Group HR Director

Role: Group HR Director

Sector: Structural Steelwork / Construction

Location: UK-based. Travel to manufacturing sites and international offices.

Reports to: Group CEO / Main Board

Package: Competitive. Full details at shortlist stage

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

The business has grown. Headcount has increased. The geographic footprint has expanded. A European acquisition has brought new teams, new cultures and new employment frameworks into the group. At the same time, the UK manufacturing workforce is ageing, the pipeline of skilled labour is thinning, and the competition for good people in structural steelwork is as fierce as it has ever been.

The board has recognised that people strategy cannot sit as a secondary function reporting into operations or finance. It needs its own seat at the top table. This appointment has been created to give it one.

If you have been the most senior HR leader in a business but never had the board seat, this is the role that changes that.

WHAT THE JOB ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE

This is a group-level HR leadership role. That means workforce planning, talent strategy, organisational design, employee relations, reward, learning and development, culture, and integration. Across six sites. Across three countries. Across a workforce that spans factory floor welders, site erection teams, project engineers, estimators and a corporate centre.

But the real substance of this role comes down to three things:

1. You build the people strategy that supports the growth plan. The business is scaling. That means workforce planning that actually connects to the order book, not just headcount forecasting done in a spreadsheet once a year. You need to understand where the pinch points are, where the talent gaps will appear before they appear, and how to build a pipeline that keeps six factories and a project portfolio fully resourced with the right people.

2. You lead the post-acquisition integration and build one culture across three countries. The European acquisition has brought capability and scale. It has also brought different employment law, different works council structures, different ways of working and different expectations. Someone needs to knit this together into a single group culture without flattening what makes each part of the business work. That someone is you.

3. You sit at the board table and make the case for investment in people. This is not a role where you present an annual engagement survey and hope for the best. You are on the board. That means making the commercial case for investment in training, apprenticeships, leadership development and reward. It means influencing capital allocation decisions by connecting people strategy to business outcomes in language the board understands. Numbers, not sentiment.

RESPONSIBILITIES IN FULL

Lead development and delivery of the group people strategy aligned to corporate objectives, growth plans and operational requirements across all divisions and geographies. Oversee all HR operations including talent acquisition, workforce planning, employee relations, reward and benefits, learning and development, organisational design and HR systems.

Drive the people integration workstream following the European acquisition, including cultural alignment, harmonisation of terms and conditions where appropriate, and engagement with works councils and local employment frameworks. Build and maintain strong relationships with trade unions, works councils, legal advisors and regulatory bodies across all operating jurisdictions.

Implement HR governance, reporting and analytics to provide the board with visibility on workforce risk, talent pipeline health, retention, diversity and succession planning. Champion health, safety and wellbeing as an integrated part of people strategy, working closely with operational leadership across manufacturing and site-based environments.

Mentor and develop HR teams across the group, building capability and embedding consistent best practice across regions and facilities. Represent the business externally on people and skills agendas, including industry forums, apprenticeship bodies and educational partnerships.

WHO THIS PERSON IS

You have significant senior HR leadership experience in construction, manufacturing, engineering or a closely related sector. You have run an HR function at group level or divisional level within a multi-site, operationally complex business. You understand what it means to lead people strategy in an environment where the workforce includes both factory-based manufacturing and mobile site teams. You have done this before, or you have operated close enough to it that the step up is earned, not speculative.

You have experience of post-acquisition integration, ideally involving a cross-border element. You understand European employment frameworks well enough to have a credible conversation with works councils and local legal advisors, even if you are not an employment lawyer yourself. You know that integration is not about imposing head office policy on an acquired business. It is about finding the common ground and building from there.

You are commercially minded. You understand P&L, you can read a balance sheet, and you know how to present a business case for people investment that lands with a board of directors who think in terms of margin, order book and shareholder value. You do not lead with HR theory. You lead with outcomes.

You are a strong communicator. You can hold your own in a boardroom, on a factory floor and on a construction site. You are comfortable with ambiguity, pragmatic under pressure, and direct when directness is what the situation needs. You build trust quickly because you say what you mean and you follow through.

You care about developing people. You have built HR capability in organisations where it did not previously exist at the level it needed to. You have introduced apprenticeship programmes, leadership development, succession planning or skills frameworks and you have made them stick, not just launched them.

SKILLS AT A GLANCE

Group-level people strategy development and execution across multi-site, multi-country operations. Post-acquisition people integration including cultural alignment and employment framework harmonisation. Workforce planning connected to operational demand and order book pipeline. Board-level reporting, governance and commercial articulation of people investment. Employee relations across UK and European jurisdictions including works council engagement. Talent acquisition, retention and succession planning in skilled trades and professional disciplines. Learning, development and apprenticeship programme design and delivery. HR analytics, systems and data-driven decision-making.

REMUNERATION

Competitive senior management package commensurate with the scale and complexity of the role. Full details will be discussed with shortlisted candidates during the recruitment process.

LOCATION

UK-based with regular travel to manufacturing sites and international offices as required.