HR Manager - Contact Solar - Hybrid - Chorley, UK in Cheadle Heath

The HR Manager is Contact Solar’s senior people lead, holding end‑to‑end accountability for the people strategy, HR operating model, and employment risk across the business. Operating with significant autonomy, this role acts as the primary advisor to leadership on all people matters, balancing commercial priorities with strong governance, compliance, and employee experience. This is a hands‑on yet highly strategic role, responsible not only for day‑to‑day HR delivery but for shaping scalable, efficient people practices that support business performance and future growth. The HR Manager owns HR decision‑making, sets direction for the people agenda, and ensures the organisation is equipped with the systems, policies, and capability required to operate effectively in a fast‑moving commercial environment.

The role offers a competitive salary alongside a hybrid working arrangement, giving you the flexibility to balance your time between the Contact Solar office in Chorley and working from home. Success in the role will be measured by the quality of people decisions, strength of people foundations, and the function’s contribution to sustainable business outcomes.

Key Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• Strategic People Leadership & Commercial Partnership: Owns and delivers the organisation’s people strategy, ensuring alignment with commercial objectives, operational priorities, and growth plans. Acts as the senior HR advisor to leadership, providing pragmatic, commercially focused guidance that supports productivity, performance, and effective decision‑making. Brings independent challenge and external insight to people discussions, ensuring leadership decisions are evidence‑based and risk‑aware. Anticipates people‑related risks and opportunities, proactively advising on mitigation, cost control, and workforce sustainability.
• HR Operating Model, Infrastructure & Systems: Holds accountability for designing, implementing, and continuously improving a scalable HR operating model, appropriate to the organisation’s size and stage of growth. Leads the implementation, optimisation, and governance of HRIS and people systems to drive efficiency, automation, and data integrity. Owns third‑party HR, payroll, and benefits relationships, ensuring value for money, service quality, and alignment with business needs. Ensures HR processes are pragmatic, proportionate, and enable the business to move at pace without compromising control.
• End‑to‑End Employee Lifecycle Ownership: Accountable for the full employee lifecycle, ensuring consistent, legally robust, and commercially aligned approaches to recruitment, onboarding, performance management, development, reward, and exits. Sets standards and frameworks for performance and capability management that support accountability and delivery. Manages workforce change activity professionally and compliantly, ensuring organisational risk is controlled and employee impact is managed appropriately.
• Employee Relations, Governance & Risk Management: Acts as the final point of authority on employee relations matters, providing expert judgement on complex and sensitive cases. Owns HR policy development and interpretation, ensuring compliance with UK employment law and minimising legal, financial, and reputational risk. Maintains oversight of ER trends and root causes, using insight to inform preventative action and improve manager capability. Ensures consistent application of people policies and employment decisions across the organisation.
• Culture, Engagement & Leadership Capability: Shapes and sustains a high‑performance culture aligned to organisational values and commercial priorities. Designs and delivers targeted engagement and wellbeing initiatives that are evidence‑based and deliver measurable impact. Builds management capability through coaching, guidance, and training, with a focus on leadership effectiveness, accountability, and employment risk awareness.
• People Data, Insight & Decision Support: Owns the integrity, quality, and governance of people data as a core business asset. Develops and presents meaningful people insights and metrics to leadership, enabling informed decisions on workforce planning, cost, risk, and performance. Uses data to evaluate the impact of people initiatives and continuously improve people outcomes in line with business objectives.

Requirements

• Proven experience in a senior HR generalist or HR Manager role within a commercial or fast‑moving UK environment.
• Ideally CIPD qualified (or equivalent experience).
• Proven track record of operating with end‑to‑end accountability for a people function, balancing strategic leadership with hands‑on delivery.
• Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to assess people decisions through the lens of cost, risk, and organisational impact.
• Demonstrated experience implementing, owning, or optimising HRIS platforms and HR infrastructure.
• Up‑to‑date, in‑depth knowledge of UK employment law and best practice.
• Highly organised and credible, with the confidence to operate autonomously and influence senior stakeholders.

Additional Information

This job description outlines the principal responsibilities of the role. The HR Manager is expected to operate flexibly and undertake additional duties as required to support evolving business objectives and organisational needs. By applying to this role, you acknowledge that your application details will be shared with Contact Solar for the purposes of recruitment and selection. Your information will be handled securely and used only in connection with this hiring process.

Closing date for applications: 8th May 2026

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