Head of Employment - Director in Devon, Exeter

Up to £90,000 DOE | Permanent, Full-Time | Exeter, with European travel

Cathedral Appointments is recruiting on behalf of a growing international organisation for an HR Director to act as a commercially focused strategic HR leader and trusted support to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team. This is not a traditional corporate HR Director role: it is a genuinely strategic position, central to shaping organisational capability, leadership effectiveness and long-term business growth.

Based in Exeter, this role involves regular travel across Europe as part of the organisation's wider international operations. You will hold line management responsibility for an Exeter-based HR Manager, as well as a team based in Europe.

Operating across a complex, matrixed environment, the HR Director will drive organisational performance through strategic people leadership, organisational design, executive talent management and operational HR excellence. This role carries genuine influence at Board and Executive level, with clear accountability for driving organisational performance through people.

Responsibilities for the HR Director:

• Act as commercial partner and trusted advisor to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, shaping strategy through people, and providing commercially focused HR advice that supports business performance and decision-making.
• Define and lead the organisation's leadership, learning and development strategy, and implement an enterprise talent and succession strategy to build sustainable leadership pipelines and future organisational capability.
• Define and implement the organisation's reward strategy, including salary structures, market benchmarking and pay review processes, and lead the organisation's recruitment and talent acquisition strategy.
• Provide line management to an Exeter-based HR Manager and a team based in Europe, ensuring consistent HR delivery and standards across locations.
• Provide strategic oversight of employee relations and workforce risk, including restructures, organisational change and policy exceptions, ensuring commercially balanced outcomes.
• Oversee the alignment of HR programmes, policies, systems and governance frameworks across business units and jurisdictions, ensuring full compliance with employment legislation and regulatory requirements.

Requirements for the HR Director include:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Significant progressive HR experience, including senior leadership and team management.
• A proven track record operating in a strategic HR business partner capacity within complex, matrix organisations.
• Demonstrated success in organisational design, transformation and large-scale change initiatives.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to align people strategy to business performance.

If you are a commercially minded HR leader looking for a genuinely strategic role at the heart of an ambitious, international organisation, we would love to hear from you.