Chief Executive Officer – Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
Location: Flexible, with regular presence in London
Closing date: Monday 8 December 2025
Applications to: cipd@samallen.co.uk
The CIPD is the professional body for experts in people, work and change. With more than 160,000 members worldwide, we champion better work and working lives – shaping the future of work by setting standards, sharing insights, and driving positive change across organisations and societies.
We are now seeking an exceptional Chief Executive Officer to lead the CIPD into its next exciting chapter. This is a pivotal and inspiring moment to make a massive difference – for individuals, organisations and the world of work itself.
As CEO, you will:
- Lead an established, international professional body with a strong purpose and global reach.
- Drive innovation, growth, and impact across our membership, education, and policy agenda.
- Build strong partnerships with business, government, and the wider HR and people profession.
- Inspire and empower a talented team, ensuring the CIPD continues to be a leading voice for better work and working lives.
We are looking for a proven senior leader – someone with substantial P&L accountability and a track record of delivering transformation, growth, and purpose-led leadership. You will bring strategic vision, influencing power and the ability to connect commercial success with social impact.
This is a rare opportunity to take the helm of a respected global organisation at a time when the world of work is being reshaped – and to lead a movement that truly changes lives for the better.
The CIPD Trust supports people getting into work, getting back into work and developing in work by harnessing the knowledge, expertise and talents of the people profession. We want to support more people to improve their skills, raise their confidence and ultimately reach their potential.
We empower people, whatever their industry, sector or experience, to seek and secure opportunities in work. Our members and industry partners are uniquely placed as experts in providing mentoring, coaching and advice to improve working lives. We want to create a more diverse profession to build a fairer world of work. From financial support, coaching and development programmes to matching up-and-coming leaders with HR Directors and Chief People Officers we are enabling under-represented groups to grow and progress.
For 2023, in addition to our existing programmes we have identified a number of key groups via our ongoing policy and research, with whom we are keen to pilot some of our activity. These groups are:
- Refugees/displaced people Individuals with experience of the criminal justice system Older workers looking to return to the workforce
And, we are really keen to work alongside employers who have experience or an interest in supporting these groups, to share learnings and inform our own programme development. If you are keen to get more involved in the work of the CIPD Trust, do get in touch.
