Lead, People Partner – Business Performance & WEC

TN United Kingdom; Woking; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player in motorsport is seeking a dynamic Lead, People Partner to drive their people strategy within Business Performance and WEC. This role involves collaborating with senior leaders to enhance team performance and productivity, ensuring a winning culture. You'll manage crucial HR functions, from employee relations to talent management, while fostering a positive and inclusive workplace. With a focus on strategic and operational business partnering, this position offers the chance to make a significant impact in a fast-paced environment. Join a team dedicated to innovation and excellence in the world of racing.

Benefits

Healthcare

Pension

Hybrid Working

Excellent Facilities

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of generalist HR at senior levels.
• Proven ability to contribute to people strategy development.
• Experience with change management and organizational design.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of the People strategy within the Business Performance and WEC Teams.
• Partner with senior leaders to proactively deliver a people strategy.
• Manage onboarding of new starters and ensure a great candidate experience.

Skills

HR Strategy Development

Stakeholder Management

Change Management

Data-Driven Decision Making

Communication Skills

Education

CIPD Level 5 or 7

Tools

HRIS Systems

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

Lead, People Partner – Business Performance & WEC, Woking

Client:

Location:

Woking, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

-

EU work permit required:

Yes

Job Reference:

6f08d0bf6ceb

Job Views:

1

Posted:

08.05.2025

Expiry Date:

22.06.2025

Job Description:

At McLaren Racing, we’re not just here to try to take the chequered flag. We’re here to excite our fans, inspire our people and deliver for our partners. We’re also committed to evolving our sport, our industry, and our technology.

Role Purpose

The Lead, People Partner – Business Performance & WEC will support the continued delivery of a progressive people agenda into McLaren Racing’s shared service functions, including Finance, IT, PMO and People & Sustainability, while building our team and operating model for entry to the World Endurance Championship.

You will collaboratively craft the People Strategy with your senior leaders to help elevate our people partnering to the next level. You will create an environment where winning becomes inevitable, directly supporting and enhancing the performance and productivity of our teams, translating into both on and off track results.

Role Dimensions:

You’ll be collaborating widely across the People team. You’ll discover it’s a pro-active team that thrives on working at pace, with agility and delivering meaningful change for McLaren Racing. Most of all, we support each other and roll our sleeves up when it matters.

Reporting to the People Director, the Lead, People Partner will have one direct report and the shared support of a People Coordinator. You’ll be the first point of contact for the Business Performance and WEC leadership team and managers, so you will need to be comfortable operating at both strategic and operational levels of business partnering.

As a commercial and business-oriented HR practitioner, you will foster unshakeable relationships through a strong understanding of the team’s operations and challenges and delivering no-nonsense, high-impact, agile solutions.

There will be a requirement to be flexible on working hours/days in the office, as People Team presence is key for good working relationships and collaboration with the team that we support when they are travelling or at the McLaren Technology Centre. It is envisaged you would work Monday to Friday (3-4 days on-site and 1-2 days WFH), demand dependent and ensuring cover on-site at all times.

Principal Accountabilities

Deliver the People Plan

Lead the delivery of the People strategy within the Business Performance and WEC Teams, becoming the main point of contact for the leaders and People Director for all strategic and operational people matters.

Respond and adapt to changing circumstances, contributing to the development of solutions to ensure they are fit for purpose within Business Performance and WEC.

Business Partnering at a Senior level

Partner with all senior leaders across your function, building strong relationships and a deep understanding of your stakeholder group to be a true partner. Work alongside leadership to proactively deliver a people strategy and solve challenges faced by the leadership team, as a subject matter expert in the People area.

Build trust-based relationships with the leadership team, fostering close partnerships that enable you to offer support ‘inside the tent’ and provide close quarter support.

Anticipate future workforce demands before leaders even recognize the need and proactively develop high-impact solutions.

Become a well-versed expert with a high level of technical understanding of the client group, building credibility and enabling insight-based proactive recommendations.

Own and manage tactical matters, utilizing all available resources across the People team to address these appropriately, or helping managers deal directly.

Apply people analytics through data-driven conversations and initiatives to deliver against the people strategy.

Operational HR Management

Lead and oversee ER issues with the support of the People Advisor, ensuring managers are equipped to handle them effectively and compliantly, providing reliable employment law advice and escalating where necessary.

Partner with the finance team to understand local budgets, sporting regulations, and cost-cap compliance rules.

Support strategic, cyclical, and day-to-day reward activities such as payroll checking, salary and bonus reviews, and job sizing.

Proactively gauge employee engagement, facilitate engagement survey processes and action planning, and work with the broader People team to implement solutions.

Collaborate with recruitment teams and hiring managers to support relevant recruitment campaigns, including screening, interviews, and offer processes.

Manage onboarding of new starters, ensuring managers have what they need for a successful start, working with People Coordinators and Advisors to ensure a great candidate experience.

Lead the Performance Management process, ensuring understanding and support among managers and employees, including coaching and support.

Utilize relevant data to support people and business planning, identify trends, and assist decision-making.

Organisational Design and Change Management

Work with Executives, Senior Leaders, and the People Director to review organizational design, ensuring teams remain commercially focused, strategic, efficient, agile, and productive.

Lead redesign of roles, teams, or functions based on identified needs, using strong org design disciplines to maximize effectiveness.

Apply best practice change management to minimize disruption and support impacted individuals with dignity and respect.

Workforce Planning and Talent Management

Understand department ambitions and plans, using this insight to anticipate mid- and long-term people needs.

Own talent and succession management processes, ensuring ongoing, tangible outputs such as retention, promotion, and risk minimization.

Develop workforce plans with the Talent Team, mapping role and capability needs over time and ensuring effective learning and development.

Collaborate with the Talent Team on talent attraction strategies considering future needs, including initiatives like internships and internal talent development.

Effective Management of Employee Relations

Maintain strong employee relations through pragmatic engagement with managers and team leaders, fulfilling legal obligations and fostering a positive employee experience.

Use effective communication to support relations, especially during change initiatives.

Engage with leaders to promote a safe and inclusive working environment.

Support diversity and inclusion initiatives with the Employee Experience & Talent Team to foster a broad and inclusive workplace.

Stakeholder Management

Develop strong internal stakeholder relationships, promoting a service-oriented and partnership approach.

Influence stakeholders confidently to gain support for new initiatives and ways of working.

Act as a conduit between Business Performance, WEC Leadership, and the People & Culture team to ensure successful implementation of initiatives.

Communication

Maintain strong and professional communication across stakeholder groups and channels, delivering compelling messages with credibility.

Support development and execution of communication campaigns to engage employees and promote understanding of the employee experience offer.

Job Requirements

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience:

Extensive knowledge of value-creating generalist HR at senior levels, ideally within a tech, engineering, or high-performance sporting organization.

Experience with culture and engagement, change management, organizational design, and talent & succession planning.

Proven ability to contribute to people strategy development, implementation, and delivery.

Ability to deliver high-impact services in a fast-paced, fluid environment with clarity and structure.

Strong influencing and communication skills, capable of engaging senior leaders with a positive, solution-oriented approach.

Experience working with high-performing teams independently in a dynamic environment.

Ability to manage workload effectively within time constraints.

Data-driven decision-making skills, with proficiency in technology and HR platforms, including intermediate Excel, Word, PowerPoint skills, and familiarity with HRIS systems.

Qualified at CIPD Level 5 or 7, or equivalent experience.

Personal Attributes

Winning mindset, problem-solving ability, results-driven attitude, credibility, ownership, collaboration, and being a role model in diversity and inclusion.

What McLaren Offers

We strive to be better every day, aiming to be the most pioneering racing team in the world. We value diversity, support inclusion, and promote a culture of high performance.

Our headquarters at the McLaren Technology Centre offers hybrid working, excellent facilities, and comprehensive benefits including healthcare, pension, and more.