Business and Human Rights Advisor in London

Human Level, a business and human rights advisory services firm with a non‑profit arm, is recruiting for up to two Advisors to lead work to equip companies to respect human rights in practice in their business operations and supply chains.

Location: London

Contract type: Full-time (0.8 FTE is a possibility)

Salary and other benefits: See below

To apply: Send the following three items to Rianna:

• A two-minute video explaining why you feel you would be a good fit for this role
• A cover letter detailing why you feel you meet the expectations of the role, using the five key attributes for the role described below as headers for five sections in the letter. Please share examples of how you have demonstrated these skills in practice, where possible.
• A CV

Please note that we will not consider applications that do not contain these three items. If there is a specific reason for not sending the three over, please state this in your cover email.

About Human Level

Our Vision

The business of today is one that is human rights proactive, not reactive. We envision a world in which people are front and centre of the transition to a sustainable economy. We empower companies to be human rights confident in a rapidly changing world. We bring business back to the human level – ensuring people come first, at all levels of the business.

Our Advisory Services

We work with companies to build practical solutions to place people front and centre of their business, grounded in international methodologies, company experiences and leading practices. We act as an expert partner, a sounding board, and a critical friend.

We amplify knowledge, research and insights that will help companies be human rights confident. We translate concepts into actionable learnings. We convene conversations and spaces to move the field forward. We service the Human Level content hub and we provide a listserv resource that is read by thousands of leading practitioners in the field every week.

Our clients

Our services are in high demand and we are privileged to choose who we work with. We work with forward‑looking, global companies and organisations across continents. We prioritise work in the agricultural, apparel, renewable energy and mining sectors in particular, in light of their fundamental importance to the just transition to net zero.

Our team

We have offices in London and New York, and we work with a pool of Advisory Partners in other countries.

By applying internally recognised human rights methodology throughout our clients’ businesses, we help companies:

• Gain the confidence that human rights policies are being met, not just talked about
• Get on the front foot when it comes to meeting evolving human rights, social and environmental risks
• Move away from tempting quick fix solutions that may make matters worse for people on the ground
• Find a way through the sometimes‑competing expectations of employees, civil society organisations, investors and regulators

We are working at the cutting edge of human rights, environmental and climate inter‑connections, which includes supporting companies in connecting the dots between their environmental, climate and human rights work and strategies.

We provide support in the following areas:

• Embedding a rights‑respecting culture throughout the business
• Advising Board members and Senior leaders on strategy
• Enabling human rights, climate and environmental teams to create inter‑connections between their work and implement a just transition
• Leading quality human rights impact assessment processes
• Identifying the most salient human rights risks facing the business
• Designing effective, outcomes‑based mitigation measures
• Developing quality, forward‑looking remedy and grievance channels
• Crafting effective performance indicators and tracking processes
• Communicating openly, genuinely and with authenticity to stakeholders

The Position

The Advisor will work closely with the Human Level team members to support companies in bringing a rights‑based approach to their work – including their transition to net zero. The Advisor will manage and lead forward‑looking client projects, while empowering other team members to meaningfully and proactively contribute to projects. The Advisor will be responsible for ensuring we meet our vision through the projects we deliver. There is a significant opportunity for growth and impact at scale through this role. It will entail three days in our office at Aldgate East. It may entail some limited travel.

We are looking for five key attributes for the role. Could this be you?

1. Substantive knowledge

   You have applied, in‑depth understanding of:

   • the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Guidelines
   • internationally recognised human rights
   • how companies operate – from the inside
   • the eco‑system within which companies operate, and the drivers for sustainability/ climate/ human rights respect

   Desirable: the agricultural, apparel, or the renewable energy/ mining sector

   We are particularly interested in hearing about your knowledge of the UN Guiding Principles and how you have navigated complex internal dynamics within companies to further advance human rights respect.

2. Facilitation and presentation skills

   You are comfortable:

   • presenting to an audience in an easy to understand and engaging manner in fluent English
   • leading a room of various stakeholders to achieve impact
   • responding to challenging questions

   We are particularly interested in hearing how you have successfully presented complex topics to internal audiences and your approach to facilitation.

3. Team and project management

   You are comfortable:

   • project managing client projects, which includes breaking projects down into clear phases with specific deliverables and timeframes; proactively advancing multiple project components at once and keeping the team on track to meet goals; monitoring time forecasting and staying within allocated budgets; and finding solutions to scope of work changes.
   • wearing multiple hats and taking on different types of tasks as part of a small, dynamic organisation.

   We are particularly interested in hearing how you have successfully navigated multiple projects simultaneously.

4. Attention to detail and rigour

   You are comfortable:

   • crafting polished deliverables with strong attention to detail
   • providing rigour in analysis
   • reviewing detailed legal texts and other relevant documents

   We are particularly interested in examples of your eye to detail and applied rigour.

5. Strategic and creative vision

   You are:

   • able to provide strategic, and creative direction for clients in the private sector.
   • comfortable with uncertainty on the way ahead
   • able to apply creativity to how we advance
   • comfortable crafting bespoke solutions to complex challenges.

   We are particularly interested in hearing examples of how you have demonstrated this skill in practice.

Pre‑requisites

You have:

• the right to work in the UK. (Sponsorship is a possibility, please indicate in your letter if you would need sponsorship.)
• the ability to work from our office in Aldgate East, London, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
• experience working in a company or as an external advisor to companies

We are eager to play our part in empowering underrepresented groups in this field, and encourage you to apply if you are from one of these groups.

What we will offer you

We are driven by impact: we evaluate on a monthly basis whether the work we are doing is in alignment with our values and enabling us to meet our mission.

Our refreshed 2025 strategy helps us further ensure that we are putting our time where it matters.

You will play a central role in helping us deliver high‑quality services to our clients and to our non‑profit arm.

A rights‑centred culture and values

We take our values and our commitment to human rights seriously. You can find our values and our Code of Conduct here: undertake a number of activities to live up to our values on a daily basis, including dedicated team sessions and trainings, professional growth opportunities, and charity donations.

We prioritise a positive, collaborative working culture and working as a team towards shared goals.

Working tools, training and advancement

We are a learning organisation and we will actively seek out opportunities for growth for you.

We have a fractional Human Resources manager and a dedicated structure to ensure we support all team members with professional growth and advancement.

Package

Competitive salary commensurate to experience

Reimbursement of certain lunches & commutes (as top up to salary)

10 fully paid sick days per annum

3% contribution to workplace pension scheme

London office dedicated space

Flexible start and finish times

Ability to work from overseas for certain periods of time