Senior People Business Partner / HR Business Partner (HRBP)

Rowden; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Bristol seeks a Senior People Business Partner to support and challenge managers in building high-performing teams. The role involves strategic partnership, workforce planning, and driving change initiatives within a fast-paced environment. Ideal candidates will have strong communication skills and experience in managing complex people challenges. Flexible working arrangements are offered.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Inclusive company culture

Opportunities for professional development

Qualifications

• Experience in a fast-paced, high-growth business.
• Experience advising leaders on people-related matters.
• Strong capabilities in performance management and onboarding.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor to managers on people-related matters.
• Lead workforce planning initiatives and align headcount with business goals.
• Support cross-functional change initiatives and champion company culture.

Skills

High emotional intelligence

Excellent communication skills

Strong business acumen

Coaching mindset

Job description

Overview

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Senior People Business Partner / HR Business Partner (HRBP)

Department: Operations

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Bristol, UK

Reporting To: Faye Turner

Compensation: GBP 60,000 - GBP 70,000 / year

Description

As we grow, we're looking for a Senior People Partner (HR Business Partner/HRBP) who will support and challenge managers to build high-performing, engaged teams. This is a critical role, with the ability to have a big impact on the company as it grows.

The ideal person will be able to flex between strategic and operational work, working closely with senior leaders, building trust quickly and solving complex people challenges in a scaling business. You'll work within the People & Culture team, reporting to the Head of People, and act as a strategic business partner to our engineering teams, who make up the biggest proportion of our workforce. Your role will span everything from team design and workforce planning, to performance management, coaching, and change leadership. You'll be a hands-on partner to managers and teams - perfect for someone who doesn't want a traditional back-office HR role.

Formal HR credentials are welcome, but are genuinely not essential. What matters most is your drive, ability to learn, and ability to work with people to deliver high-impact results.

Key areas of responsibility

As Senior People Business Partner at Rowden, you will be responsible for:

Strategic people partnering

• Serve as a trusted advisor to functional leads and managers, providing insight and guidance on people-related matters
• Manage complex employee relations issues in a complex environment
• Support managers in attracting, assessing and selecting the right people for their teams
• Partner with managers to identify high-potential talent and create strong succession plans
• Identify gaps in learning and development and design relevant programs leveraging internal or external resources
• Drive implementation of career development frameworks

Coaching and mentoring

• Coach managers to navigate performance evaluation and development conversations with confidence and clarity.
• Deliver training and tooling that empowers managers to lead well and scale team culture effectively.

Workforce planning

• Lead and support workforce planning initiatives, partnering with Talent and Finance to align headcount with business goals.
• Design scalable people structures and frameworks that can evolve with business complexity.

Supporting change

• Support and lead cross-functional change initiatives, enabling new ways of working and helping teams adopt them successfully.
• Champion Rowden's culture, values and behavioural expectations through your overall approach and interactions.

Key skills, experience and behaviours

We are looking for someone that is motivated by impact, passionate about solving people-focused problems and driven to create a culture that enables us to meet our goals as a business. You'll gain loads of experience in this role but before you do, you should have:

Essential Skills & Experience

• Experience operating in a fast-paced, high-growth business (ideally tech, engineering, or similar).
• Experience advising leaders on people, team or organisational matters - whether through HR, operations, consulting or other strategic roles.
• Exposure across the full people lifecycle including effective onboarding, workforce planning, and performance management.
• Strong business acumen to quickly understand skills and responsibilities across technology focused roles and technical project delivery.
• High levels of emotional intelligence and strong coaching mindset.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence at all levels and win trust quickly.
• Experience delivering business-critical projects or organisational change involving people.
• The ability to bring structure and sound judgment to difficult problems.

About you:

• Happy to get hands-on and work autonomously.
• Bias for action, strong prioritisation, and comfort with ambiguity.
• Maintains confidentiality and handles sensitive information with discretion.

Desirable (but not essential)

• Experience within People/HR, Operations, or Strategy roles.
• Exposure to employee relations and UK employment law.
• CIPD qualifications

More information about security clearance is available here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetti...

Working at Rowden

We're building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don't meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we'd still love to hear from you!