HR Business Partner - Projects - 2 Year FTC in Northwich

Thank you for checking out our vacancy, we are delighted you want to learn more about joining Dechra. A career at Dechra is different. Sure, we are a growing global company with a presence in 27 countries but our purpose is simple - to achieve the sustainable improvement of animal health and welfare globally.

If you want to be part of a team that invests in your future and ensures you have the support to reach your full potential and thrive, please read on.

The HR Business Partner (Project) acts as a partner to the Project team, ensuring all people-related elements of the project are effectively designed, managed, and delivered. The role provides insight, organisational design, and coaching to support business-critical change initiatives and ensure workforce readiness.

Role Responsibility

• Translate business and project objectives into a clear, commercially focused people plan.
• Design and deliver project-specific people plans that meet timelines and drive successful adoption.
• Identify and mitigate people-related risks associated with project delivery.
• Support operating model development, including role design, capability mapping, and structure changes.
• Provide insight and challenge on organisational design implications arising from project requirements.
• Ensure role responsibilities, capability expectations, and handoff points are clearly defined.
• Shape workforce plans to ensure project-critical capabilities are in place.
• Identify skill gaps and partner with CoEs and leaders to develop capability uplift plans.
• Drive leadership and manager capability development relevant to the project.
• Support people-related components of transformation and change initiatives, ensuring readiness and adoption.
• Drive cultural alignment and embed values and behaviours linked to project outcomes.
• Manage stakeholder expectations, communication flow, and change impact assessments.
• Act as a trusted advisor to project sponsors and leaders, offering insight and challenge.
• Influence decision-making on talent, structure, capability, and future ways of working.
• Provide coaching to leaders navigating organisational and cultural change.
• Contribute to the development or enhancement of HR processes, frameworks, and toolkits required to support project implementation engaging with the wider People & Culture teams.
• Ensure recruitment, performance, onboarding and L&D processes support project objectives.
• Lead project-aligned talent reviews and succession planning for impacted or critical roles.
• Support delivery of a high-performance culture aligned with transformation priorities.
• Ensure seamless integration of specialist expertise into project workstreams.
• Maintain accurate documentation of project decisions, risks, mitigations, and change governance.
• Support compliance with employment law, policy, and organisational change requirements.
• Develop and maintain regular communication with leaders, project teams, and impacted employees.
• Proactively manage stakeholder expectations and create engagement plans to support change.

The Candidate

Here at Dechra we pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We know that individuals' unique background and experience can bring a wealth of variety and expertise to our global workforce. For this role, we are particularly keen to hear from those who have/are:

• Proven experience in HR Business Partner or People Partner roles.
• Strong experience supporting transformation, restructuring, or projects.
• Knowledge of organisational design, change management, and workforce planning.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Ability to interpret data to support decisions, risks, and project interventions.
• Experience partnering with leadership teams.
• Strategic thinker able to balance long term vision with short term requirements.
• Strong relationship builder with excellent communication skills.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to drive clarity and structure.
• Commercial mindset with a focus on value and impact.
• High emotional intelligence and resilience during change.
• Experience working within a matrix, global, or multi-site environment.

Additional Information:

Occasional global travel may be required with this role. This role is based in Northwich / hybrid.

What we can offer you:

33 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays).