People Operations Manager (fixed term up to 12 months)

Why apply for this role?

This is an exciting time to join Children’s Hearings Scotland. We’re on an ambitious journey of reform, organisational redesign and continuous improvement, all with one purpose – improving outcomes for infants, children and young people across Scotland. People are central to making that happen.

We’re looking for an experienced, forward-thinking People Operations Manager to lead our operational people function and help shape how we support, develop and enable our people for the future.

This isn’t simply about keeping the day-to-day running smoothly (although that’s important too). It’s about bringing fresh thinking, challenging the status quo, building capability, improving services and helping us create an exceptional colleague experience across the organisation.

If you enjoy leading teams, influencing senior leaders, solving complex people challenges and turning ideas into practical improvements, we’d love to hear from you.

Your role

Reporting to the Director of People & Culture, you’ll lead our People Operations team, providing high-quality advice, guidance and support across the full employee lifecycle.

You’ll work closely with leaders across CHS, helping them navigate people matters while building confidence, capability and consistency.

Alongside operational leadership, you’ll play a key role in delivering our People Strategy and wider organisational priorities, including involvement in programme work associated with our future reform and redesign planning.

You’ll help shape projects that strengthen organisational culture, develop leadership capability, improve employee experience and modernise how we deliver people services.

As we continue to evolve, you’ll also help foster positive and collaborative employee relations, building trusted relationships across the organisation and supporting the development of constructive partnership working. No two days will look the same.

One day you might be coaching a senior manager through an employment issue. The next you could be leading a strategic workforce planning discussion, reviewing people data to inform decision-making, redesigning a policy, or helping deliver organisation-wide change.

About you

You’re someone who combines excellent employment law knowledge with curiosity, pragmatism and a passion for making organisations better places to work.

You’ll be an experienced HR professional who enjoys balancing operational delivery with strategic thinking and who is comfortable working across a broad and varied people agenda.

You’ll bring:

• significant experience leading operational People or HR functions
• excellent knowledge of employment legislation and employee relations
• experience developing policies and improving people processes
• the ability to coach, influence and build trusted relationships with senior leaders
• experience leading and developing high-performing teams
• confidence using insight and data to inform decisions and improve services
• experience of working collaboratively with employee representatives, recognised trade unions or partnership forums
• enthusiasm for innovation, continuous improvement and modern ways of working.

Most importantly, you’ll share our commitment to creating a positive, inclusive and values-led culture where people can do their very best work.

Life at CHS

At Children’s Hearings Scotland, our highly trained Panel Members make decisions for Scotland’s unique Children’s Hearings System that upholds and promotes the rights of infants, children and young people. Our 2,500 volunteer Panel Members take part in children’s hearings in their local areas, making decisions with and for infants, children and young people. Our organisation also supports a network of Area Support Teams throughout Scotland who support Panel Members in their local communities.

As an organisation that works within the Children’s Hearings System, we are passionate about making a positive contribution to improving outcomes for Scotland’s infants, children and young people.

You can read more about our core values on our website as well as view an introductory video to our organisation. We also offer a generous benefits package from hybrid working to flexi hours and a fantastic pension scheme – check out our full benefits summary.

Diversity and Inclusion

CHS is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We actively encourage applicants from all protected characteristics and are committed to providing any reasonable adjustments required during the application and assessment process, and upon joining us.

Hybrid working and working pattern

This is a hybrid role and will involve being 'on-site' at our CHS Head Office an average of two days per week, it may be more on some weeks. This will be dictated by business needs.

Our CHS Head Office is based in Thistle House, Haymarket, Edinburgh.

The standard working week is Monday to Friday but the role may on occasion require a level of evening and weekend work in line with business needs.

How do I apply?

For more details and to apply, please download the application pack from the CHS website which includes a full job description, a person specification and the link to application.

Please note that CVs are not accepted.

If you would like to discuss any different working requirements or adjustments you may require throughout the recruitment and selection process please contact the email provided on the advert on our website.

Closing Date: Sunday 16 August 2026

After the closing date, this role profile won’t be available on our website, so please save a copy when you apply.

It is anticipated that interviews will be held W/C 24 August 2026