Lead People Partner

Greencore; Hatfield; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days leave

Pension contributions

Life insurance

Share-save scheme

Employee discount

Wellbeing platform

Parental leave

Training & development

Job summary

Greencore, a leading UK convenience food creator, is seeking a Lead People Partner for the Hatfield depot and surrounding region. You will guide the regional People team across nine distribution centres, partnering with site leaders to prioritise people initiatives and drive performance.

You will lead employee relations, engagement, and development activities, ensuring compliance with employment law while coaching managers to deliver strong people conversations and outcomes.

Qualifications

• CIPD MCIPD or FCIPD level required.
• Proven operational HR or People leadership experience.
• Experience in food manufacturing preferred.
• Logistics or distribution experience preferred.
• Knowledge of employment legislation and employee-relations practice.

Responsibilities

• Lead regional People team across nine distribution centres.
• Partner with site and functional leaders on people priorities.
• Provide day-to-day leadership to People team members across the region.
• Lead employee relations and engagement initiatives, including union/rep engagement.
• Work with Centres of Excellence to support talent, succession and development activities.
• Ensure compliance with employment legislation and data protection policies.
• Coach line managers to manage performance and have effective people conversations.

Skills

CIPD MCIPD/FCIPD

People leadership

HR leadership

Multi-site operations

Employment law knowledge

Education

CIPD MCIPD/FCIPD

Job description

Following the combination with Bakkavor in January 2026, we’re one of the UK’s leading creators of convenience food, driven by a simple purpose: to make every day taste better.

As a vibrant and fast-moving business, we’re proud to employ over 28,000 colleagues across 36 manufacturing sites and 21 distribution depots in the UK and US. Together, we bring food to life across every meal occasion, from breakfast through to dinner and dessert, with lunch and snacking in between. In FY25, our combined revenues were approximately £4bn.

Our extensive direct-to-store network allows us to deliver fresh and frozen food—both our own products and those from trusted partners—to thousands of stores every day.

What you’ll be doing

As our Lead People Partner, you’ll lead the regional People team supporting nine distribution centres across the South of England and South Wales.

You will:

• Partner with site and functional leaders to deploy people priorities, providing pragmatic advice, challenge and insight to support leadership, team performance and business objectives.
• Provide day-to-day leadership and direction to People team members across the region, ensuring clear priorities, strong capability and consistently high standards of delivery.
• Lead colleague engagement agenda, communication and colleague-voice activity.
• Lead employee-relations activity, including effective engagement with trade unions and colleague representatives, ensuring fair, consistent and timely outcomes.
• Work with our Centres of Excellence to support talent, succession and development activity across the region.
• Ensure compliance with employment legislation, data protection, People policies and our human-rights agenda.
• Build line-manager capability by coaching leaders to manage performance, conduct effective people conversations and apply policies confidently and consistently.

This is a permanent role based at our Hatfield depot. The position supports a regional depot network, so regular travel across southern England and South Wales will also be required.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for an experienced operational People leader who can build trusted relationships, provide practical support and remain calm and effective in a demanding environment.

You’ll bring:

• CIPD qualification at MCIPD or FCIPD level.
• Proven operational HR or People leadership experience within a fast-paced environment.
• Experience in food manufacturing would be particularly valuable.
• Logistics or distribution experience is preferred, although strong transferable experience from another demanding, multi-site operational setting will also be considered.
• Current knowledge of employment legislation and employee-relations practice.
• Experience working with a diverse workforce and leading and developing high-performing teams.
• The ability to balance competing priorities, exercise sound judgement and handle sensitive employee-relations matters pragmatically.
• A proactive, organised approach and the drive to deliver results.

What you’ll get in return

• Competitive salary and job-related benefits.
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays
• Competitive matched pension contributions.
• Life insurance up to four times salary.
• Company share-save scheme.
• Exclusive Greencore employee discount platform.
• Access to a company wellbeing platform.
• Enhanced parental-leave and menopause policies.
• On-the-job training and development opportunities throughout your time at Greencore.

If you’re an operational People leader who enjoys taking ownership, supporting frontline teams and making a practical difference across a fast-moving regional network, we’d love to hear from you.