HR Director, UK & Ireland

QPL IQVIA RDS Poland Sp. z o.o.; England; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

IQVIA is seeking an HR Director for the UK & Ireland, the senior HR leader responsible for a complex market of 6,000+ employees. You will lead a ~25-person HR function, shaping the people agenda, strategy, and operating model across UK&I to deliver business outcomes with accountability and high performance.

You will build a highly engaged HR team, develop talent, and implement scalable ER governance while partnering with global HR.

Qualifications

• Significant HR leadership in a large, matrixed organization.
• Proven track record building and developing sizeable HR teams.
• Strong business acumen translating priorities into HR actions.
• Extensive Employee Relations leadership, including complex cases and governance.
• Experience shaping ER models, governance, and capability at scale.
• Expertise in organizational effectiveness, design and change.
• Excellent senior stakeholder management and coaching skills.
• Ability to use data and insights to inform decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the UK&I HR team, setting direction and accountability.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative HR organization with ownership and impact.
• Set leadership expectations and raise standards across the HR team.
• Develop succession pipelines and career opportunities for HR professionals.
• Foster trust, openness and knowledge sharing across HR and the business.
• Make talent decisions and address capability and performance issues as needed.
• Translate business priorities into a clear UK&I HR agenda with maximum impact.
• Provide high-quality, commercially relevant HR support across a complex org.
• Lead senior stakeholder relationships and advise on organizational changes and restructures.
• Support significant organizational change, workforce transformation and M&A integration.

Skills

HR leadership

Team development

Stakeholder management

Employee relations

Change management

Organizational design

Business acumen

Data-driven decisions

M&A experience

Global collaboration

Job description

Role Overview

The HR Director, UK & Ireland is the senior HR leader for a complex market of more than 6,000 employees, responsible for leading and developing an HR organization of approximately 25 professionals and ensuring high-quality, commercially relevant HR support across the business. At the heart of the role is the leadership, engagement and development of the UK&I HR team. The successful candidate will create a strong sense of direction and purpose, build a highly engaged and collaborative team, develop HR talent and capabilities, and foster a culture of accountability, trust and high performance. Operating in a large and highly matrixed environment, the role will translate business and HR priorities into a clear UK&I people agenda, mobilize the HR organization around shared priorities and ensure strong execution across organizational effectiveness, talent, Employee Relations, transformation and significant business change. Strong Employee Relations leadership is an important part of the role, both in providing judgement and oversight on complex matters and in continuing to strengthen a consistent, proactive and scalable UK&I ER model.

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership & HR Capability

• Lead, engage, coach and develop the UK&I HR team, creating a strong sense of purpose, direction and collective accountability.
• Build a highly engaged, collaborative and high-performing HR organization where people feel empowered to take ownership and deliver at their best.
• Set clear expectations and raise standards of leadership, business acumen, execution and impact across the HR team.
• Build strong succession and talent pipelines, actively developing future HR leaders and creating meaningful career and development opportunities.
• Foster an environment of trust, openness and constructive challenge, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing across the team and broader HR organization.
• Make effective and timely talent decisions, addressing capability and performance issues where required.

HR Function & Business Leadership

• Translate business and HR priorities into a clear UK&I HR agenda and mobilize the HR organization around the priorities with the greatest business impact.
• Ensure consistent, high-quality and commercially relevant HR support across a diverse and complex organization.
• Anticipate emerging organizational and people challenges and ensure HR capabilities and resources evolve accordingly.
• Drive simplification, operational effectiveness and continuous improvement across HR processes and ways of working.
• Create alignment across HR Business Partners, Centers of Excellence and global HR teams to deliver an integrated and effective people agenda.
• Use business and people insights to inform priorities, decisions and resource allocation.

Employee Relations Leadership

• Provide senior leadership and sound judgement on complex and high-risk Employee Relations matters across UK&I.
• Own and further develop the UK&I ER model, strengthening governance, capabilities and ways of working to support the scale and complexity of the organization.
• Lead and advise on significant restructurings, consultations, workforce changes and other sensitive employee matters.
• Develop a more proactive and preventative approach to ER, using trends and insights to strengthen HR and manager capability and address systemic issues.

Organization, Talent & Change

• Lead and support significant organizational change, restructuring, workforce transformation and integration activities across UK&I.
• Partner with leaders on organizational design, workforce planning, succession and leadership effectiveness.
• Ensure complex programs are structured effectively, with clear ownership, appropriate resources and active management of risks and interdependencies.
• Support M&A and integration activity, ensuring effective delivery of people-related priorities.

Senior Stakeholder Leadership

• Build trusted relationships with senior business and HR leaders, acting as a credible adviser and constructive challenger.
• Coach senior stakeholders through complex organizational, leadership and people issues.
• Navigate differing stakeholder perspectives and create alignment around practical solutions and a clear path forward.
• Exercise sound judgement in balancing local business requirements with global priorities and operating models.
• Communicate complex issues with clarity, providing context, insight and evidence-based recommendations.

Experience & Capabilities

• Significant HR leadership experience in a large, complex and highly matrixed organization.
• Proven track record of building, engaging and developing sizeable, high-performing HR teams.
• Demonstrated ability to set direction, create accountability, develop talent and mobilize teams through complexity and change.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to translate business priorities into pragmatic HR strategies and actions.
• Strong Employee Relations leadership experience, including complex cases, restructurings, consultations, workforce change and high-risk employee matters.
• Experience strengthening ER operating models, governance and capability, alongside hands-on credibility in complex ER situations.
• Strong organizational effectiveness, organizational design, transformation and change experience.
• Excellent senior stakeholder management, influencing, coaching and conflict resolution skills.
• Sound judgement and confidence in making difficult people and organizational decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to use data and insight to inform decisions and improve organizational outcomes.
• Experience operating across local and global structures; M&A and/or significant integration experience would be valuable.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries. We create intelligent connections to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments to help improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide.

Learn more at https://jobs.iqvia.com

IQVIA is committed to integrity in our hiring process and maintains a zero tolerance policy for candidate fraud. All information and credentials submitted in your application must be truthful and complete. Any false statements, misrepresentations, or material omissions during the recruitment process will result in immediate disqualification of your application, or termination of employment if discovered later, in accordance with applicable law. We appreciate your honesty and professionalism.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries. We create connections that accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments. Everything we do is part of a journey to improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide. To get there, we seek out diverse talent with curious minds and a relentless commitment to innovation and impact. No matter your role, everyone at IQVIA contributes to our shared goal of helping customers improve the lives of patients everywhere. Thank you for your interest in growing your career with us.