HR Business Partner

THE COLLECTIVE NETWORK LIMITED; Bedford; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension matching

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Share incentive plan

26 days holiday + bank holidays

Flexible start/finish times

Job summary

The Collective Network Limited in Bedford is seeking an HR Business Partner to drive significant change in an engineering and R&D environment. You will assess what is really happening, build credibility with senior leaders and help them make sensible people decisions, across a busy transformation program.

Expect to own workforce planning, culture, talent and HR projects, partnering senior stakeholders and maintaining practical, business‑focused HR delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience as HRBP in engineering/manufacturing environments.
• Proven ability to lead organisational change and workforce planning.
• Strong stakeholder management and commercial awareness.

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders to shape people strategies and decisions.
• Lead organisational change initiatives and culture improvements.
• Oversee workforce planning, talent, and HR projects with ownership.
• Navigate security clearance requirements and ensure UK residency continuity.

Job description

HR Business Partner | £50,000 | Bedford | 12-month FTC

There are HRBP jobs where the business is ticking along nicely and your job is largely to keep it that way.

This isn't one of them.

I'm recruiting for an engineering business in Bedford that's going through significant change.

And they need an HRBP who actually likes that sort of thing.

Someone who can walk into a business, work out what's really going on, build credibility with senior leaders and then help them make sensible decisions about their people.

There's plenty to get stuck into.

• Organisational change.
• Workforce planning.
• Culture.
• Talent.
• Structural reviews.
• Employee engagement.
• HR projects that need someone to actually own them and get them finished.

You’ll be partnering senior stakeholders, so you’ll need to be comfortable challenging people when necessary rather than simply agreeing with whoever has the biggest job title.

You’ll also need to understand that good HR in an engineering business isn’t about arriving with a 47-slide presentation explaining a new framework.

It’s about understanding the commercial reality, getting people on board and making change work in practice.

They’re ideally looking for an established HRBP who’s been through meaningful organisational or cultural change before.

Engineering, manufacturing, defence, aerospace or another operational environment would be useful, but I’m much more interested in what you’ve actually done than whether your current employer happens to make the right thing.

The business itself is fascinating.

It’s a specialist British engineering and R&D organisation working on genuinely complex projects, and it’s currently going through a significant period of investment and transformation.

So there should be plenty to talk about at interview.

Important bits:

• £50,000
• Bedford
• 12-month FTC
• 38-hour week with flexible start/finish times
• 26 days' holiday + bank holidays
• Pension matched up to 7%
• Private medical insurance
• Life assurance
• Share incentive plan
• Because of the nature of the work, you’ll also need five years' continuous UK residency to satisfy the security clearance requirements.