Senior People Services Manager

As our Senior People Services Manager, you’ll lead the day-to-day heartbeat of People Services and make sure every colleague has a smooth, supportive and high-quality experience throughout their time with us.

You’ll be the person who keeps things running brilliantly: setting the pace for operational delivery, supporting managers with confidence, and making sure our processes are simple, clear and compliant – ensuring delivery through an experienced and high-performing People Services Team. You’ll work closely with People & Culture, Finance, IT and leaders across the charity to drive a consistent, joined up service that helps people do their best work.

This is a hands-on leadership role partnering with People & Culture leadership and peers to drive the People Strategy and foster a high-performance, inclusive culture. You’ll shape how we deliver People Services, spotting ways to improve, simplify and modernise what we do. You’ll lead a team covering critical activity relating to all stages of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding, contracts, HR systems and data, payroll oversight, policies and employee relations, and you’ll be the operational authority and escalation point for complex or high-risk issues.

Some of the work you and your team will be getting involved in includes:

• Leading and developing the People Services & Payroll team so they have clarity, support and space to thrive.
• Making sure onboarding, contracts, and offboarding all run smoothly and consistently, with a great colleague experience.
• Overseeing HR systems and data to maintain accuracy, insight and compliance.
• Working with People Experience & Communications colleagues to refresh and embed people policies in a way that feels simple and supportive and encourages co-creation.
• Coaching managers on inclusive, confident people leadership and helping them handle tricky issues with care and clarity.
• Taking the lead on complex employee relations cases, change processes or emerging risks, and ensuring we handle things fairly and consistently.
• Driving continuous improvement - whether that’s simplifying a workflow, introducing a digital tool, or building capability across the organisation.
• Providing operational insight to support strategy, planning, resourcing and decision-making at leadership level.

This is an influential role with real scope to strengthen how our People Services function supports the organisation every day.

We’re looking for someone who brings a blend of operational confidence, sound judgement, people leadership and a passion for improving how things work and who is comfortable and able to thrive in a fast-paced and reactive enabling function.

The ideal candidate will bring:

• Strong HR operations experience at a senior level, with CIPD Level 5 or equivalent knowledge.
• Expertise in employee relations, including handling complex or sensitive cases with fairness, clarity and confidence.
• Experience overseeing payroll operations and HR systems, with a practical understanding of data accuracy, GDPR and people metrics.
• A natural adaptability to changing priorities and an ability to build trust and influence across all levels - someone who can coach managers, support colleagues and work in partnership with senior leaders.
• A continuous improvement mindset: you enjoy simplifying processes, solving problems and creating clarity – and you naturally collaborate and take the team with you on journeys of change rather than imposing a singular view.
• Experience leading or developing a team, with a supportive, inclusive and empowering approach.
• Strong organisational skills - you can juggle priorities, manage workflow pressures and keep the team focused on what matters most.
• A balanced blend of empathy and pragmatism, with a confident, solution focused approach to decision-making.
• A genuine belief in the role People Services plays in creating a positive, high performing organisation.

You’ll thrive here if you enjoy improving systems, supporting people, leading a committed team and making day-to-day People services work brilliantly.

Every man needs to know about the most common cancer in men – prostate cancer. It’s a real and present danger that takes over 12,000 of our dads, grandads, brothers and friends each year.

Prostate Cancer UK is the largest men’s health charity in the UK. We have a simple ambition – to stop prostate cancer damaging lives. We invest millions in research to revolutionise testing, treatment and care. We’re blazing a trail to a screening programme that could save thousands of lives with regular, accurate tests for all men at risk. And we work tirelessly to spread the word about risk and offer specialist support to people living with the disease.

Work with us and you’ll see your efforts pay off as we give men and their families the power to navigate prostate cancer.

Join our team and be part of an award-winning charity. We’ll support you to develop your skills and expertise.

We offer a

• Generous leave entitlements that increase with service
• One ‘development day’ a month to use for training or personal development
• Enhanced contributory pension scheme
• Voluntary Critical Illness cover
• Life insurance and group income protection
• Health Cash Plan
• Life and wellbeing advice and support via our Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounted gym membership and high street shopping discounts
• Loans for season tickets or cycles

This role is in salary Band 5, with a starting salary of £48,600 to £57,200* per year. We aim to be a median paying organisation in the charity sector. Following 12 months of successful service, colleagues will move to the midpoint of the pay band. The midpoint salary for this role is £57,200*.

*We are awaiting the outcome of a pay review in April 2026 and advertised salaries will be updated accordingly.

Our salaries reflect that the London office is our contractual place of work. We also pay a working-from-home allowance at the HMRC tax-free rate of £312 per year.

We are committed to paying at least the London Living Wage for all roles and apply the updated rate each April.

At Prostate Cancer UK we’re committed to righting health inequalities across the UK, starting with those faced by Black men. This includes funding ground-breaking research into Black men's risk and working with communities directly to overcome barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. To make this happen, we're dedicated to being an inclusive, proactive organisation, as we strive to be Allies to Black communities. We’ll achieve this by advocating and working alongside those communities to promote change. We're also working to be Allies to each other, not only protected groups. In 2024, we launched our New Allyship Training Programme. All colleagues at Prostate Cancer UK will be trained to act and identify as an Ally.

We've also signed Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter, as a dedication to our Black health equity work and wider EDI priorities. As a signatory, we're responsible and accountable for driving positive change.

We’re continuously learning more about the needs of our colleagues, and have three amazing People Networks, sponsored by our Leadership team:

• Pride – A safe space where LGBTQ+ colleagues – and our allies – can share their diverse lived experiences, celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and history, and create new ideas about how our organisation can be more inclusive and representative of LGBTQ+ people
• Mind and Body – Here to increase awareness, promote wellbeing and support colleagues affected by neurodiversity, mental health problems, disability and long-term illness
• Culture Club – Here to increase awareness and celebrate the different cultures and beliefs that we have in the organisation, so that we all have our cultures felt and feel welcomed

Colleagues attend the office

Additional in-person attendance will be required during your first few months for induction and training, to support you to learn the role and get to know colleagues.

We trust colleagues to work flexibly while balancing personal commitments with the needs of the charity, and we are committed to making reasonable adjustments for colleagues with a disability, neurodiversity, or a long-term physical or mental health condition.

Many of our jobs can be worked flexibly and/or part-time, so if you are interested in applying for this role but on a slightly different work pattern than advertised, please do apply and open this conversation with us.

For more information about the role, please download the job description and follow the prompts below, which include the key points to address in your application. To apply click the ‘apply now’ button at the top or bottom of the page which will take you through to our application portal.

• First Interviews (online): currently scheduled for the week of 20 April 2026.
• Meet the team (online): currently scheduled for the week of 27 April 2026
• Final interviews (in-person at our London Bridge office): currently scheduled for the week of 6 May 2026

To complete your application, you’ll be asked to upload your CV and complete an application by answering an initial question, and then completing parts one and two as outlined below.

You may find it helpful to use a method such as the ‘

This section is your opportunity to demonstrate how your knowledge, skills, and experience match the role. The information you provide will be used to assess and shortlist applications and you’ll be scored against how you respond to these points.

• Demonstrable expertise in employee relations, with sound judgement in complex casework (address in the initial question)
• Experience of managing or overseeing payroll and/or HR operations systems with a focus on driving continuous improvement
• Confident sharing and applying my knowledge on a practical level to affect and influence decision making at all levels within an organisation (including at senior leadership level)
• Experience of developing and managing an HRIS and producing and analysing reports and data to drive improvements.
• Experience of line managing a team, and/or of coaching and supporting less experienced colleagues.

This provides you with an opportunity to further support your application, showcase your understanding of the role and show how you feel you’ll be able to contribute to the success of Prostate Cancer UK.

Apply via the apply now link at the top and bottom of this page where you’ll be taken through to our career portal.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Prostate Cancer UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1005541) and in Scotland (SC039332). Registered company number 02653887.