Head of Social Value

The Vacancy

🌱 Head of Social Value – WPS

📍 Finsbury Park ¦ Hybrid Working / National
🕰️ Permanent
🎯 Be the first to shape a legacy of impact

💡 About WPS

Welcome to WPS, where innovation meets impact. Social value isn’t a buzzword here; it’s our heartbeat. And now, we’re launching a first-of-its-kind role in our WPS business to take our purpose to the next level. We’re looking for a visionary to lead our social value strategy, with a sharp focus on green and renewable skills. If you’re passionate about creating real change and tackling the UK’s green skills gap, this is your moment.

🌍 Your Mission

As our Head of Social Value, you’ll:

• Craft and deliver a bold social value strategy tailored to WPS and our renewables arm, Liberty.
• Design programmes that create jobs, apprenticeships, and training pathways for a net zero future.
• Build powerful partnerships with colleges, training providers, and government agencies.
• Lead a team to deliver measurable impact across communities.
• Represent WPS at industry forums and shape the national conversation on social value.

🧠 What You Bring

• A strategic mindset with 5+ years in social value leadership.
• A degree in Social Value, Sustainability, or Corporate Responsibility.
• A knack for storytelling, influencing, and inspiring change.
• Experience with tools like TOMs, Social Value Portal, and SROI.
• A collaborative spirit and a “can-do” attitude.

🎯 Why This Role Rocks

• You’ll be the first to hold this position—your ideas will shape the future.
• You’ll work directly with the WPS Director of Net Zero and collaborate across HR, Comms, Procurement, and more.
• You’ll have the chance to secure awards, influence policy, and build a legacy.

Given the nature of this position, you will need to undergo a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) at offer stage. Applicants with criminal convictions will be assessed individually, and we assure you that we do not discriminate based on an applicant’s criminal record or the details of any disclosed offenses. Additionally, certain roles may be subject to additional pre-employment checks.

To learn more about the checks included in this process, please click on the following link: National Security Vetting

💬 Ready to Inspire Better Ways?

If you’re ready to lead the charge in social value innovation and make a tangible difference, we’d love to hear from you.

👉 Apply now and be the change.

Work for Wates

Wates is one of the UK’s leading family-owned development, building and property maintenance companies.  Founded over 125 years ago, we have a proud legacy in the built environment.

We are driven by our purpose, ‘reimagining places for people to thrive’ and our three promises:

• Thriving places – working with customers, partners and communities to create places that are more sustainable, inclusive, and full of opportunity.
• Thriving planet – protecting nature and taking action on climate change by collaborating and innovating with our partners.
• Thriving people – creating opportunities and relationships so that everyone who works for and with us feels included, invested in and treated with care.

We are proud to be recognised as Gold Investors in People and as a Disability Confident employer.  We also ensure that our recruitment processes do not treat anyone less favourably due to an offending background.