Chief People Officer

We are supporting a well‑established, values‑led, multi‑regional organisation with the confidential appointment of a Chief People Officer (CPO) to provide strategic people and culture stewardship at Executive and Board level.

Reporting directly to the CEO, this role is central to ensuring the organisation has the people capability, safeguarding standards, leadership strength and cultural coherence required to deliver its mission safely, consistently and with impact across employees, volunteers and member‑led governance structures.

The Role

• Provide strategic people and culture stewardship, acting as the principal people adviser to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team
• Establish and lead an annual People Stewardship Cycle, including people plans, policy review schedules, key people and safeguarding risk reviews, and a structured reporting rhythm
• Deliver regular people dashboards and narrative insight to the CEO, covering workforce and volunteer trends, culture, employee relations, health & safety, safeguarding compliance and recruitment pipelines
• Clarify decision‑rights and delegations for people matters within a member‑led, decentralised organisation (national vs regional vs local)
• Ensure people policies and practices align with health & safety, safeguarding requirements, emerging best practice and organisational outcomes
• Partner closely with Safeguarding leads to embed safe recruitment, vetting, mandatory training, clear escalation routes and learning from incidents, and ensure HR case management and investigations meet best‑practice and governance standards
• Champion organisational development, culture and ways of working to build consistent, organisation‑wide standards across regions
• Define and assure a coherent learning and leadership framework, including induction, role‑based and mandatory training, safeguarding, leadership pathways, CPD and refresher learning
• Ensure learning systems (LMS / e‑learning) support staff and volunteer learning records with GDPR‑compliant tracking
• Strengthen leadership and succession capability across staff managers and volunteer leaders at regional and local levels
• Oversee the people experience and lifecycle, including attraction, development, retention, recognition, succession and exit, using data and feedback to drive improvement
• Build and use people analytics and insight to support evidence‑based decision‑making, risk mitigation and strategic delivery
• Represent the organisation externally on people practice, maintaining alignment with sector best practice, regulatory expectations and professional standards, and overseeing external HR and learning providers

Candidate Profile

This role will suit an experienced senior people leader who brings:

• Proven experience at CPO / Director / Head of HR level or equivalent
• Demonstrable background within public sector, charity, voluntary or other values‑driven organisations
• Credibility operating as a strategic partner to a CEO and Board
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, people risk, organisational development and complex governance environments
• Experience supporting multi‑regional or decentralised organisations
• A leadership style grounded in integrity, empathy, sound judgement and influence rather than control

Location & Working Model

The role is Dublin‑based, operating on a hybrid working model, with flexibility to support regional requirements.

Confidentiality

This appointment is being managed on a strictly confidential basis. Further details will be shared with suitably qualified candidates following an initial, discreet conversation.