HR Director – Business Partnering & Employee Relations
North West England | Hybrid | £120,000 + 25% Bonus + Equity
A high-impact HR leadership opportunity at the heart of a major business transformation.
Middlemore is partnering with a leading, private equity-backed UK services organisation to appoint a People Partnering & Solutions Director, reporting directly to the Chief People Officer.
With significant growth underway, the business is entering a pivotal phase of its evolution. A major workforce transfer will introduce a substantial unionised population, creating an opportunity to reshape how the organisation partners with its people, engages with trade unions and delivers sustainable business performance.
This newly created role will sit on the People Leadership Team, with a broad remit spanning strategic HR business partnering, employee and industrial relations, organisation design, workforce planning and the future of work.
You’ll also play a key role in shaping the organisation’s People Strategy through to 2030.
The Opportunity
This is a role for a commercially astute HR leader who can operate strategically while remaining close to the operational realities of a large, distributed workforce.
You will:
- Lead business partnering and employee relations, building a high-performing HRBP and ER function.
- Shape the industrial relations agenda, developing constructive relationships with recognised trade unions and leading collective consultation, TUPE and pay negotiations.
- Partner with the Executive team on organisation design, transformation and business-critical people decisions.
- Drive workforce planning, ensuring the business has the capability, capacity and structure to deliver its growth ambitions.
- Influence the future of work, shaping a pragmatic approach to workforce AI and its implications for organisation design.
- Help define the People Strategy to 2030, translating strategic priorities into meaningful business outcomes.
About You
We’re looking for an established HR leader who combines commercial credibility, strong industrial relations expertise and the ability to influence at the highest levels.
You’ll bring:
- Significant experience operating at HR Director or HRBP Director level.
- A strong track record of leading HR within complex, operationally intensive businesses with substantial field-based workforces.
- Deep trade union and industrial relations experience, including collective consultation, negotiations and TUPE.
- Proven expertise in organisation design, transformation and workforce planning.
- Experience leading and developing HR Business Partnering and Employee Relations teams.
- The confidence to challenge, influence and build trusted relationships with Executive stakeholders.
- A collaborative, pragmatic and commercially focused leadership style.
- An interest in how AI and emerging technologies will reshape workforce structures and organisational capability.
Experience within energy, utilities, manufacturing or other large-scale operational environments would be particularly relevant.
Why Consider This Opportunity?
This is more than a traditional HR Director appointment.
It’s an opportunity to shape a newly designed People function, influence a significant business transformation and establish a progressive approach to industrial relations within a growing, private equity-backed organisation.
You’ll have genuine Executive visibility, a broad strategic mandate and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the business and its people.
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