Senior HR Advisor
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
- Department
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
- Location
- Salisbury
- Openings
- 1 post
- Grade
- SEO
- Salary
- £40,224 to £45,545
- Closing
- 13 days left
- Profession
- Administration
- Contract
- Permanent
- Security clearance
- SC
- Working pattern
- Flexible working, Full-time
Job summary
As a Senior HR Advisor you will deliver high-quality, business-aligned HR advice and support across HR Business Services.
You will work flexibly across key areas of the employee lifecycle, including Reward, Learning and Development, Recruitment, Employee Relations, Wellbeing, Talent, Emerging Talent and Employee Engagement.
You will provide generalist HR advice and support to managers, employees and stakeholders, enabling effective people management, organisational performance and consistent service delivery.
Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.
What they’re looking for
- We are looking for someone who has strong stakeholder engagement, sound judgement, the ability to manage competing priorities and a commitment to delivering a consistent, high-quality HR service across Business Services.
- You will have previous experience providing generalist HR advice and support across a range of people-related matters.
- For more information on the essential criteria, please see the job profile attached below.
- Important Information:
- Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats.
- For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.
- This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.
Behaviours you’ll be assessed on
This advert says the panel will score you against these behaviours at SEO level. Each one links to worked examples.
Job description
You will contribute to the design, delivery and continuous improvement of HR activity, ensuring services are inclusive, legally compliant, aligned to Civil Service frameworks and responsive to business need.
In this you will be involved in the following:
- HR advice and service delivery
- Programme, project policy support
- Stakeholder engagement and relationship management
- Data insight and continuous improvement
- Service quality and delivery
For more information on the job responsibilities, please see the job profile attached below.
Nationality requirements
Open to UK nationals only.
This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.
Selection process
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.
At the application stage, we will assess your submitted application against the essential criteria set out in the job profile.
Sifting will take place week commencing 12th October 2026 with interviews to held face to face at Dstl Porton Down between 2nd - 4th November 2026. Interviews will consist of behavioural and technical competency-based questions.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Practise before you apply
Civil Service panels score every answer against the Success Profiles behaviours at SEO level. Practise STAR answers and get them marked against the same framework.
3 free questions · No card needed
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