Head of Learning and Organisational Development

Do you want to work on one of the most exciting transformation projects in the public sector?

The Defence Housing Service (DHS) is being created through the Armed Forces Bill to deliver a step-change in housing for the UK’s Armed Forces and their families following the publication of the Defence Housing Strategy on 3 November 2025, which marked the most significant change to Armed Forces housing in over 50 years. DHS will bring a dedicated focus to improving the homes, communities and lived experience of Service personnel, placing families firmly at the heart of everything it does.

This is one of the most ambitious housing transformation programmes in the UK today. Backed by a £9.2 billion investment, DHS will modernise tens of thousands of homes, introduce a more proactive and customer-focused approach to maintenance, and unlock new opportunities to develop housing on Defence land. DHS will have the focus and agility to deliver change at pace, combining public service values with greater flexibility to build the skills, systems and partnerships needed for the future.

This is a rare opportunity to be part of shaping its culture, influencing how it works, and helping deliver lasting improvements for Service families across the UK.

The Defence Housing team is currently part of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), who respond to the evolving needs of our military personnel, and the ways in which they live, work, train and deploy. We are proud to be the expert partner Defence needs for all their infrastructure requirements. From large scale infrastructure projects such as runways for the F35 fighter jets to net carbon-zero accommodation for our Service families, our activities focus relentlessly on our customers, and our outputs are unique in the UK and across the globe! DIO , What we deliver every day.

The future delivery model for this team is currently under review and may change as part of potential organisational developments. This could include the team or function transferring to a different employer or organisational structure in the future. Should activities transfer out of the Ministry of Defence existing employees transferring with those activities will maintain the same or substantially the same terms and conditions of employment.

Reporting to the HR Director, the Head of Learning and Organisational Development is responsible for leading the development and implementation of building organisational capabilities, skills enhancement, behaviours, and culture. This role is pivotal in translating organisational strategy into people and capability initiatives that foster a positive and high-performing organisational culture.

Supporting colleagues, people managers, and leaders across the organisation, you will ensure the delivery of a range of learning and development interventions that equip the workforce with the skills, capabilities, behaviours, and ways of working needed to achieve our strategic priorities and people ambitions.

As Head of Learning and Organisational Development, you will be a visionary and strategic leader with a genuine passion for people development and organisational growth. You will be highly empathetic, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and able to build strong and credible relationships at all levels of the organisation.

A strong background in learning and organisational development, leadership coaching, and culture transformation will be essential, alongside the ability to lead and deliver change in a dynamic environment. As a natural influencer, you will champion inclusion and diversity, creating an environment where people feel valued, motivated, and empowered to succeed. Resilient and adaptable, you will thrive in a fast-paced setting and bring a solutions-focused approach to developing high-performing teams and driving organisational success.

What you’ll be doing;

• Lead the development and implementation of the Learning and Organisational Development strategy, aligned to the DHS Business Plan.
• Drive organisational capability and skills development through informed interventions that support business priorities to build high-performance teams and effective ways of working
• Champion and embed organisational culture change, creating a clear and compelling vision that supports DHS objectives.
• Lead organisational capability assessments and skills needs analysis to identify current and future workforce requirements.
• Develop leadership and management capability through targeted development programmes, interventions, and succession planning.
• Establish and enhance early talent pathways, including apprenticeships, graduate schemes, and Fast Stream programmes.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Learning and Organisational Development professionals, fostering an inclusive and engaging culture.
• Act as a trusted adviser to senior leaders, providing insight, challenge, and expertise on people development, capability, and employee experience.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement across learning, organisational development, and culture initiatives to deliver long-term organisational success.
• Champion diversity, inclusion, wellbeing, and belonging, ensuring these principles are embedded throughout organisational development and culture programmes.

Whilst this role is advertised as a full-time position of 37 hours per week, we recognise the benefits of flexible working and are open to discussing part-time hours, job share arrangements, or other flexible working patterns with suitable candidates. Regular in person attendance is required (this is expected to be approximately 60% of your working week) to promote the benefits of face-to-face collaboration alongside flexibility of hours to support work-life balance and business need. Initially, you may be expected to attend more frequently to familiarise yourselves with the site, the team, and your role.

Chartered membership with CIPD or CIPD Level 7 qualification

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Your application will go through the following stages of assessment:

At sift stage, applicants will be required to provide:

• A CV in the Job History section, ensuring it clearly demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. We encourage you to use specific evidence from your experience to illustrate your suitability for the role.
• A personal statement (no more than 500 words) providing specific examples of how you meet the top two most critical criteria in the person specification. Further guidance is given within the Personal Statement section of the application.

Applications will be assessed against the essential criteria, with each criterion scored on a scale of 1 to 7. An overall score will then be calculated using the average of all criterion scores. To progress beyond the sift stage, applicants must achieve a minimum score of 4 on every essential criterion. This means that even if your overall average score is 4 or higher, you will not progress if you score below 4 on any individual essential criterion.

Please note that, in the event of a high volume of applications, the selection panel reserves the right to increase the overall pass mark.

At interview, you will be assessed against the following behaviours:

• Behaviour 1: Seeing the Big Picture - this will be in the format of a 10 minute presentation
• Behaviour 2: Leadership
• Behaviour 3: Communicating and Influencing
• Behaviour 4: Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviour 5: Making effective decisions

In the event of a tie at interview, candidates will be ranked according to their scores in the assessed behaviours, in the order listed above.

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates or locations for interviews.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.