Human Resources Director

Pelsis Group; Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Pelsis Group is seeking an experienced HR Director – UK & Europe to lead the people agenda across its UK and European operations. You will partner senior leaders on organisation design, workforce planning and talent, with responsibility for HR across manufacturing, distribution and commercial locations.

You will lead a team of HR Advisors/Business Partners, drive performance culture, change programmes and cross-border initiatives, while ensuring legal compliance and commercial alignment across

Qualifications

• Established HR leader with multi-site multi-country delivery.
• Experience in manufacturing, distribution, or complex operational environments.
• Executive partnering with senior leaders and boards.

Responsibilities

• Lead the people agenda for UK & Europe across multiple jurisdictions.
• Partner senior leaders on organisation design, workforce planning and talent.
• Drive performance culture, succession planning and leadership development.
• Oversee HR operations, employee relations, compensation and HRIS initiatives.
• Champion HR transformation and data-driven decision making.
• Develop a consistent, commercially focused HR function across the region.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Commercial judgment

HR leadership

People analytics

Change management

Executive influencing

Education

CIPD Level 7 or equivalent

Job description

We are looking for an experienced and commercially focused HR Director – UK & Europe to lead the people agenda across Pelsis' UK and European operations.

Reporting to the VP HR, this is a senior leadership role with responsibility for HR across a diverse portfolio of manufacturing, distribution and commercial locations, including the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Spain and the Nordics.

Leading a team of HR Advisors / Business Partners, you will provide strategic direction while remaining close enough to the business to make things happen. You will partner senior leaders on organisation, workforce, performance, talent and change, ensuring our people priorities directly support business performance.

As Pelsis continues to evolve its operating model, you will also play an important role in building a more consistent, commercially focused and effective HR function across the region.

How You'll Make an Impact

As HR Director – UK & Europe, you will:

• Lead the people agenda and HR delivery across our UK and European operations, creating a consistent and commercially focused approach across the region.
• Partner senior functional and operational leaders, translating business priorities into clear people, workforce and organisational plans.
• Act as a trusted adviser to senior leadership, bringing insight, challenge and pragmatic solutions to complex people and organisational decisions.
• Lead organisation design and workforce planning, ensuring structures, roles, management layers and capabilities are aligned with business requirements.
• Partner with Finance and operational leaders to improve visibility and management of headcount, labour costs, vacancies, overtime, agency usage, absence and turnover.
• Lead significant organisational change, restructures, operating model changes and cross-border transformation programmes.
• Drive a strong performance culture, ensuring effective objective setting, performance differentiation, development and management of underperformance.
• Lead talent and succession planning across the region, identifying critical roles, high-potential talent, capability gaps and retention risks.
• Coach and challenge senior leaders on leadership effectiveness, team performance and organisational capability.
• Provide senior oversight of complex employee relations and consultation matters across multiple European jurisdictions.
• Ensure employment practices remain legally compliant while balancing employee impact, commercial requirements and business risk.
• Support reward, workforce budgeting and annual pay processes, ensuring Group frameworks are implemented effectively across the region.
• Champion HR transformation, including HRIS adoption, process standardisation, manager self-service, improved data quality and workflow automation.
• Lead, coach and develop the regional HR team, building capability and shifting the focus from reactive HR support towards commercially focused business partnering.
• Support wider Group organisation, talent, succession and transformation priorities alongside the VP HR and wider HR leadership team.

What You'll Bring

We are looking for an established HR leader who combines strategic capability, strong commercial judgement and hands-on HR expertise.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Substantial progressive HR leadership experience, with responsibility for multi-site and preferably multi-country HR delivery.
• Experience gained within manufacturing, distribution, industrial or another complex operational environment.
• A strong track record operating at Head of HR, HR Director or senior HR Business Partner level, partnering executive and senior functional leaders.
• Demonstrable experience of organisation design, workforce planning, restructuring, consultation and significant organisational change.
• Strong UK employment law knowledge combined with practical experience of managing employee relations and employment risk across European jurisdictions.
• Experience working with works councils, employee representatives and local employment-law advisers where appropriate.
• A proven track record of leading and developing HR teams and building stronger commercial business-partnering capability.
• Senior-level experience across talent, succession, performance, workforce planning and reward.
• Strong commercial and financial awareness, including an understanding of headcount, labour cost, productivity and workforce budgeting.
• Confidence using people data and analytics to identify trends, challenge assumptions and influence business decisions.
• Experience of HR transformation, HRIS implementation or process standardisation would be highly advantageous.
• Experience within a private-equity backed, acquisitive, transformation or fast-changing environment would also be beneficial.
• CIPD Level 7, an equivalent senior professional HR qualification, or demonstrably equivalent experience.
• Executive presence and the confidence to constructively challenge senior leaders and take a clear position on difficult people or organisational decisions.
• Excellent communication, influencing and change leadership skills across different countries, cultures and leadership levels.
• The ability to operate strategically while remaining willing to get hands-on with critical issues when required.
• Flexibility to travel regularly across the UK and Europe.

This is an opportunity for a commercially minded HR leader who wants to make a visible impact across an international business. You’ll help shape how we organise, lead and develop our people while building an HR function that is consistent, agile and closely connected to business performance.