Senior HR Manager

Our client is a leading creative communications agency specialising in entertainment, with offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, and Dubai. Following significant international growth across teams and divisions, the business is now seeking a Senior HR Manager to help embed robust people processes while preserving its long-standing, people-first culture.

This role will act as the central HR lead for UK and US teams, balancing hands-on operational delivery with forward-looking HR planning. The successful candidate will be a confident, commercially minded HR leader who can partner closely with the business during a period of continued change.

Key Responsibilities

Operational HR

• Develop, implement, and maintain HR policies, procedures, and systems, ensuring compliance with UK and US employment legislation.
• Act as the primary point of contact for day-to-day HR guidance for managers and employees across the UK and US.
• Manage complex employee relations matters, including grievances, disciplinaries, performance, and absence.
• Oversee HR administration and data integrity through the Breathe HRIS.
• Design and manage inclusive, compliant recruitment processes, working with external partners where required.
• Ensure consistent, best-practice onboarding and offboarding processes across regions.
• Regularly review and update HR policies and documentation to reflect legal, cultural, and organisational change.
• Introduce and standardise new policies across countries where appropriate, ensuring clear communication and understanding.
• Develop and report on key HR metrics, providing accurate insights to the leadership team.
• Support pay review cycles, salary frameworks, and development planning to ensure fairness and scalability.
• Ensure clear, consistent job descriptions are in place to support role clarity and career progression.

Culture & Employee Experience

• Champion and evolve a culture that reflects the company’s creative, collaborative values.
• Deliver employee engagement surveys and translate results into actionable improvement plans.
• Implement initiatives that support employee development, recognition, and retention.
• Partner with Heads of Department to align people objectives with the company vision.
• Establish and maintain clear performance and behavioural standards across the business.
• Define skills and capability frameworks to support promotions and progression.
• Identify and benchmark key talent to enable merit-based pay and promotion decisions.
• Develop succession plans for critical roles.
• Collaborate with managers to build structured training and development programmes at all levels.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• Proven experience in a senior HR leadership role.
• Strong working knowledge of UK and US employment law, with experience managing complex ER cases (in-house or via legal partners).
• Demonstrable experience designing and delivering operational HR initiatives.
• Track record in organisational development, policy implementation, and culture management.
• Experience leading inclusive, compliant recruitment processes.
• High proficiency with HR systems and technologies.
• Experience supporting geographically dispersed UK and US teams.
• Experience in rlevant industry sectors such as Media, Communiations, PR, Events, Talent Management will be of value.

Personal Attributes

• Empathetic, approachable, and emotionally intelligent.
• Strong relationship-builder with the credibility to influence at all levels.
• Proactive, solutions-focused, and commercially aware.
• Adaptable and resilient in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Technical & Professional Skills

• Strategic mindset with the ability to align HR initiatives to business objectives.
• Strong analytical capability, using HR data to inform decisions.
• Effective project management skills, with the ability to lead initiatives end-to-end.
• Up-to-date knowledge of HR best practice, systems, and digital tools.

Education

• CIPD Level 7 or equivalent.
• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business Administration, or a related discipline (desirable).

(Salary on offer based upon experience)