Employee Relations Manager in Felixstowe

Location: Ipswich, Suffolk preferred or London

Hybrid: 3 days per week onsite

Salary: £70,000 - £75,000 + 5% bonus

Holiday: 28 days + bank holidays (rising to 30 after 5 years)

Pension: Up to 15% employer contribution

Closing Date: Thursday 19 March 2026

About the Role

The Employee Relations Manager will lead and oversee all aspects of Employee Relations across Sizewell C, ensuring ER cases are managed promptly, fairly, and in full compliance with UK employment law and the organisation’s values. As a trusted advisor to HR Business Partners and senior leaders, you will play a critical role in creating a transparent and consistent approach to conflict resolution, workplace investigations, policy governance, and union engagement. Your expertise will help shape a positive employee experience, strengthen organisational integrity, and support Sizewell C in delivering one of the UK’s most significant energy infrastructure projects - contributing to long‑term energy security and net‑zero ambitions. This is a rare opportunity to shape and define the ER function from the ground up within a highly complex, high‑profile environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the management of complex grievances, disputes, and disciplinary matters.
• Establish and oversee consistent conflict resolution approaches.
• Ensure robust processes are in place for sensitive investigations (e.g., misconduct, harassment, discrimination).
• Oversee preparation of formal findings and ensure compliance with legal standards.
• Design, review, and implement HR policies aligned with legislation and company values.
• Act as Policy Owner, leading the Sizewell C Policy Governance Group.
• Act as the organisation’s subject matter expert on employment law.
• Advise on the Employment Rights Act, ACAS Codes, consultation duties, and other key regulations.
• Mitigate legal risks through proactive guidance and case oversight.
• Maintain strong working relationships with Trade Unions.
• Support collective conversations and attend the Partnership Organisation Group (POG).
• Provide expert support on union‑involved cases.
• Train and advise managers on performance management, communication, and ER best practice.
• Provide guidance to HRBPs throughout the ER lifecycle.
• Use data from pulse surveys, ER metrics, and exit interviews to inform improvement initiatives.
• Identify trends and drive positive workplace initiatives.
• Own the relationship between Sizewell C and external legal advisors.
• Manage the annual legal budget (c. £100k), ensuring appropriate and timely use of advice.
• Lead the mapping and continuous improvement of the end‑to‑end ER process.
• Provide structured guidance to HR Business Partners on best practice workflows.
• Capture ER trends and deliver Management Information to senior leadership for visibility and action.

Workforce Complexity

You’ll provide ER expertise across a diverse and challenging workforce, including:

• Third‑party contractors
• Workers based overseas
• Multi‑partner ecosystems within a major national infrastructure project

About You (Knowledge, Skills & Experience)

• Degree‑level qualification (or equivalent) in HR, Employee Relations, Industrial Relations, or Employment Law.
• Strong, demonstrable experience in Employee Relations within a complex corporate or industrial environment.
• Deep applied knowledge of UK employment legislation.
• Experience working with Trade Unions on ER cases and consultations.
• Experience mapping ER processes and improving ER frameworks.
• Ability to manage complex ER cases independently and confidently.
• Industry experience in construction, infrastructure, engineering, or manufacturing.
• Experience working on large‑scale projects with mixed workforces (employees, contractors, contingent labour).
• Strong interpersonal skills: empathy, neutrality, resilience, and calm under pressure.
• Analytical capability with experience using HRIS / SAP and case management tools.
• Experience leading or conducting workplace investigations.

Why Join Sizewell C?

• Play a defining role in a nationally significant infrastructure project powering millions of homes.
• Shape a new ER function and influence organisational culture from day one.
• Work in a highly complex, dynamic environment that will accelerate your ER career.
• Contribute to the UK’s long‑term energy security and net‑zero commitments.
• Enjoy excellent development opportunities and the chance to work with industry‑leading experts.

Are you ready to Make an Impact? If you thrive in complex environments, enjoy leading high‑impact ER strategy, and want to be part of one of the UK’s most ambitious projects - we’d love to hear from you. Apply now!

Additional Information

Join the team at Sizewell C. Our vision is to Lead The Way On Nuclear. The Sizewell C team is one of the most exciting and largest new megaprojects in the UK, whilst being at the forefront of the UK’s climate change agenda and energy policy. We have begun constructing a 3.2‑gigawatt nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast in the East of England replicating, wherever possible, the design used for Hinkley Point C, another nuclear power station being built in Somerset. When built, Sizewell C will be one of the largest power stations to operate in the UK. The power station will generate low carbon electricity for at least 60 years, supplying over 6 million homes and supporting around 7% of the UK’s current electricity needs.

Our vision is to Lead The Way On Nuclear. We want Sizewell C to define what good leadership for the nuclear industry and British infrastructure looks like and deliver on it. We understand the feats of organisation, logistics, collaboration and imagination that building nuclear requires. We are building for the next generation for their home‑grown energy, energy price stability and ultra‑low carbon power in abundance. We also want to set the benchmark for maximising long‑lasting social value as we build and demonstrate how smart collaboration can work for the benefit of communities – locally, regionally and nationally.

We are the first nuclear power station in the UK to be funded under the Regulated Asset Base funding model (RAB). Our largest shareholder is the UK Government, alongside equity partners La Caisse, Centrica, EDF and Amber Infrastructure. Sizewell C operates within a complex and fast‑moving stakeholder environment, engaging with a wide range of partners including government bodies, regulators, local communities, supply chain partners, and international collaborators. This makes Sizewell C a uniquely stimulating place to work — where navigating evolving priorities, balancing interests, and building trusted relationships is just as critical as technical excellence. For those who thrive in dynamic, multi‑dimensional settings, it offers unmatched professional challenge and growth.

When joining Sizewell C, you may wonder why you are contacted by colleagues with an EDF email or see the EDF logo on portals that you access and/or documentation you receive; this is because we have partnered with EDF for the provision of a number of support services whilst we complete a successful transition out of the EDF group. At Sizewell C we encourage and embrace diversity and how it can improve our experience and performance at work. It is a requirement that those who join us have the right to work in the UK. Whilst sponsorship may be a possibility that we can explore, we are fully committed to local recruitment where possible, and those already holding the right to work in the UK. To be appointed to this role, you will need to meet the criteria for Security Vetting, which will, ordinarily, require you to have been a resident of the UK for at least three of the past five years.