Human Resources Business Partner in Horsham

Located in vibrant Horsham, Breathe isn’t your typical SaaS business. Private equity owned, well‐funded, with over 16,000 customers and an average 6 years' LTV (a rarity in the SaaS industry), Breathe is the number 1 HR Software for SMEs in the UK. Our work culture is award‐winning, with talented people committed to driving impact while having fun together.

Our Values: What We Live By

• People First: Every decision we make is about our people. We ARE the people‐first company.
• Be Better Tomorrow: Every day, we challenge ourselves to learn, grow, and improve—individually and as a team.
• Strive with Impact: Every action we take makes a difference—to our employees, our customers, and our business.
• Seek Out Efficiency: We scale smart. We innovate. We find ways to work better, not harder.

Why is this role important?

As our People Partner, you’ll act as a strategic advisor to senior stakeholders, driving the employee experience across the full life cycle with a people‐first mindset and a deep passion for coaching, development, and a high‐performance culture. This role spans Breathe, Elmo UK, and Rotageek, supporting specifically the Product and Technology teams. We are looking for a candidate with extensive experience who can seamlessly flex across business units, unify approaches, and operate both strategically and operationally.

You will be a core member of our small but mighty People team. You’ll combine proven generalist experience with deep expertise in reward, analytics, leadership development, AI adoption, cultural transformation, and business integration, helping us build a high‐performing, inclusive, and scalable workplace.

Strategic HR Partnership

• Act as a strategic thought partner to senior leaders, helping to shape and deliver the people strategy.
• Champion a "people as a product" mindset, using feedback loops, continuous iteration, and user‐centric design in HR programs.
• Lead succession planning and talent mapping initiatives, ensuring a robust pipeline for future leaders.
• Drive organisational design and change initiatives, including integrations, restructures, and transformation programs.
• Partner with finance on workforce planning and cost forecasting, ensuring headcount aligns with strategic growth.
• Lead business integration efforts post‐acquisition or across group companies — harmonising people processes, aligning policies, and embedding culture consistently.
• Leverage AI‐driven people analytics to identify trends, predict risks, and support data‐led decision‐making.
• Design and manage salary banding, benchmarking, and reward frameworks.
• Lead annual pay and bonus review processes, ensuring fairness and competitiveness.
• Oversee benefits offering to ensure it evolves with employee needs and market best practice.
• Explore AI benchmarking tools to improve pay transparency and competitive positioning.

Coaching, Culture & Leadership Development

• Provide executive‐level coaching and mentorship to senior managers and team leads.
• Design and deliver high‐impact leadership development initiatives.
• Champion a culture of growth, ownership, inclusion, and high performance.
• Lead change management efforts to guide teams through significant transformation.
• Introduce AI‐powered learning platforms and digital coaching tools to scale leadership development.

HR Generalist & Operational Support

• Provide expert, people‐first guidance to managers and employees on complex HR and ER matters.
• Act as escalation point for high‐risk or sensitive ER cases, including investigations, senior exits, and restructures.
• Own and continuously improve HR systems and processes, ensuring compliance and operational excellence.
• Oversee end‐to‐end payroll processing in partnership with finance.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive HR tasks using AI, freeing up capacity for strategic initiatives.
• Maintain awareness of and be compliant with information security protocols in relation to your job role and handling of any data.
• Lead senior‐level recruitment, from sourcing to offer negotiation.
• Build and evolve learning and development initiatives, including leadership academies and tailored learning journeys.
• Leverage people data and analytics to track progress and inform development priorities.
• Adopt AI‐powered recruitment tools to improve candidate sourcing, reduce bias, and enhance candidate experience.

What We Value for This Role

We’re looking for a fantastic blend of experience and a passion for innovation! Here’s what will make you stand out:

• Seasoned HR Pro: Extensive HR generalist experience in a fast‐paced SME, tech, or SaaS environment.
• Structure Savvy: Significant experience with private equity (PE) and/or matrix organisational structures.
• Reward Expert: Deep expertise in reward, compensation, and benefits strategy.
• Change Leader: Skilled in change leadership, organisational design, and transformation programmes.
• Integration Specialist: Proven experience leading business integrations, aligning culture, policies, and processes during acquisitions or restructuring.
• Data Driven: Strong people analytics capability, building dashboards, forecasting workforce needs, and driving insight‐led strategy.
• ER Expertise: Experience managing complex ER cases, restructures, and high‐level change.
• Global Mindset: Confident in cross‐border HR practices, or eager to develop capability as our footprint expands.
• UK Law Savvy: Proficient in UK employment law and HR best practice.
• AI‐Literate: Comfortable adopting emerging technologies to streamline HR operations, improve decision‐making, and enhance employee experience.
• Tech‐Fluent: Tech‐savvy and comfortable with tools like Google Suite, Office 365, HRIS, ATS, Slack, Fellow, and AI tools.
• Empathetic & People‐First: You prioritise understanding and trust in everything you do.
• Mentor‐Minded: You enjoy guiding others and helping them grow to reach their full potential.
• Builder Mentality: You like to improve systems and innovate, not just maintain the status quo.
• Adaptable & Proactive: You anticipate challenges, act fast, and thrive in a dynamic environment.
• Collaborative: You bring others along and build strong relationships at all levels.
• Data‐Informed: You’re naturally curious and always looking for insight to drive decisions.
• Truly Inclusive: You embed DEIB values in everything you do.
• Growth‐Oriented: You believe learning never stops, for yourself and others.
• Innovative & AI‐Curious: You experiment with new tools, including AI, to enhance people practices.
• Integration‐Focused: You connect people, culture, and processes across multiple entities to create a unified employee experience.

Why You’ll Love It Here

• Time Off – 25 days holiday + your birthday off!
• Flexible Working – Hybrid role (50% in office is our minimum)
• Life Insurance – 2x salary
• Matched Pension – Salary exchange with 5% employer contribution
• Access to unlimited Professional Coaching – MoreHappi
• Volunteer Days – 2 per year to give back to the community
• Dog‐Friendly Office – Bring your four‐legged friend!
• Access to Mintago – Exclusive financial wellbeing through discounts and expert advice

Ready to join us? Apply Now! Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we’ll let you in on a secret: there’s no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. Breathe is a place where everyone can grow. So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day.

Breathe is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to join our team.

At Breathe, we are passionate about empowering HR with responsible, secure, and safe AI, aiming to be among the first in the UK to achieve ISO 42001:2023 certification. Handling sensitive employee data necessitates strict adherence to our ISO 27001:2022 Certified security policies, making data privacy and security paramount in every role.