People Director

About the job

Verian Group is looking for a Director, People & Culture to oversee the people experience in the UK. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this role involves shaping a cohesive global culture and maintaining operational efficiency and compliance.

In this role, a hands-on approach is essential, initially aiming to boost efficiency and implement best practices within the function. The team is dynamic, but very busy - necessitating a self-driven and pragmatic individual who can work independently and discern the necessary actions.

Exciting times lie ahead for the people team as we set up a best practice function. Looking towards 2026, the role will transition into a more strategic position, enabling us to craft a compelling roadmap and advocate for crucial matters.

What you’ll do:

• Regional People Leadership: Oversee all People Operations functions for international regions, ensuring a consistent and positive employee experience.
• Culture & Engagement: Champion Verian Group’s global culture, driving initiatives that foster engagement, inclusion, and alignment with business strategy across diverse regions.
• Strategically balance the Verian Group experience with effective implementation, adapting programs and policies to meet needs while maintaining overall consistency.
• Performance Management: Support and manage global performance management for Verian Group and help us launch a new process for 2026.
• Compensation & Benefits: Liaise with Global People Operations and the global BPs to administer benefits programs, ensuring consistency, accuracy and compliance with regional regulations.
• Employee Relations (ER): Provide expert guidance and support on all employee relations matters, resolving issues effectively and fairly while adhering to local labour laws. This might include internal grievance processes, complaints, performance issues and redundancy processes.
• Compliance: Ensure all people policies, programmes, and operations comply with local labour laws, regulations, and cultural nuances across all international sites.
• Talent Development: Define local talent development and enablement needs and partner with Talent Lead to design and deliver relevant programming.
• Strategic Partnership: Collaborate closely with peers and other functional partners, to inform, roll out, and champion people initiatives globally.
• Budget Management: Manage and oversee budgets, ensuring resources are allocated effectively and spending aligns without global People, Culture and Workplace priorities.

Skills and knowledge you should possess:

• Extensive progressive, impactful experience in Human Resources or People Operations, with a significant portion dedicated to international or regional responsibilities within a dynamic, fast-paced, challenging environment.
• Strong understanding of people operations across multiple international jurisdictions including benefits administration, employee relations, and performance management.
• Proven ability to build a successful people team in a challenging, global environment.
• Strong understanding of various international labour laws and cultural considerations and significant experience in managing ER processes.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and cross-cultural collaboration skills.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business needs into effective people solutions.
• A proven track record of partnering effectively with various stakeholders, including senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Brings extensive knowledge of international (with a focus on UK) labour and employment laws to ensure compliance, mitigate risk, and guide best practices across our global People, Culture and workplace initiatives.

Values:

Verian’s values guide the behaviours for all our employees globally. They are:

• Uncompromising objectivity – we are rigorously independent. Our advice is rooted in evidence and understanding.
• Purposeful problem-solving – we are agile and creative thinkers, solving complex challenges directly and proactively.
• Passionate expertise – we are committed to excellence. This is seen in the quality of our delivery to clients, as well as in our investment in technology innovation, leading methodologies, and the skills and expertise of our people. Our curiosity fuels our desire to learn continuously
• Humble confidence – we let our work speak for itself, because we know it is the outcomes we deliver for our clients that matter most.
• Respectful candour – we are direct and sincere communicators. The mutual respect and shared mission we have with our colleagues and clients deserve nothing less.