Military & Elite Athlete 2026 Talent Placement – People Operations Lead

Centrica is a family of brands focused on revolutionizing energy systems for a greener future. They are seeking a People Operations Lead for their Military & Elite Athlete Talent Placement Programme, designed to support individuals transitioning from military or elite sports careers into a corporate environment. The role involves leading transformation activities in People Operations while providing high-quality operational leadership across core HR services.

Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver critical People Operations transformation activity
• Provide high-quality operational leadership across core HR services
• Support design and implementation of the Future People Operations model
• Translate strategic design into practical, workable processes and structures
• Drive standardisation, governance, and clear ownership across services
• Lead delivery of People Operations technology changes
• Simplify and digitise colleague and manager journeys
• Embed automation, workflow consistency, and data insight
• Provide leadership across day-to-day People Operations activities
• Establish and operationalise a central Investigations Team
• Strengthen ER case handling, governance, and consistency

Skills

• Experience of HR / People Operations / ER environments
• Operational delivery in complex organisations
• Strong process design and improvement capability
• Ability to translate strategy into practical delivery and lead change in ambiguous environments
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills
• High levels of ownership, accountability and resilience
• Experience operating in structured, high-accountability environments
• Leading teams through change or transformation
• Problem solving and decision-making capability
• Ability to work across multiple priorities and stakeholders
• An interest in People transformation and Technology & operational improvement

Benefits

• A dedicated mentor to help you build commercial skills
• Flexible working and travel to office locations only when collaboration is needed
• Access to our Employee Networks
• A Buddy from our Ex-Military or Athlete communities
• For Service Leavers: the chance to begin placement during your final four resettlement weeks

Company Overview