Chief People Officer

Organisation: Northampton Rugby Football Club Ltd
Salary: Competitive – dependant on experience
Location: cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton, NN5 5BG
Contract type: Permanent (Full time)
Closing date: 31 January 2026
Job Description: This is an exciting opportunity to join Northampton Saints as a member of the Club’s senior leadership team with overarching responsibility for people activity spanning the whole employee lifecycle. The role needs somebody who can effectively develop and execute the Club’s people strategy, whilst also ensuring management of day-to-day HR activity to the highest standard. The successful candidate will be setting the people agenda spanning all areas of our organisation, incorporating elite performance staff, commercial staff and all matchday teams (car parks, turnstiles, stewards).

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Design and implement people strategies to support the Club’s overarching ambitions.
Foster a high performance culture supported by the design and implementation an effective suite of learning & development activity across the organisation.
Ensure sound application of employment legislation and other applicable regulations, with robust decision making in relation to employee relations matters.
Work closely with the CEO and wider leadership team to design and implement appropriate organisational design as required.
Drive regular talent mapping processes with the executive team, consolidating actions, providing recommendations and working with the HR Business Partner (HRBP) to drive outputs as a result.
Lead a talent acquisition and retention strategy to attract, recruit and retain the right people to drive the growth of the Club.
Drives effective change management across the organisation, ensuring transitions are well planned, well communicated and people centred.
Work with the commercial team to create and deliver commercially focused learning programmes for external audiences, using the club’s elite sporting performance insights to offer differentiated business experiences.
Maintain robust performance management systems that drive accountability, motivation and progression.
Design, oversee and monitor competitive remuneration and benefits provisions that align with industry standards and support the broader talent and development strategy.
Work with the leadership team and HRBP to drive an increasingly positive employee experience, utilising information such as the annual engagement survey to inform decision making.
Champion and drive an effective wellbeing agenda, understanding how we can best support our diverse teams to be at their best.
Work proactively on our ED&I agenda, designing a clear strategy that creates meaningful progress for Saints whilst also adopting and supporting broader League and RFU ED&I agendas.
Act as trusted advisor to the CEO and senior leadership team
Provide regular updates to the Board on people matters.
Effectively manage third party relationships as required, including external legal counsel, HR system provider, Group Healthcare provider, training & development providers, and so on.
Line management of a team of two – HR Business Partner and Executive Assistant.
Take ownership for oversight of Safeguarding within the organisation, ensuring policies, procedures and training are effectively implemented and up to date, and expert advice is sought where necessary.

Essential Skills and Experience:
CIPD Level 7 (or equivalent)
Proven experience as an HR leader, gained at HRD level in an SME or as a divisional HR leader in a larger organisation.
Comprehensive knowledge of UK Employment Legislation and demonstrable experience of effective, pragmatic application.
Ability to balance strategic HR and operational delivery, with a willingness to be actively involved in all aspects of the HR portfolio.
Ability to effectively communicate both verbally and in writing with a wide range of stakeholders.
Experience designing and delivering effective learning and development activity.
How to apply: To apply, please click https://yq0lvkhcoir.typeform.com/CPO2026 Closing date: Saturday 31 January 2026 – please note, the role may close sooner if there is a high volume of applications. Northampton Saints is an equal opportunities employer and would welcome applications from a fully diverse range of candidates, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability. Any CVs, contact details or other personal data shared with Northampton Saints RFC in relation to this position will be processed for recruitment purposes only. We are storing this data in line with our privacy policy, and any information will only be shared internally as required to undertake shortlisting and interviews with those directly connected to the recruitment process. We would like to keep this data until this position is filled. When that period is over, we will delete your data unless we specifically inform you that we will keep it on file for future roles. To see a copy of our privacy policy or if you have any queries relating to how we manage personal data, please contact recruitment@northamptonsaints.co.uk.