Senior European Labour Relations Lead

Sage; Barcelona; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible benefits

Medical and dental insurance

Well-being programs

Flexible working

Job summary

Sage in Barcelona, Spain seeks a senior Labour Relations lead to shape and deliver national strategy across Europe. You will partner with senior leaders, oversight bodies, and legal teams to modernise employee representation and manage regulatory risk within a complex multi-country environment.

You will drive governance, operating rhythms, and proactive engagement with unions and works councils to enable transformation programs while balancing business needs with regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading labour and employee relations at a senior level within a multi-country organisation.
• Strong expertise in works council engagement, collective consultation, and union relations.
• Proven ability to support large-scale organisational change or transformation programmes.
• Experience working closely with senior executives, legal advisors, and employee representative bodies.
• Demonstrated capability in designing governance frameworks and operating rhythms.
• Experience establishing or evolving European employee representation structures (e.g. EWC, SNB).
• Exposure to global transformation programmes and matrixed operating environments.
• Knowledge of emerging regulatory topics such as EU Pay Transparency and workforce modernisation.

Responsibilities

• Shaping and delivering national labour and employee relations strategy aligned to business priorities.
• Acting as an escalation point for complex, high-risk labour relations matters.
• Modernising employee representation approaches to support agile and effective consultation.
• Enabling transformation through proactive engagement with European representative bodies.
• Designing governance frameworks and ensuring clear reporting, risk visibility, and operating rhythm.
• Building trusted relationships with unions, works councils, and external partners.
• Contributing to capability building across the European LR/ER community.

Skills

Labour relations leadership

Works council engagement

Union relations

Organisational change

Executive collaboration

Governance design

European representation

EU regulatory trends

Transformation programmes

Job description

Sage in Barcelona, Spain seeks a senior Labour Relations lead to shape and deliver national strategy across Europe. You will partner with senior leaders, oversight bodies, and legal teams to modernise employee representation and manage regulatory risk within a complex multi-country environment.

You will drive governance, operating rhythms, and proactive engagement with unions and works councils to enable transformation programs while balancing business needs with regulatory compliance.