEO, Directors and wider Leadership Group.
• Build highly effective relationships across the organisation to drive cultural change, leadership effectiveness and organisational performance.
• Provide confident, evidence-based challenge to senior leaders, enabling robust decision-making and accountability for people outcomes.
• Partner with leaders to embed inclusive leadership, wellbeing, performance DEI, flexible working and organisational values throughout the employee lifecycle.
• Lead and influence cross-organisational initiatives, ensuring people implications are understood and integrated into strategic planning and delivery.
• Represent the organisation externally, building partnerships, enhancing organisational reputation and sharing best practice across relevant networks and forums.
• Responsible for creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children, and adults and compliant to War Child’s Safeguarding and PSEAH (Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse & Harassment) policies.
• We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace. All staff are expected to actively contribute to this by embedding principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into their day-to-day work, decision-making, and interactions with colleagues, partners, and supporters.

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the role.

You Are

Essential Criteria

• A senior leader in People & Culture, HR or Organisational Development.
• Someone with proven ability to develop and deliver strategic people initiatives that support organisational growth and foster an inspirational culture.
• Armed with a strong understanding of UK employment law, safeguarding and DEI best practice.
• Dedicated to maintaining your professional knowledge and continuing your personal and professional development. 
• Experienced in leading organisational change, workforce planning and  organisational development programmes.
• Commercially astute, with the ability to evaluate situations, develop robust proposals and balance legal, ethical, financial and cultural risk. 
• A collaborative and relationship-focused leader, able to build trusted relationships at all levels of the organisation up to and including the CEO and influence organisational thinking.
• Experienced in managing and developing a team to deliver high‑quality people services
• A highly skilled communicator able to convey complex information clearly and sensitively.
• Able to utilise people technology and data, to develop insights and identify trends to inform decision‑making.
• Practical, curious and committed to continuous improvement, with the initiative to identify root causes, test solutions and embed sustainable change. 
• Committed to War Child’s mission and values, including safeguarding, PSEAH, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. 

Desirable Criteria

You may have:

• A level 7 CIPD or equivalent qualification
• Experience of working in charity, international development or other values‑driven organisation.
• Skills in modernising people systems and adopting new technologies, including AI.
• An understanding of safeguarding in an international or humanitarian context.
• Interest or experience in employer branding or becoming an employer of choice.
• Experienced in developing and embedding holistic DEI strategies or culture‑change initiatives.

About Us

Our Values

• Bold: We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.
• Accountable to children: Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
• Anti-racism: Anti-racism is not merely a belief. It includes actions that we mainstream throughout our work to change and challenge policies and behaviours that perpetuate racism.
• Transparent: We expect to be held to account by our supporters and participants and we respond with openness and honesty.
• Supportive of each other: We support each other to achieve ambitious goals and be the best we can be. We are honest and open, sharing our successes & confronting our challenges.

Our Benefits

• Flexible working - we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.
• Annual leave – 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays
• Pension - all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis. This increases to 6% after one year's service. 
• Family leave – we offer enhanced Maternity, Partner/Co-Parent/Paternity Leave, Adoption & Shared Parental Leave
• Health & wellbeing - employees may take advantage of a healthcare cash plan and a range of wellbeing initiatives and training. In addition, all employees have access to free, confidential one-to-one wellbeing consultations with trained counsellors.
• Learning & development - dedicated to the investment in learning and continuing professional development for all our employees
• Workplace Nursery Benefit – employees make tax and NI savings on nursery costs for children up to the age of 5
• Flexible public holidays - up to two standard UK public holidays can be exchanged for those that have cultural or religious significance. 
  
• Cancer Cover: Voluntary contributions can be made through payroll allowing employees to claim back on a range of cancer treatments.
• GP 24/7 Helpline: A GP helpline is be available to all UK employees providing access to a qualified GP, 24/7 via a telephone or webcam consultation, and offers diagnosis, advice and reassurance on a range of medical matters, as well as authorisation of private electronic prescriptions.
• Welcome Bag for new starters: A War Child Tote bag, War Child T-shirt and some other practical things to welcome new colleagues to War Child.
• Discounts on War Child Merchandise: 25% discount on full price War Child merchandise, available to all employees, sold through Everpress. 
• Range of flexible benefits such a Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loans.

Flexible Working

We positively support flexible working arrangements. These currently include: office working, homeworking, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexi-time, flexi-place (hybrid working) and job shares. We would be happy to discuss individual flexible working requests during the interview process.

Safeguarding

Our work with children and at-risk adults to ensure their safety is our top priority. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in all aspects of our work. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior or practices that put children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse or harm.

Successful applicants will be required to comply with and sign our Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct, and PSEAH Policy. You can find the Safeguarding and Integrity policies here:
https://warchild.sharepoint.com/sites/Integrity

Diversity and Inclusion

We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to ensuring that all our people and job applicants are treated fairly, irrespective of where, what or whom they were born, or of other characteristics. We want to offer a safe and inclusive workplace where all our people, especially those who are currently marginalised or underrepresented, can be themselves at work. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website, and if you have any questions about our commitment to diversity and inclusion do get in touch: https://www.warchild.org.uk/our-work/policies-and-reports/diversity-and-inclusion

Pre-employment Checks

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check
• a clear vetting and Due Diligence check
• receipt of two professional satisfactory references