Director - People Advisory

Warner Scott; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Warner Scott in London is seeking a Director-level leader for its People Advisory team to originate and lead complex HR due diligence and HR M&A engagements across the deal lifecycle for UK and European clients. You will shape value creation and workforce strategies throughout transactions, integrations, and separations.

You will coach and develop teams, manage senior stakeholder relationships, and drive business development, thought leadership and market credibility while ensuring profitability

Qualifications

• Extensive HR due diligence and HR M&A experience.
• Ability to originate sales opportunities and lead proposals.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; stakeholder influence.

Responsibilities

• Lead pre-deal HR due diligence and people-related synergy engagements.
• Scope and run integration and separation projects; primary client liaison.
• Present findings to senior clients; ensure credible, commercially relevant conclusions.
• Originate marketing, scoping and pricing activities for medium/large assignments.
• Provide leadership and coaching to junior colleagues; represent team to clients and market.

Skills

HR due diligence

HR M&A

Client management

Financial modelling

Leadership

Job description

A leading UK professional services network is looking to hire at Director level into its People Advisory team, based in London. This is a senior leadership hire within a strategy-led Deal Execution practice, supporting clients across the deal lifecycle, from evaluating a transaction or carve-out through to integration, separation and value delivery. The team focuses on the workforce and organisational factors that determine whether a deal succeeds in practice, offering a collaborative and ambitious environment with real influence over the direction of the practice.

The Role

You will provide senior leadership for the People Advisory practice, originating and leading complex client engagements and helping clients identify workforce risks, synergies and value creation opportunities across the deal lifecycle.

Working with senior clients across the UK and European private equity and M&A community, you will act as a trusted adviser, combining deep technical expertise with business development and people leadership. You will be accountable for the quality, profitability and risk management of engagements, whilst growing the practice through go-to-market activity, thought leadership and new business, and building the capability of the team through visible leadership and coaching.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead pre-deal HR due diligence, vendor due diligence, and people-related synergy and value creation engagements.
• Scope, design and run complex integration and/or separation projects, acting as the primary client liaison.
• Present findings to senior clients and constructively challenge client and internal thinking, drawing on experience of large integration and separation programmes.
• Review complex analyses and financial models to ensure conclusions are credible, accurate and commercially relevant.
• Originate and lead marketing, proposal, scoping and pricing activity for medium-sized and large assignments, taking new business ideas from concept through to client conversations.
• Provide visible leadership, coaching and inspiration to junior colleagues, and represent the team credibly with clients, the wider firm and the market.

Candidate Profile

• Extensive experience in HR due diligence, value creation and HR M&A, gained in a leading strategy consulting business, or a strategy or corporate development team in industry.
• Proven experience scoping and leading medium-sized and large HR M&A engagements, with strong client outputs and project economics.
• Demonstrable ability to originate sales opportunities, maintain senior client relationships and lead proposals, scope and pricing.
• Strong analytical, numerical and commercial skills, including reviewing technical data and building complex financial models.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, with the credibility to influence and challenge senior stakeholders.

What's on Offer?

• Provide senior leadership for a specialist practice and help shape its direction.
• Work with senior clients across the UK and European private equity and M&A community.
• Lead engagements across the full deal lifecycle, from early strategy and due diligence through to integration, separation and value delivery.
• Take responsibility for building the team and the practice through coaching, thought leadership and business development.
• Collaborate across the wider firm to deliver integrated client solutions.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced HR M&A professional to step into a Director role, combining technical depth with client ownership, business development and team leadership responsibility within a specialist People Advisory team.