Senior Employee Relations Partner

Cytiva; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Cytiva is seeking a Senior Employee Relations Partner to design and lead the UK&I ER strategy, ensuring lawful, consistent, and commercially sound outcomes. You will collaborate with senior HR and business leaders to manage complex cases and guide change across multiple sites.

This role requires extensive experience in employee relations, including European frameworks, and a strong ability to influence without authority.

Qualifications

• Significant experience at Senior Employee Relations Partner level or equivalent.
• Proven track record advising senior leaders on high‑risk ER matters including restructures and ACAS early conciliation.
• Experience handling ER matters across UK&I with knowledge of European employment frameworks.

Responsibilities

• ER governance and risk management across UK&I with alignment to business objectives.
• Provide strategic direction and advice on complex ER matters to HR leadership and People Leaders.
• Manage a broad ER caseload including sensitive investigations and litigation coordination.
• Support organisational change initiatives and restructures with legally compliant outcomes.
• Coach ER specialists and HR colleagues to raise capability and consistency in case handling.

Skills

ER governance

Employment law

ACAS familiarity

Stakeholder management

Leadership coaching

Change management

Education

Law degree

CIPD Level 7

HR qualification

Tools

HRIS

MS Office

Job description

Bring more to life.

Are you ready to accelerate your potential and make a real difference within life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology?

At Cytiva, one of Danaher’s 15+ operating companies, our work saves lives—and we’re all united by a shared commitment to innovate for tangible impact.

You’ll thrive in a culture of belonging where you and your unique viewpoint matter. And by harnessing Danaher’s system of continuous improvement, you help turn ideas into impact – innovating at the speed of life.

Working at Cytiva means being at the forefront of providing new solutions to transform human health. Our incredible customers undertake life-saving activities ranging from fundamental biological research to developing innovative vaccines, new medicines, and cell and gene therapies.

At Cytiva you will be able to continuously improve yourself and us – working on challenges that truly matter with people that care for each other, our customers, and their patients. Take your next step to an altogether life‑changing career.

Learn about the Danaher Business System which makes everything possible.

The Senior Employee Relations Partner will be accountable for designing, owning and executing the Labour and Employee Relations strategy for the United Kingdom and Ireland, ensuring alignment with business objectives, workforce planning priorities, risk mitigation, and Cytiva’s long‑term organisational design.

While the primary focus of the role is employee relations matters across the United Kingdom and Ireland, the successful candidate must also bring demonstrable experience of working on employee relations matters in other European jurisdictions and/or a strong working understanding of European employment law frameworks. This wider European experience is essential for supporting European‑related matters, but it is intended to complement, rather than replace the primary focus of the role which is the UK and Ireland remit.

The role will include hands‑on case management and will provide strategic direction, governance and thought leadership across the UK&I employee relations landscape. The role will support the wider HR teams across the United Kingdom and Ireland and areas of Europe, ensuring that employee relations practices are aligned and undertaken in accordance with applicable legislation, company policies and Cytiva’s values.

This role will have primary responsibility for employee relations strategy across the United Kingdom and Ireland and will be responsible for handling casework across Cytiva’s UK&I non‑manufacturing and corporate workforce.

The role will report into the Labour and Employee Relations Director for the UK and Ireland and will be an on‑site role based at our offices in Amersham, Buckinghamshire or Portsmouth, Hampshire.

On‑site presence (5 days a week) is an essential requirement of the role due to the need to partner directly with senior People Leaders, support sensitive and confidential employee relations matters, attend leadership discussions, manage urgent escalations, and provide advice on matters affecting our non‑manufacturing workforce.

What You Will Do

• ER Governance and Risk: establish and maintain UK&I ER governance frameworks, ensuring consistency, legal compliance, appropriate escalation and defensible decision‑making across complex and high‑risk matters.
• European ER and Employment Law Awareness: apply experience of employee relations practice and/or employment law frameworks across other European jurisdictions where relevant, including recognising when matters require local legal input, regional consistency, or additional escalation, and to support on matters relating to the European Workers Council, while maintaining the primary focus on UK and Ireland employee relations matters.
• ER Casework and Advisory: manage a broad and varied employee relations caseload across the UK&I non‑manufacturing and corporate workforce, including routine, moderate, complex and sensitive matters. Provide clear, practical and legally informed advice to HR colleagues, Employee Relations Specialists and our People Leaders while identifying risk, determining appropriate case strategy, and ensuring consistent and defensible outcomes.
• Litigation and Pre‑Litigation: coordinate with external counsel and be involved in ACAS Early Conciliation matters, drafting of settlement agreements, and escalation of legal or reputational risk.
• Organisational Change: provide strategic ER support for restructures, reductions in workforce, changes to operating models and other transformation activity, ensuring legally compliant, consistent and commercially balanced outcomes.
• Functional Leadership: provide functional leadership, coaching and escalation support to ER Specialists and HR colleagues, strengthening ER capability and ensuring consistent standards of case management and outcome documentation.

Who You Are

• Significant experience operating at Senior Employee Relations Partner level or equivalent, including demonstrable experience designing and delivering an employee relations strategy across a complex, multi‑site organisation.
• Proven experience advising senior leaders on high‑risk employee relations matters, including organisational change, restructures, employment litigation, settlement agreements and ACAS Early Conciliation.
• Demonstrable experience working on employee relations matters in at least one European jurisdiction outside the United Kingdom and Ireland and/or a strong working understanding of European employment law frameworks, with the ability to apply this knowledge appropriately while recognising that the primary focus of the role is the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• Ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy, judgement and influence, including making recommendations on matters involving material legal, employee relations, reputational or business risk.
• Experience partnering with People Leaders and HR colleagues in a complex matrix environment, balancing legal compliance, business priorities, employee experience and consistent employee relations outcomes.
• Experience developing employee relations governance frameworks, analysing ER trends and translating data into strategic interventions and preventative action plans.

Travel, Motor Vehicle Record & Physical/Environment Requirements

Ability to travel across our sites in the United Kingdom, as and when required.

It Would Be a Plus If You Have a

• Degree in Law, Employment Law, Human Resources or a related discipline.
• CIPD Level 7 qualification or equivalent professional HR qualification.

Cytiva, a Danaher operating company, offers a broad array of comprehensive, competitive benefit programs that add value to our lives. Whether it’s a health care program or paid time off, our programs contribute to life beyond the job. Check out our benefits at Danaher Benefits Info.

Join our winning team today. Together, we’ll accelerate the real‑life impact of tomorrow’s science and technology. We partner with customers across the globe to help them solve their most complex challenges, architecting solutions that bring the power of science to life.

Join our winning team today. Together, we’ll accelerate the real‑life impact of tomorrow’s science and technology. We partner with customers across the globe to help them solve their most complex challenges, architecting solutions that bring the power of science to life.

For more information, visit www.danaher.com.

For more information, visit www.danaher.com.