Head of HR in London

At Safran, excellence is a journey – and we'd love you to be a part of it. As a trusted global leader in aerospace, defence, and space, we are proud to be a company where diversity, innovation, and opportunity come together to shape a sustainable future where we can all succeed together through a shared vision.

At Safran, we understand that diversity and inclusion make teams stronger and more effective, and as an organisation, we are committed to fair and equitable employment practices for everyone. We also know that some candidates may be put off applying for jobs where they don't meet 100% of the criteria outlined in the advert; however, we encourage anybody to apply if you can demonstrate a variety of skills and experience relevant to the requirements of this role.

Your Role

Reporting to the Power Division HR Director, the Head of HR will lead the UK HR function, responsible for delivering a high-impact people strategy across the SEP UK site (c.500 employees). This is a pivotal leadership role focused on creating an engaging, high-performance culture that enables the business to achieve its strategic objectives.

As a key member of the Site Senior Leadership Team, you will shape and drive the full HR agenda, ensuring the organisation attracts, develops, and retains the talent needed for continued success while maintaining the highest standards of compliance, governance, and employee experience.

• Lead and develop the site HR function, including direct leadership of the HR team and wider people agenda.
• Act as a strategic HR Business Partner to the General Manager and Senior Leadership Team, aligning people strategy to business objectives.
• Deliver the site People Plan, ensuring effective workforce planning, organisational design, and talent deployment.
• Manage employee relations, including leading Union relationships and consultation forums.
• Drive employee engagement, culture, and wellbeing initiatives aligned with global frameworks.
• Oversee talent management, succession planning, and capability development to address current and future skills needs.
• Ensure full compliance with employment legislation, company policies, and regulatory standards.
• Lead payroll governance, HR operations, and budget management (c. £1M), ensuring efficient and compliant service delivery.
• Oversee internal communications strategy, ensuring clear and consistent messaging across the site.
• Lead HR change and transformation projects, embedding best practice change management approaches.
• Ensure robust absence management and occupational health provision to support workforce wellbeing.
• Act as process owner for HR systems, KPIs, and continuous improvement initiatives (including EN9100 standards).
• Collaborate with regional and global HR teams to implement group-wide initiatives and drive organisational alignment.

Qualifications & Competencies

• CIPD qualified – Chartered level essential, Chartered Fellow desirable. Experienced with Advanced Diploma or equivalent.
• Proven experience in a generalist role at a senior level with strong generalist HR experience including coaching, employee relationship management, communications, absence, capability, conduct, L&D, resourcing and change management, across all levels of an organisation.
• Demonstrable experience of leading and motivating others, with proven experience of leading an HR team to high levels of performance. Ability to manage performance and lead others through change.
• Experience of working within a complex matrix structure, adding value to a site whilst deploying corporate initiatives.
• Experience of working in and leading a unionised site relationship with proven experience of pay negotiations.
• Experience of working with senior business leaders and able to establish personal credibility.
• High level of knowledge of current UK employment legislation and employee relations (e.g. GDPR, TUPE).
• Drive and deploy the site communications strategy, ensuring information is channeled professionally through a variety of resources.
• Proven results in delivering engagement improvement initiatives at a site level.
• Proven experience of leading and driving change programmes and proven track record of delivering HR projects.
• High energy and naturally collaborative approach.
• Adept at problem solving, with an ability to persuade and influence at all levels.
• Passion for continuous improvement (organisation and self).
• Flexible, responsive and highly customer focused.
• Emotionally resilient and able to plan and deliver at pace.
• Effective prioritisation of workload to meet stretching deadlines.
• Able to demonstrate confidentiality, tact and diplomacy.
• Comfortable in a fast paced global environment.
• Good attention to detail.