Location: Greenwich, Avery Hill and Medway Campuses
Salary: Competitive
ReleaseDate: Tuesday 24 June 2025
ClosingDate: Monday 21 July 2025
Reference: 5002
The University of Greenwich is proud of its heritage, impact and mission to transform lives through education. With a diverse and vibrant community, and a growing reputation for research, enterprise and student success, we are on an exciting journey to become the best modern university in the UK by 2030.
To support this ambition, we are seeking an experienced and values-driven Deputy Director of People to help lead and shape the future of our People Directorate.
The Role
The Deputy Director of People will provide high-level operational and strategic leadership across key areas of the People Directorate. Reporting to the Executive Director of People, the postholder will hold direct line management responsibility for four Senior People Business Partners and the Head of Employee Relations, Change and Business Analytics.
The roleholder will be responsible for leading and enhancing the university's approach to people management, supporting effective business partnering, driving forward change and transformation programmes, and ensuring robust employee relations frameworks are in place. The role will also have oversight of data-led insight and analytics to support informed decision-making across the institution.
As a key member of the People Directorate Senior Management Team, the Deputy Director will contribute to the development and delivery of our people strategy, support the continual improvement of directorate-wide services, and promote a culture of partnership, trust and service excellence.
About You
We are seeking an individual with significant senior HR leadership experience in a complex organisation, ideally within the public or higher education sector. The successful candidate will bring a proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, navigate organisational change, and build positive and productive relationships with senior stakeholders, including trade union representatives.
A sound knowledge of employment law, employee relations, strategic workforce planning and organisational development is essential. The role also requires excellent judgement, political awareness, and a collaborative, enabling leadership style aligned with our university's values and ethos.
Why Greenwich?
You will be joining a People Directorate of around 54 passionate and committed professionals who serve staff across the university with a focus on excellence, partnership and care. Our teams include People Business Partnering, People Operations, Staff Visa Compliance, Organisational and People Development (OPD), and Employee Relations, Change and Business Analytics.
We foster a culture of collaboration, wellbeing and continuous improvement. From team meetings and away days to wellbeing initiatives, we take pride in supporting our people and celebrating their achievements.
If you are excited by the opportunity to help shape a people-focused, inclusive and impactful university, we would love to hear from you.
For an informal discussion regarding this role, please contact our advising Research Associate, Edoardo Vachez ( ). Should you have any recruitment related queries or should you require access to these documents in alternative formats, please contactour advising Principal Project Manager, Simon Epsley ( ).
For details of the appointment, including further information about the job description, person specification and how to apply, please visit quoting reference 7944.
Employment Visa: Under the UK Government Points Based System scheme this role does meet the criteria to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker Route application.
We are looking for people who can help us deliver our mission of transforming lives through inspired teaching and research, through our values.
We are committed to building a strong, diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We particularly encourage applications from applicants with protected characteristic(s), who are currently under-represented within the University of Greenwich at these levels/within these areas.
We encourage applicants to disclose experience of mental health problems so we can support them fully during our recruitment process and make any necessary reasonable adjustments. Any information disclosed will be kept confidential and separate from the job application form.
We are making significant strides to understand and continuously improve our employees' experience and we are committed to implementing progressive diversity talent management.