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Head of Pay and Reward

On-site in Bristol·Full-time·Added today (last checked 16 Oct)

Ministry of Defence (MOD)

87 open roles

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Overview

Salary: £72,840 a year
About £4,400 a month after tax.
Contract: Full-time
Closing date: Apply by Friday 30 October
Holiday: 25 days holiday
Pension: 28.97% employer pension

Skills

Project Management

The role

Apply before 11:55 pm on Friday 30th October 2026

Details

Reference number

486161

Salary

£72,840

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Grade 6

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

MOD - National Armaments Directorate - Infrastructure - Defence Housing

Type of role

Human Resources
Property

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Number of jobs available

Location

Bristol, Lichfield, Andover

About the job

Job summary

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.

Job description

Reporting to the HR Director, this role provides strategic leadership for the development and delivery of DHS's pay, pensions and reward strategy, ensuring reward frameworks support the attraction, retention and development of a highly skilled workforce. As Head of Pay and Reward, you will lead the design of grading structures, benefits and incentive frameworks that align with organisational priorities, support transformation and deliver long-term workforce sustainability.

Working closely with senior leaders across DHS, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Defence Business Services (DBS), you will shape reward strategies using workforce insight and market intelligence, while ensuring alignment with the wider government people agenda.

You will influence and advise senior stakeholders on reward and recognition, balancing strategic ambition, affordability and business need to support organisational performance, cultural change and the development of specialist housing capability.

What you'll be doing;

Develop and lead the implementation of a new pay, pensions and reward strategy and framework for the organisation. This will include designing grading structures, reviewing benchmarking data to determine appropriate pay levels, developing pay progression approaches, and ensuring reward supports the wider people strategy and organisational objectives.
Lead the annual pay settlement process for the entire workforce, including employees protected under TUPE arrangements and new hires. This includes leading pay negotiations with recognised Trade Unions, developing pay proposals and preparing business cases for consideration by the DHS Executive Committee, DHS Board and DHS Remuneration Committee.
Lead the development and delivery of the DHS Employee Value Proposition, including colleague benefits, reward, recognition, incentives and discount schemes that support attraction, retention and employee engagement.
Contribute to and lead people projects across the HR function, ensuring the delivery of customer-focused, housing-aligned and value-added people solutions, while acting as a visible leader and ambassador for the People function.
Lead and develop a small team of pay and reward professionals, ensuring the consistent and effective delivery of pay, pensions and reward activities in line with organisational priorities and governance requirements.
Lead the preparation and submission of annual diversity pay gap reports, using data and insight to identify trends, inform interventions and support improved workforce outcomes.
Enable the strategic and operational use of workforce data, people analytics and customer insight to inform reward decisions, shape people strategy and drive organisational performance.
Work closely with senior HR colleagues to ensure pay, pensions and reward strategies support the wider People Strategy and organisational transformation agenda.
Lead benchmarking and market analysis activities, providing senior stakeholders with expert advice, insight and evidence-based recommendations on reward and recognition trends and emerging practice.
Act as the strategic point of contact for Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, Defence Business Services and other external stakeholders on pay, pensions and reward matters. Maintain oversight of reward-related contracts and services, ensuring value for money and alignment with business requirements.
Develop and deliver clear and effective reward communications and engagement activity for a range of audiences. Build and maintain constructive relationships with recognised Trade Unions, consulting and negotiating as required alongside the HR Director.
Collaborate with colleagues across HR and Communications to ensure reward frameworks are understood, effectively implemented and aligned with organisational priorities.

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.

Person specification

To be successful with your application, you'll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria:

Significant knowledge and experience of pay, pensions and reward, including the design and implementation of reward strategies, pay progression frameworks, performance-related reward approaches and pension arrangements.
Strong analytical and interpretive skills, with a proven ability to use complex data, market insight and evidence to develop well-reasoned reward recommendations and influence decision-making at senior leadership level.
Experience of leading pay and reward functions through annual pay review cycles, organisational change and continuous improvement initiatives, delivering high-quality outcomes in complex environments.
Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage, challenge and advise senior leaders, Trade Unions and a wide range of stakeholders, presenting complex information clearly and persuasively.
Proven experience of budget, programme and project management, with the ability to lead and prioritise a portfolio of reward activities, balancing strategic objectives, financial constraints and operational requirements to deliver compliant and high-quality outcomes.
Experience of leading complex negotiations and building effective relationships with Trade Unions, senior stakeholders and external partners to deliver successful organisational outcomes.

Qualifications

Chartered membership with CIPD or CIPD Level 7 qualification

Memberships

CIPD Membership

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Leadership
Communicating and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions
Changing and Improving
Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £72,840, Ministry of Defence contributes £21,101 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

25 days' annual leave plus one day a year up to 30 days after five years, and eight bank holidays
An extra day off to honour the sovereign's birthday
Flexible and hybrid working wherever possible to support your work-life balance - attending site a few days each week will be required and encouraged, depending on your role and team.
Market-leading employer pension contribution of around 28.97%
Enhanced parental leave schemes
Recognition awards
Access to specialist training and funded professional qualifications
Support for progression
Huge range of discounts - plus more!

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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 for the role. 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: Leadership
Behaviour 2: Communicating and Influencing
Behaviour 3: Making effective decisions
Behaviour 4: Changing and Improving
Behaviour 5: Seeing the Big Picture - this will be in the format of a 10 minute presentation.

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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. .

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : NAD Talent Acquisition Team
Email : NAD-TalentAcquisition@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : NAD-TalentAcquisition@mod.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact department via email: NAD-Recruitment-Complaints@mod.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.