Deputy Chief People Officer
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Go back Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Deputy Chief People Officer

The closing date is 01 October 2025

We are seeking a Deputy Chief People Officer to join the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire. If you are a compassionate, collaborative, and innovative senior People professional, we hope this role will be of interest to you.

The UHN Group includes Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, with a combined turnover of around £900M and 11,000 employees. Together, KGH and NGH serve a population of two million people. As a university teaching hospital, we focus on teaching, research, and developing strong academic partnerships to improve patient outcomes and create exciting opportunities for colleagues.

As a member of the senior People team, the Deputy Chief People Officer plays a key role in leading the delivery of the UHN People strategy. You will act as a role model for organisational values and behaviours, supporting the Chief People Officer in leadership and people management across UHN.

Main duties of the job

There are two deputy roles - this role leads on workforce planning and resourcing, performance and productivity and business partnering. As the Deputy CPO Workforce, you will work closely with your counterpart who leads on culture, learning and development and OD/inclusion. With a wide-ranging portfolio including strategy, policy, and transformation, you will ensure the People directorate's structure and functions support the organisation's strategic and performance priorities by developing high levels of workforce engagement and performance.

At UHN, we aim to make tomorrow better than today for our patients and colleagues. Through compassionate, inclusive leadership, we will create a positive environment for all. Transforming our services and using digital solutions to optimise staff experience will be critical to our success. If you share our core values, have a passion for improving the working lives of all colleagues, and want to make a difference, this could be the role for you.

About us

Please submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close adverts once we have received sufficient applications

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is on an exciting journey with all of our divisions committed to doing things better, with more efficiency as we update, modernise, and advance. We have also entered a Group Model with neighbouring Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust and become University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN). As part of this collaborative approach, there may be a requirement for you to work across both the Kettering and Northampton hospital sites, depending on the needs of the service.

Our Excellence Values

• Compassion
• Accountability
• Respect
• Integrity
• Courage

We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across UHN and help to unleash everyone's full potential.

UHN encourages applications from people who identify with all protected groups. We understand that we need to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and make sure the environment they work in is inclusive and collaborative.

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Silver Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme.

We have active Networks that promote and support colleagues from all backgrounds. This ensures everyone feels supported and has a sense of belonging working for UHN.

Job responsibilities

For a full list of all roles and responsibilities, please see the attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Education,Training and Qualifications

• Educated to Masters level with a degree or equivalent experience and competencies or extensive relevant senior experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development including management studies to Masters level or above or equivalent experience
• Membership of an appropriate professional body - FCIPD Knowledge / experience
• Qualified at practitioner level of a recognised programme/project management methodology

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of senior complex leadership in Human Resources practice ideally in the Public or not for Profit Sector
• Experience of providing strategic and technical HR&OD advice to the NHS or comparable organisations
• Track record of delivery at Director/Senior management level, including exposure at Board
• Track record of delivering large scale change and knowledge of quality improvement methodologies and evidence
• Tactical understanding of employment law issues
• Experience of large budget management
• Experience of making relationships with national bodies, higher educational institutions and system partners and a track record of gaining support and investment
• Track record of delivering large scale change and knowledge of quality improvement methodologies and evidence

Skills

• Able to interpret extremely complex and multifaceted data and information to inform decision making at Executive level
• Able to take difficult and challenging decisions that support strategic aims and long-term vision
• Lead a team successfully
• Experience of building staff capacity and capability

Key Competencies/Personal Qualities and Attributes

• Maintain and positive 'can do' sense of confidence
• A high degree of self-awareness of own emotions, the impact on the emotions and behaviours of others and being sensitive to the needs, values and beliefs of others in personal interactions
• Desire to make a real difference to people's health and to the working lives of staff so they can contribute to and/or deliver an excellent patient experience.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Address

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire

£109,179 to £125,637 a year Per Annum / Pro Rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working, Home or remote working

Reference number

264-#######-COR

Job locations

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire