Head of HR Operations

City of Edinburgh Council; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Job summary

A public sector organization is seeking a Head of HR Operations in Edinburgh. This role involves leading HR Operations Teams, ensuring compliance in high-volume transactions, and driving best practices. The ideal candidate will possess strong leadership skills and experience in managing HR operations to deliver excellent customer service. The position offers a salary range of £77,845 - £93,154 and is subject to pre-employment checks.

Qualifications

• Experience in leading HR operations teams.
• Strong understanding of payroll and employee benefits.
• Proven track record of driving continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead HR Operations Teams to deliver customer service.
• Manage the compliance of HR transactions and processes.
• Contribute to the People Strategy across HR disciplines.

Skills

Customer service excellence

Leadership

HR operations management

Compliance knowledge

Job description

Head of HR Operations

Location: Waverley Court

Salary: £77,845 - £93,154

Hours: 36 per week, 52 weeks

About the role

We have a fantastic opportunity for someone to join the City of Edinburgh Council as our Head of HR Operations. As a key member of the HR Leadership Team, you will be responsible for leading our HR Operations Teams to deliver excellent customer service to our colleagues, ensuring a "getting it right first time" approach to high-volume transactions across the employee life cycle and complex front-line HR customer service. Our HR Operations Team provides first-line advice, support, and guidance for our colleagues and line managers on all aspects of transactional HR and the effective operation of a complex payroll (c.£800M for 20,000 colleagues), pensions, and employee benefits. The team also plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving HR systems while upholding the integrity and consistency of HR operations across the Council.
Essentially, this service aims to empower both employees and our managers by delivering essential support and resources. Serving as the first point of contact for all HR-related inquiries and issues, this service ensures that every employee has immediate access to crucial information regarding policies, benefits, payroll, and onboarding processes.
You will be responsible for leading these services, driving best practice and continuous improvement, harnessing technology to enhance efficiency and ensure full compliance with our policies, legislation, and statutory obligations. As a member of the HR Leadership Team, you will contribute to the development and delivery of our People Strategy across HR disciplines to ensure we are delivering a service that exceeds customer expectations.
This position is subject to Standard Disclosure check. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.

Our Commitment

We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation. As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we're bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work. To help achieve this, we're changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working. You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page Our Behaviours - The City of Edinburgh Council.

Additional Details

Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range.
Happy to talk flexible working.
Follow us on X at @edincounciljobs.
Interviews are scheduled to take place on 21 January 2026.