Director of People Operations in Edinburgh

The People team develops the capabilities, culture and experiences that create a human and commercial edge for Baillie Gifford. We exist to make the firm the world's most distinctive place to grow a career, investing in our people with the same long-term conviction as our portfolios and continually reimagining how work is done to outpace the industry.

The team supports the full people lifecycle, including people operations, people partnering, leadership, learning and capability development, attraction and resourcing, organisational culture, reward, wellbeing and the end-to-end people experience. Through this work, we ensure that people and performance are deeply connected and that our colleagues are equipped to deliver long-term value for clients.

This role leads People Operations across Baillie Gifford, delivering clear, human-centred and technology-enabled services across our people lifecycle. The role protects organisational health, compliance, and trust, while enabling the wider People Team to focus on long-term value.

Responsibilities:

• Lead all People Operations activity, creating an integrated team that delivers high-quality, efficient, and human-centred services.
• Oversee employment law and complex people relations matters, ensuring fair outcomes, compliance, and policy clarity.
• Own people risk reporting, governance, and operational resilience for the People function.
• Lead change enablement, automation, and readiness for AI across people processes and ways of working.
• Own self-service platforms and the People technology roadmap, improving adoption, reliability, and colleague experience.
• Simplify policies and processes so it is easy for colleagues and people managers to do the right thing.
• Build and lead a service-oriented team that works in close partnership with the wider People Team and the business.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, and accountability within People Operations.
• Contribute as a member of the People Leadership Team to the overall People strategy.
• Represent the operational perspective of the People function in cross-firm projects and external discussions.

What success looks like:

• Clear, human people experiences: People Operations delivers simple, supportive services across the people lifecycle, from onboarding to exit.
• Strong organisational health, risk, and compliance: People risk is well understood, well managed, and proportionate to the firm’s long-term ambitions.
• Modern and effective people operations: People Operations uses technology well to remove friction and free capacity for higher-value work.
• Trusted people data and insight: People data is accurate, timely, and used to support sound decisions.
• An engaged, service-oriented people operations team: The team is confident, capable, and focused on continuous improvement.
• Leadership across the People Team: You provide clear operational leadership that strengthens the whole People Team.

Your knowledge and experience:

• Senior leadership experience running or transforming People Operations, Shared Services or people-adjacent operations in a complex, high-performing organisation.
• Experience leading operational services in regulated or risk-aware environments, with exposure to people risk and governance considerations.
• A track record of building service-oriented teams with clear accountability, strong partnerships and a focus on continuous improvement.
• Experience using HR technology, automation and digital tools to reduce friction, improve reliability and unlock capacity.
• Confidence working with people data and insight to support sound decisions and organisational planning.

The type of candidate that we’re looking for:

We’re looking for an exceptional operational leader who may not come from a traditional People background, but who has deep experience owning and improving services that matter at scale. You bring a systems mindset, strong judgement, and a genuine focus on building trust through delivery.

Critical skills:

• Systems thinking
• Digital effectiveness (including AI)
• Data Literacy
• Enabling others
• Improvement mindset

Additional information:

Instead of a cover letter, candidates are asked to submit a CV and short written responses (maximum 300 words each) to specific questions. We expect candidates may use AI tools thoughtfully as part of their application. We are interested in your judgement, prioritisation and trade-offs – not perfection.

Closing Date: February 12, 2026

At Baillie Gifford we are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful culture in which each of our colleagues can thrive and develop. We believe that our clients are best served by a diverse workforce with the experiences, ideas and perspectives that this brings.