Reference: CBC26025
Salary details: £41,771 to £45,091 per annum
Job term: permanent
Appointment type: full time
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: Town Hall with hybrid working (2 to 3 days per week in the office)
Department: Human Resources
CBC26025 - Job description and person specification.
If you would like an accessible version of a job description then please contact the Human Resources team.
Candidates must possess the necessary right to work authorisation to enable them to work for Chesterfield Borough Council. Regrettably, we are unable to provide sponsorship or assume sponsorship of an employment visa at this juncture.
Join Chesterfield Borough Council as our HR operations manager and play a key role in delivering a high-quality, responsive HR service. You’ll lead the day-to-day operation of core HR processes and provide excellent support to managers and employees ensuring our systems, data, payroll interfaces and ways of working are efficient, compliant and customer focused.
About the role
As our HR operations manager, you’ll manage the end-to-end delivery of HR operational services, ensuring timely, accurate and consistent support across the employee lifecycle. You’ll lead and develop the HR operations team, oversee service standards and workload planning, and drive continuous improvement making it easier for managers and employees to do the right thing, first time.
In this role, you’ll focus on the following priorities:
- lead the day-to-day delivery of HR operational services, ensuring responsive, accurate and customer-focused support for managers and employees.
- oversee core HR processes across the employee lifecycle (including onboarding, contract changes and leavers), maintaining high standards of accuracy, confidentiality and compliance.
- manage HR systems, data quality and management information, using insight to improve service performance and support good decision-making.
- maintain effective working relationships with payroll and key stakeholders to ensure smooth end-to-end processes and timely resolution of queries.
- lead, coach and develop the HR operations team, embedding clear ways of working, service standards and a culture of continuous improvement.
About you
You’ll be an organised and service-driven HR professional who enjoys improving how things work. You’ll be confident leading a team, setting clear priorities and ensuring high-quality, consistent outcomes balancing pace with accuracy, customer care and attention to detail.
You’ll also be able to demonstrate:
- significant experience in an HR operation, HR advisory or shared services environment, with a track record of delivering high-quality HR processes and customer service.
- proven ability to lead, develop and motivate a team, manage competing priorities and maintain service standards under pressure.
- strong working knowledge of HR systems and data management, with experience improving processes, guidance and user experience.
- excellent attention to detail, with confidence producing and using management information to monitor performance, identify issues and drive improvements.
Why join us?
This is a great opportunity to lead a core service that supports every part of the organisation. You’ll work with a friendly team and a wide range of colleagues to improve service delivery, streamline processes and strengthen confidence in HR support with visible impact for employees, managers and the communities we serve.
As an employee of Chesterfield Borough Council, you will have access to a variety of employee benefits including hybrid working, competitive leave entitlement, the local government pension scheme and access to a range of staff discounts and flexible benefits schemes.
If you would like an informal chat about the role before applying, please contact Rachael Radford, Head of HR & Payroll, at Rachael.Radford@chesterfield.gov.uk.
How to apply
Interested candidates should initially apply with their CV and a covering letter stating the job title, and clearly demonstrating suitability and experience for the role. Please send it to hrjobs@chesterfield.gov.uk no later than the closing date shown below.
If you don't already have a CV you can use our template below. We also have advice about how to write your cover letter.
| CV Template |  (Word 52 KB) |
Closing date: 17 May 2026
Provisional interview date: week commencing 25 May 2026