Workforce Planning Expert (18 Month FTC)

Job Description

Workforce Planning Expert (18 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Location – Manchester/ Warrington/ Derby with Hybrid working Available

About Us

Rolls‑Royce SMR is here to transform how nuclear energy is delivered—cleaner, faster and at global scale. Our teams are developing one of the world’s most advanced small modular reactors, helping secure affordable, low‑carbon energy for generations to come.

We’re doing something that’s never been done before. We’re revolutionising an industry. That’s a once-in-a-career opportunity for those excited by such a challenge. This is more than just a job; this is a legacy.

Role Purpose

The Workforce Planning Expert is the enterprise subject matter expert responsible for ensuring Rolls-Royce SMR can deliver its strategic and programme objectives through an affordable, resilient and executable workforce plan. The role advises on the workforce construct required to deliver the target operating model, balancing capability, capacity, cost, productivity, delivery pace, and risk across permanent employees, contingent labour, strategic partners and outsourced services.

The role is responsible for the design, development and continuous improvement of an integrated workforce planning approach spanning trusted in-year plans, rolling 2-3 year forecasts and a strategic 3-5 year workforce roadmap. It supports the translation of business strategy, operating model choices, programme delivery assumptions, and organisational design into quantified workforce demand, capability requirements, cost profiles, sourcing choices and clear interventions.

The role provides independent, evidence-led challenge and expert advice to senior leaders, partnering across Finance, Portfolio and Programme, PMO, Organisation Design, HR, Talent Acquisition and functional leadership. It will establish the governance, modelling standards, data discipline and decision forums required to turn workforce information into enterprise action, enabling timely choices on build, buy, borrow, partner or outsource and ensuring material workforce risks, dependencies and constraints are understood and actively managed. Success is achieved through influential partnering, robust governance, evidence-based challenge and the translation of workforce insight into tangible business outcomes, capability readiness and programme delivery confidence.

What we’ll need you to deliver

• A single, trusted and governed in-year workforce plan aligned to approved budgets, programme and commercial milestones, organisational design and recruitment capacity.

• A rolling 2-3 year workforce forecast and 3-5 year strategic workforce roadmap that identify when, where and at what cost critical capacity and capability are required.

• An integrated view of workforce demand and supply across permanent employees, contingent labour, partners and outsourced services, with clear recommendations on the optimum resource mix.

• Workforce planning is embedded as a core business discipline through effective stakeholder engagement, governance, and decision-making forums, ensuring leaders are equipped to make timely, evidence-based workforce choices and are accountable for delivery of agreed actions.

• Strategic workforce recommendations are translated into measurable business outcomes, including improved delivery confidence, reduced workforce risk, enhanced capability readiness, increased resource agility, and optimised workforce investment decisions.

• Robust capacity, capability, cost, sourcing and scenario models that enable senior leaders to compare options and make explicit trade-offs between affordability, speed, risk, flexibility and delivery confidence.

• A prioritised capability gap and workforce risk register, including dependencies, constraints, scarcity, succession exposure and mitigation actions with named ownership.

• A sustainable enterprise workforce planning governance and approvals framework, supported by common definitions, planning assumptions, controls, standards and an agreed planning calendar.

• Actionable workforce intelligence that shapes talent acquisition, internal mobility, learning and development, succession, contingent labour and strategic partner strategies.

• Improved workforce effectiveness through regular review of utilisation, workload, productivity, spans, layers, role design and deployment, with evidence-based optimisation recommendations.

• A strong enterprise community of workforce planning practice, strengthening capability in leaders and planning leads and embedding consistent, repeatable planning disciplines.

What we’re looking for

• Extensive experience leading strategic workforce planning in a complex, regulated, safety-critical or programme-led environment.

• Ability to translate enterprise strategy, business plans and target operating models into integrated short, medium and long-term workforce plans, and to provide authoritative challenge and advice to senior leaders.

• Deep practical expertise across capacity, capability, sourcing, cost and scenario modelling.

• Ability to determine the optimum mix of permanent employees, contingent labour, partners and outsourced services, evaluating build, buy, borrow, partner and outsource choices against cost, risk, speed, capability and flexibility.

• Advanced analytical capability with the ability to integrate complex workforce, finance, programme and organisational data; establish planning assumptions and data standards; create clear scenarios; and convert analysis into compelling executive insight, recommendations and decisions.

• Comfortable challenging data quality and resolving conflicting assumptions.

• Strong understanding of organisation structures, accountability models, role design, role layering, spans of control, matrix relationships and capability frameworks.

• Ability to distinguish organisation design from workforce planning and translate design choices into quantified capacity, capability, cost and resourcing implications.

• Proven ability to establish governance, controls, planning rhythms and enterprise standards, and to influence senior stakeholders across Finance, Portfolio and Programme, PMO, HR, Talent Acquisition, Organisation Design and functional leadership.

• Ability to move from diagnosis to executable interventions covering recruitment, development, deployment, succession, contingent labour and partners.

• Recognised strategic workforce planning, people analytics, organisation design, change, project/programme or HR professional accreditation is desirable.

• Demonstrable mastery of workforce planning methods, planning assumptions, scenario analysis, demand and supply modelling, capability assessment and financial evaluation.

• Advanced proficiency in workforce data analysis, modelling and presentation tools, with the ability to explain complex analysis clearly to executive and non-technical audiences.

• Evidence of continuing professional development and current external insight on strategic workforce planning practice, labour market dynamics, skills risk and workforce technology.

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent

• Significant professional experience in strategic workforce planning, business planning, HR, organisational development, finance, operations, programme management or a related discipline.

Location & Ways of Working

This role can be ideally based in Manchester or Warrington, with flexibility to work between home and the office depending on business needs. There may be some travel required on an ad hoc basis.

What’s in It for You

• A salary between £71,000 - £85,000 , £5,000 benefit allowance, 17% bonus opportunity, 6x pensionable life assurance, 50% income protection, 28 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, Standard Rolls‑Royce SMR pension, 12% Employer Match, 37.5‑hour working week with flexibility, and a £250 new‑joiner payment—alongside opportunities for development and progression.

Selection Proc