James Norton

Director for Senior Talent & Resourcing, UK Civil Service

London, England, United Kingdom

About

Senior HR Professional with 20 years experience working for the UK Civil Service. Passionate about achieving high performance and excellence through people. Currently Executive Director for Civil Service Senior Talent and Resourcing at the Cabinet Office.

Experience

  • Executive Director for Senior Talent and Resourcing at Cabinet Office
    Jun 2026 - Present · 1 mo

  • Group HR Director, Department for Transport at Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom
    Nov 2021 - Jun 2026 · 4 yrs 8 mos

  • HR & Organisational Development Director at Department for International Trade (DIT)
    Jul 2016 - Nov 2021 · 5 yrs 5 mos

  • UK Civil Service (3 yrs 7 mos)
    • Director, Civil Service Resourcing
      Jan 2014 - Jul 2016 · 2 yrs 7 mos

      In this role I was responsible for: - Recruitment services available to all Civil Service departments including: the Civil Service Jobs portal (civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk) which has over 300,000 registered users; vacancy filling for some 20,000 hiring/promotion opportunities per year and; the contractual framework for recruitment and assessment service providers for Civil Service organisations; - Recruitment, attraction and development of the Civil Service Fast Stream - the Civil Service's award winning graduate recruitment programme with over 500 hires per year - and the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship scheme; - A growing, Executive and Specialist recruitment service for Civil Service organisations and professions to improve how the Civil Service attracts new talent into critical roles; - The Civil Service High Potential Secondment and Interchange Programme which aimed to create secondment and interchange opportunities for high potential individuals between the Civil Service and Commercial organisations.

    • Deputy Director, Corporate Talent & Assessment Services
      Jan 2013 - Dec 2013 · 1 yr

      I was responsible for the development and implementation of a Corporate Talent Strategy for the Civil Service - a key commitment of the Civil Service Reform Plan. This involved developing and embedding the corporate architecture and tools to identify those within the Civil Service who had the ability, aspiration and engagement to progress into the most senior roles in the Civil Service - such as board level positions in Whitehall departments - and ensure the right development interventions were in place through the Civil Service High Potential Stream that was launched in July 2013.

  • DWP (9 yrs 1 mo)
    • HR Director, Strategy Group
      Apr 2011 - Sep 2013 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      Senior HR Professional supporting the Director-General for Strategy Group within DWP. Strategy Group is the professional home for all policy makers within the Department, covering some 900 employees across three locations. I led a multi-disciplinary team of 20 that included HR Business Partnering, workforce management and deployment and policy capability. In the role I was a member of the DWP Strategy Group and HR Executive Teams. In the first year of appointment I was responsible for developing the organisational design of the Group which brought together work in five legacy groups and delivered a 40% reduction in size and cost and led on the subsequent workforce management activity. The second year focused on development and implementation of a People Strategy for the Group.

    • Senior HR Business Partner for Customer Services Directorate
      Mar 2009 - Apr 2011 · 2 yrs 2 mos

      Responsible for a team of c.120 HR Professionals running HR Business Partnering services in the largest directorate within Jobcentre Plus; covering 43,000 employees delivering front line services across over 700 sites in Great Britain.

    • Business Manager to Director for Employee Policy & Reward, DWP
      Jun 2007 - Mar 2009 · 1 yr 10 mos

      Responsible for the Director's office and providing strategic level support on cross cutting issues