As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is a special place to work. We’re an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history.
We’ve set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive - a different kind of cultural and heritage institution: Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won’t become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring.
That’s where you come in. Because we can’t do this without you.
Job Overview
Recruitment stage: External
Salary: £64,178
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment for 12 months
Band: H / Grade 6
Closing date: Monday 23rd November at midnight
Shape our future workforce. Help our people thrive. Turn ambition into lasting change.
About the role
As Head of Workforce Strategy and Transformation, you will help shape the people, skills and capabilities The National Archives needs for the future and turn that vision into action. Reporting to the People Director, you will shape and deliver our future workforce plan, connecting our ambitions with practical plans for our people, in line with our strategy and financial plans.
You will bring together performance, talent, leadership development and learning, leading a small specialist team to help people and the organisation grow. Working across organisational boundaries, you will guide complex change, advise senior leaders and use workforce insight to make better decisions. Throughout, your focus will be on making change work for people, with inclusive practice and employee experience at the heart of what you do.
About you
This role will suit someone who sees the bigger picture and enjoys making things happen. You are curious about how organisations work, thoughtful about what people need to succeed and motivated by turning complex challenges into a clear way forward. Drawing on your experience of workforce strategy, organisational change and developing people services, you will enjoy connecting long-term ambitions with practical improvements that colleagues can see and feel.
You enjoy bringing people together, building trust and helping others do their best work. You are comfortable exploring the evidence, asking constructive questions and working with senior leaders to find a way forward — then rolling up your sleeves to help deliver it. If you like combining strategic thinking with hands-on leadership, and want to make people development and inclusive change part of everyday organisational life, this could be the role for you.
Why apply?
This is a chance to do more than write a strategy: you will help put it into practice. With a remit spanning workforce planning, organisational change and people development, you can connect decisions about our future with the experience of colleagues today. As part of the People, Inclusion and Change Senior Leadership Team, you will work directly with senior decision-makers and fellow heads of department to shape priorities and deliver change together.
This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department.
A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.
Application process:
We ask all applicants to supply work history details and a supporting statement, not exceeding 1000 words.
Selection for interview will be based on the Essential Criteria listed in the job description below so please ensure that your application demonstrates in detail how you meet these requirements.
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…