Your new companyYou will be joining a leading, global professional services organisation supporting one of its most strategically important market units. This business operates within a complex, fast-paced environment, delivering large-scale services to major public sector clients.With a strong focus on transformation, innovation, and people-led growth, this organisation offers the opportunity to work at senior leadership level, influencing both business strategy and workforce direction in a highly visible role.Your New roleAs HR Director, you will play a pivotal leadership role, reporting into the UK HR Director and working closely with senior business leaders. You will be responsible for shaping and delivering the people strategy for a large and complex business unit of 2,000+ employees.This is a hybrid, hands-on and strategic position where you will:
- Lead future workforce planning, aligning capability with client demand, digital trends, and business growth
- Drive talent attraction, retention and succession planning across critical roles
- Own employee engagement, culture, and inclusion, improving morale within a hybrid workforce
- Act as a strategic HR partner across major client engagements, bids, and transitions
- Partner with senior leaders to support business growth, performance, and transformation
- Provide coaching and challenge to leadership teams navigating change and complexity
- Lead across employee relations and industrial relations, including union engagement
- Champion D&I initiatives across the workforce
- Embed data-driven decision making using people analytics and reporting
This role is based in Shropshire with an expectation of on-site presence 3 days per week, alongside flexibility to travel between office, home, and client sites.What you'll need to succeedTo be successful, you will bring strong, recent experience operating at HR Director or People Director level (typically 3-5 years), ideally within a complex, matrix organisation.You will also demonstrate:
- Proven experience managing large-scale populations (2,000+ employees)
- Strong background in transformation, workforce planning, and organisational design
- Ability to influence and coach senior stakeholders at executive level
- Deep expertise in talent management, engagement, and culture building
- Experience navigating complex employee relations environments, including unions
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to link people strategy to business outcomes
- Experience using HR data and analytics to inform strategic decisions
- Exposure to regulated or public sector environments (advantageous)
What you'll get in return
- Day rate of £400-£550 (PAYE only)
- Initial 6-month contract with potential for extension
- Opportunity to work in a high-impact, senior leadership role
- Exposure to large-scale transformation programmes and major client engagements
- A hybrid working model offering flexibility and variety
What you need to do nowIf you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.
Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk