Senior HR Leader Europe

Confidential Jobs; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading renewable energy firm is seeking a Senior Commercial HR Leader to drive their growth across Europe. This pivotal role requires expertise in people strategies that align with commercial needs. Responsibilities include embedding HR in business units, translating commercial strategies into workforce plans, and building effective talent acquisition processes. The ideal candidate will have a strong HR background in high-growth environments, excellent stakeholder skills, and fluency in English. Regular travel across Europe is required for this mission-critical position.

Qualifications

• Proven experience scaling people operations in high-growth, multi-country companies.
• Experienced in discussing P&L and translating commercial needs into people outcomes.
• Success in building scalable people processes during rapid growth.

Responsibilities

• Embed in business units to understand revenue drivers and operational challenges.
• Translate P&L strategy into workforce plans and hiring priorities.
• Design people strategies for rapid scale and talent acquisition.

Skills

Commercial fluency

Excellent stakeholder skills

Strong communication

Multi-country experience

Fluent English

Job description

About the opportunity

Our client is a fast‑growing renewable energy company rapidly scaling across Central, Eastern and Western Europe. They’re expanding operations, teams and markets while accelerating the energy transition through innovative clean energy solutions.

The role — Your commercial HR leadership impact

We are seeking a Senior Commercial HR Leader who truly gets the business. You will be embedded with commercial operations — sitting shoulder‑to‑shoulder with sales, operations, project delivery and finance — translating commercial needs into people strategies that accelerate growth and protect margins. This is a senior, pan‑European role with regular travel (approx. 2–3x / month) to markets.

Key responsibilities

• Be the commercial people partner : embed in business units to understand revenue drivers, operational challenges and talent bottlenecks.
• Translate P&L and commercial strategy into workforce plans, hiring priorities, and performance frameworks that support deal delivery and margin management.
• Design and deliver people strategies for rapid scale : talent acquisition, onboarding at pace, leadership development, retention and succession for key roles.
• Build organizational effectiveness : break down silos, improve cross‑functional performance, and shape the leadership behaviours needed for commercial success.
• Lead culture and change : nurture a commercial, high‑performance and accountable culture while preserving entrepreneurial agility.
• Build a business‑facing HR function : hire / develop an HR team fluent in commercial language and set up HR operations that support complex, cross‑market change.
• Partner with finance on people cost modelling and with legal / COEs on compliance for multi‑jurisdictional growth.

Experience and skills we’re looking for Must‑have

• Senior HR leader with proven experience scaling people operations in high‑growth, multi‑country companies (ideally in energy, industrials, infrastructure, tech or renewables).
• Genuine commercial fluency : comfortable discussing P&L, margins and cost drivers; proven experience translating commercial needs into people outcomes.
• Track record of embedding in commercial teams (sales, delivery, finance) and influencing at executive level.
• Demonstrable success in building scalable people processes during rapid growth and leading cross‑market cultural transformation.
• Excellent stakeholder and influencing skills; strong communicator.
• Fluent English; additional European languages (German, Polish, Romanian, etc.) are advantageous.
• Willingness to travel c.2–3 times / month across Europe.

Nice‑to‑have

• Experience with international workforce planning and commercial hiring at scale.
• Hands‑on experience with HRIS, sourcing partners and building talent pipelines across markets.
• Experience in project‑based businesses (project delivery, EPC, O&M).

Why this role matters

This is a mission‑critical leadership position where your commercial HR expertise will directly shape the company’s growth trajectory and impact the energy transition across Europe. You’ll build the People function for an organisation scaling fast — with real ownership and visibility.