People Operations Manager Premium Fashion Brand – Europe – London

Mode is proud to be partnering with a prestigious global premium fashion brand seeking an experienced People Operations Manager for Europe. This role offers the opportunity to work within a world-class retail environment, delivering exceptional experiences. This global business is performing very well in the market and can offer strong progression opportunities. This role requires 2 days in the office and the rest from home, and will report to the Head of People operations.

The role includes:

• Owning day‑to‑day people operations across the employee lifecycle, from offer and onboarding to offboarding and alumni.
• Maintaining accurate employee records and overseeing HRIS administration, ensuring data integrity, access controls and reporting.
• Coordinating payroll inputs and reconciling changes (new starters, leavers, variable pay, benefits) with Finance and external providers.
• Managing benefits administration and renewals; evaluating vendors and driving continuous improvement in offering and employee experience.
• Acting as the first point of contact for people queries, providing pragmatic advice to managers and employees and escalating complex ER matters appropriately.
• Maintaining compliant policies and processes aligned to UK employment law and best practice; leading periodic policy reviews and updates.
• Supporting performance and talent cycles (goal‑setting, check‑ins, reviews, calibration) and coaching managers on process and outcomes.
• Partnering with leaders on headcount planning, hiring operations and onboarding to deliver a consistent, high‑quality experience.
• Tracking and analysing people metrics (e.g., headcount, turnover, absence, DEI, engagement) to generate insights and recommendations.
• Delivering key projects across HR operations, including process automation, documentation, SLAs and service delivery improvements.
• Supporting learning & development coordination (needs analysis, scheduling, tracking) and culture/engagement initiatives.
• Ensuring compliance with right‑to‑work, health & safety, GDPR and record‑keeping requirements; managing audits as needed.
• Building strong cross‑functional relationships with Finance, Legal, IT and Workplace to enable smooth employee experiences.

Requirements:

• Proven experience in a People Operations / HR Operations role within a scaling or fast‑paced RETAIL environment, ideally fashion retail.
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law, with sound judgement on when to escalate ER matters.
• Hands‑on HRIS administration experience (e.g., maintaining fields/flows, permissions, audits and reporting).
• Confident working with data: able to build dashboards, interpret trends and translate insights into action.
• Payroll coordination experience and comfort partnering with Finance and external providers.
• Process‑minded with a knack for simplification, documentation and continuous improvement.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; trusted, discreet and employee‑centric.
• Comfortable operating autonomously, prioritising across multiple workstreams and meeting deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail with a bias to action and service orientation.
• CIPD Level 5 (or equivalent practical experience); Level 7 or further certification is a plus.

To apply, please send your CV or click the apply button. Please note: due to high volumes of interest, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.