Director Of Human Resources

Shrewsbury School has a world-class reputation for all-round excellence. Fully co-educational, with a seven-day boarding heartbeat and an integral day community, the school sits within 110 acres of beautiful parkland, wrapped within a loop of the River Severn. Shrewsbury believes strongly in its social mission with extensive outreach, cross-sector partnership and community engagement progammes as well as a deep commitment to life-changing bursaries.

The school is a diverse community of 840 students aged 13-18 and over 500 staff. The wider Shrewsbury family includes five international schools across Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong and India together with a local preparatory school, Packwood Haugh. In line with the work of its most famous alumnus, Charles Darwin, the school has continued to evolve in an innovative and dynamic way.

The post of Director of Human Resources is a senior role which will lead and shape a comprehensive HR function to support close to 600 staff across both Shrewsbury School and Packwood Haugh. The vacancy arises following the departure of the incumbent after 18 years of dedicated service. Working directly with the Head and Senior Leadership Team, whilst reporting to the Bursar, the postholder will provide strategic leadership across the school in all staff-related matters, in line with the School Development Plan.

Shrewsbury is looking to attract an accomplished professional who is motivated by the school’s mission to support young people to flourish and is energised by the idea of working with diverse colleagues within a vibrant and purpose-driven community. The Director will bring their experience and expertise to transform policies and processes and release capacity to provide proactive, effective support for a people-oriented, inclusive and high calibre culture.

This role requires an individual who can work strategically as well as taking a ‘hands-on’ approach in terms of being practical and action-orientated, enthusing their HR team to deliver an outstanding and responsive service. Experience of leading a HR function within an organisation of similar complexity and scale and a successful track record of service delivery and process improvement will be important. Prior experience of working in a school is not essential but the successful candidate should have empathy with independent education and with the ethos of Shrewsbury School.

An attractive package is on offer for the successful candidate including generous annual leave, a defined contribution pension scheme and life insurance, free use of school facilities and a free lunch for much of the year.

This is a full-time/all-year role based centrally on campus at Kingsland House.

Potential candidates wishing to discuss this post are warmly invited to arrange a confidential discussion with Execucare.

Shrewsbury School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure & Barring Service.