Senior People Partner

Location Hybrid Didcot, UK 2 days in our Harwell Office minimum - the team anchor day is a Monday

Seniority Senior

• Closing:5:00pm, 20th Feb 2026 GMT

Work from home option

Life Insurance

Wellness programs

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Sabbatical Opportunities

Salary sacrifice

Team social events

Extracurricular clubs

Cycle to work scheme

8.46 (2096)

Senior People Partner

Reports to: Director of People and Organisational Development

Direct reports: None at present

Office anchor day: Monday

The Context

The Satellite Applications Catapult (the Catapult) is at the forefront of the burgeoning UK Space Industry and focused on driving the sector's commercial growth. Our work is organised around three missions - Autonomous and Connected Earth (ACE), Sustainable Earth, and Beyond Earth - that concentrate our activities on the areas where we can deliver greatest impact. We help businesses realise their potential, those developing and providing space infrastructure, and those developing applications that rely on it.

The Catapult has a twin role, operating as a neutral convener bringing projects, programmes and commercial opportunities to companies in the space sector and bringing space companies and capabilities to the attention of funders and commercial partners. We also use our expertise to deliver key programmes where we see a clear role for us to play.

Role Purpose To drive manager and leadership capability growth through effective partnering, coaching and L&D interventions, in turn supporting the organisations cultural growth and consistency of a positive and productive employee experience.

This role is a key part of the People Team and is the identified successor to the Director of People & Organisational Development.

Key Outcomes

Leadership and manager capability is measurably strengthened across the organisation

Employee engagement, wellbeing and organisational effectiveness are integrated and productive

Organisational design evolves to support current need and anticipated future need

Complex ER cases are well managed and become learning and improvement opportunities

Critical Competencies Required (for all competencies needed please review the role and technical competency maps)

Strong technical HR expertise with the ability to apply that across unique situations on a risk-based approach

Strategic and tactical business partnering combined with commercial understanding

Strategic workforce planning and capability building

Data analysis ability leading to strategy development around key insights

Advanced collaboration capability to lead and generate joint solutions

Advanced communication skills to create strong connection and positive outcomes

Leadership coaching to create capability and inclusivity

Advanced personal effectiveness and delivery skills, modelling proactivity, adaptability and resilience

About us & how we work:

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work. This helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this:

We care- for our people, our partners, and our planet

We connect- and engage with people and ideas

We learn- and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams. Our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual, providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us.

This job description set outs the purpose and competencies we consider are needed for the role. If you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

We offer a hybrid policy which is designed around collaboration, one 'anchor' day per week working with your direct team and another flexible day per week to be spent collaborating or working with other colleagues.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult.

At Satellite Applications Catapult, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. We welcome candidates from all corners of the globe, but due to legal and logistical considerations, we want to be transparent about the potential visa-related challenges that could arise. Our ability to offer sponsorship will depend on the level of interest for our roles and salary level.

If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.