People Operations Manager

Role Overview

Phoenix is a leading UK IT solutions and managed service provider, with a deep specialism in the public sector. We work with organisations across government, healthcare, defence, public safety, education, housing, and the charity sector – helping them modernise with confidence across cloud, data and AI, cyber security, and managed services. Due to continued growth, we are hiring a new People Operations Manager to lead the People Operations pillar of the People team.

What You Will Do

Lead, motivate and develop the People Operations team, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, professional and commercially focused people service across the organisation. Provide coaching, guidance and development opportunities to team members, managing performance, workload priorities and succession planning to build a high-performing function.

Why It Might Be a Fit

We believe in encouraging, supporting, and skilling our people up so that you can be the very best you can be at work – and we’d love you to consider being part of it.

Requirements

• Significant experience operating in a senior People role, such as People Operations Manager, HR Manager or People Business Partner, within a medium-sized organisation of approximately 200-1,000 employees.
• Proven leadership experience managing and developing multi-person HR/People teams, with a strong track record of coaching, performance management, succession planning and building high-performing functions.
• Extensive experience managing complex and high-risk employee relations cases, including disciplinary, grievance, performance, absence management and dismissal processes, with sound judgement and a thorough understanding of legal risk.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law, HR best practice and organisational governance, with experience developing, implementing and reviewing people policies and procedures.
• Demonstrable experience partnering with senior managers and business leaders, influencing decision-making and providing commercially focused people advice in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience leading and supporting organisational change programmes, people initiatives and continuous improvement projects that enhance organisational effectiveness and employee experience.
• Strong analytical and data-driven approach, with experience producing and interpreting people metrics, dashboards, workforce reports and HR insights to support business decisions and identify trends.
• Experience using HR systems and workforce reporting tools, ideally including Dayforce or similar platforms, ensuring data integrity, reporting accuracy and process efficiency.
• Previous experience within a white-collar, professional services or corporate environment, where stakeholder management, professionalism and commercial awareness are essential.
• Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and build credibility at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities while maintaining high service standards.
• CIPD Level 7 qualified (or working towards), with degree-level education or equivalent professional experience desirable.

Benefits

• A culture built on trust and belonging
• Real investment in your development
• A workplace that takes wellbeing seriously
• A commitment to equity and inclusion
• Work that matters
• Working with the best of the industry