Policy Advisor

As a Pay & Reward Policy Advisor within Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) People & Capability team, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping the pay, reward and benefits arrangements for one of the UK's largest employers.

Working within a dynamic and highly collaborative team, you'll support critical annual pay cycles, provide expert advice to senior leaders and stakeholders, and contribute to policy and process improvements affecting over 90,000 colleagues across DWP.

The nature of the work will vary aligned to changes within the Department's pay and reward offer. Work can be fast-paced and is often influenced by external factors such as legislation, government decisions or Cabinet Office guidance. You will need to operate confidently in ambiguous situations, think analytically, and help shape solutions to new and complex challenges.

This role offers exposure to senior decision-makers and key departmental stakeholders, and provides opportunities to become the go-to departmental expert on specific pay or reward issues with the chance to directly influence how DWP's people are paid and recognised.

Pay & Reward Delivery

Lead elements of and support DWP's delivery of annual pay award cycles - including developing options, analysing impacts, drafting proposals, and ensuring alignment with legislation and Cabinet Office requirements.

Carry out analysis in response to statutory changes (e.g., National Living Wage, holiday pay legislation), including modelling impacts and identifying required changes.

Provide clear, evidence-based pay policy advice to HR colleagues, senior leaders, Trades Unions and other stakeholders on complex or emerging issues.

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

Prepare for and participate in briefings, People Committee activity, trade union discussions and cross-government engagement, representing your area with confidence and professionalism.

Build strong relationships across DWP and with external bodies (e.g., Arm's Length Bodies, suppliers, Cabinet Office), ensuring proposals and decisions are well-understood, compliant and deliver value for money.

Policy, Process & System Improvement

Review and improve pay and reward policies to ensure fairness, compliance, consistency and readiness for future HR/payroll system transformation.

Lead or support specific projects such as equal pay audit activity, pay gap reporting, supplier/benefits management, or pay exceptions/allowances.

Operational Leadership & Quality Assurance

Provide guidance and leadership to colleagues as required, helping manage caseloads, quality, and resilience across the team.

Draft high-quality written outputs (e.g., business cases, pay communications, intranet content, Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information requests) with accuracy and clarity.

Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to .