Director of People in London

The Director of People will be responsible for continuing the transformational journey of Shoosmiths’ people function into a high‑performing, commercially focused, operationally excellent business enabler. This role ensures our people strategy directly underpins our ambition to be a top‑tier law firm by 2030 servicing client excellence internationally. Working collaboratively with the other Business Services functions to ensure we operate with a mindset of being client‑centred, business‑led, financially excellent, future‑enabled law firm.

As a key member of the senior leadership team, the Director of People will drive strong return on investment from all People initiatives, embed a culture of supportive high performance, streamline and standardise processes, and ensure our talent strategy, systems and operations support profitability and long‑term growth. This role reports to the COO and partners closely with the CEO, Divisional Heads, People Directorate leadership, and Business Services leaders as well as working with the firm’s Chair to support partner processes and remuneration process and drive the firm’s culture.

The People Directorate is made up of four areas:

• Business advisory and specialist projects (headcount 11)
• People experience and reward (headcount 12)
• Performance and talent (headcount 12)
• Responsible business and talent acquisition (headcount 13)

Each area is headed up by a motivated and well‑respected leader with 48 people across the whole directorate.

Main Responsibilities

• Strategic people leadership
  • Translate Shoosmiths’ 2030 ambition and People Directorate objectives into a clear people strategy that is operational, measurable, and commercially grounded.
  • Position People as a business‑critical partner: driving performance, profitability, future skills, and workforce optimisation.
  • Lead firmwide cultural evolution towards supportive high performance, with clear expectations, strong accountability, and a mindset of continuous improvement.
  • Support the Chair in reviewing, refreshing and communicating partner processes, including remuneration processes.
  • Champion "Client Centred. Business Led. Financial Excellence. Future Enabled" in all people policies, systems and processes.
  • Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership team on people matters and business change initiatives.
• Operational excellence & process modernisation
  • Drive a modern, efficient, digitally enabled People function with streamlined processes.
  • Drive and oversee delivery and optimisation of People operational services, ensuring consistency, quality and scalability.
  • Lead the transformation of People systems, including preparation for the implementation of a new HRIS in 2027.
  • Embed data accuracy, reporting excellence, and a single source of truth for people data.
  • Introduce a clear People Process Library and ensure policy frameworks are current, simple, and aligned with business needs.
  • Ensure the employee and partner lifecycle is efficient and modernised through the roll‑out of ServiceNow and other digital workflows.
• Performance, talent & workforce planning
  • Lead the refinement and embedding of the new performance management process, ensuring clarity of expectations and reward alignment.
  • Embed supportive but robust performance conversations, stewardship behaviours, and transparent succession planning.
  • Oversee talent reviews, talent maps, promotion pipelines, and divisional talent strategies aligned to financial leverage and market growth.
  • Lead workforce planning ensuring the firm has the right roles, skills and structures to deliver profitable revenue growth and effective leverage.
  • Define future skills requirements and oversee programmes supporting AI‑enabled working, leadership capability, and manager development.
  • Support and deliver the firmwide talent acquisition strategy, ensuring hiring plans are aligned to growth ambitions, financial targets and workforce plans across the business.
  • Define and deliver a firmwide emerging talent strategy, including trainees, apprentices, and early career professionals, ensuring a sustainable pipeline of future skills and leadership capability.
  • Evolve the firm’s employer brand and employee value proposition, ensuring Shoosmiths is positioned strongly in the external talent market and differentiated from competitors.
• People Experience, Culture & Engagement
  • Ensure all People offerings (talent acquisition, advisory, employee relations, operations, onboarding, development, reward, responsible business and DE&I) deliver a consistent and exceptional employee and partner experience.
  • Strengthen onboarding, probation, and returner processes to ensure colleagues are equipped for high performance early.
  • Ensure an inclusive, diverse environment and equitable and inclusive processes aligned to Shoosmiths’ values.
  • Support evolution of employee networks and People Experience initiatives.
  • Drive a culture of supportive high performance ensuring our unique and celebrated approach is maintained and protected through periods of change and growth.
  • Lead external market and competitor benchmarking across reward, talent and workforce models, ensuring the firm remains competitive and informed in people decision making.
• Reward, recognition & financial discipline
  • Lead the development and refinement of reward frameworks, including bonus scheme revisions and benefits optimisation.
  • Ensure reward structures drive a performance‑led culture and support talent attraction and retention.
  • Embed financial understanding across managers and leaders, linking people decisions to profitability and commercial outcomes.
  • Ensure People initiatives have clear ROI, with transparent business cases, cost discipline, and measurable outcomes.
• Leadership of the People Function
  • Provide visible leadership across the People directorate, ensuring teams are high‑performing, collaborative, and business focused.
  • Coach, inspire, and develop the People leadership team and wider People function.
  • Lead organisational design and role clarity across the People Directorate.
  • Foster a culture of innovation, self‑service, continuous improvement, and proactive partnering with the business.
  • Provide clear financial leadership across the People Directorate, with robust budgeting, cost management, forecasting, and reporting that supports informed decision‑making and accountability.
  • Own and actively manage the People Directorate risk profile, ensuring risks are anticipated, mitigated, and governed in line with the firm’s appetite and strategic objectives.

Skills & Qualifications

• Essential experience
  • Senior strategic HR leadership experience within a professional services, partnership, or multi‑site environment.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver operational transformation, including process re‑engineering and HR technology modernisation.
  • Proven track record embedding high performance cultures with clear accountability and measurable improvement.
  • Experience driving data‑led decisions, people analytics, reporting suites and insight generation.
  • Strong commercial acumen with proven ability to connect people initiatives to business performance, revenue growth and profitability.
  • Experience influencing senior stakeholders and supporting leaders through change.
  • Deep understanding of modern talent, performance, and workforce planning models.
• Desirable Experience
  • Previous leadership of People functions internationally through periods of organisational transformation.
  • Partner remuneration management or oversight.
  • Experience overseeing or implementing new HRIS platforms.
  • Legal sector or wider professional services experience.
  • CIPD or equivalent qualification.

Skills & Behaviours

• Commercial & financial mindset: Able to link people strategy to firm performance, profitability, and growth.
• Operational discipline: Passion for streamlined processes, consistency, and "running on rails".
• Data & technology orientation: Confident with HR tech, analytics, and system optimisation.
• Leader of change: Able to drive cultural evolution, challenge constructively, and build alignment.
• High emotional intelligence: Builds trust and credibility at all levels.
• Strategic & hands‑on: Capable of setting the vision while rolling sleeves up when required.
• Outcome focused: Always looking for simplification, efficiency, and measurable improvement.
• Supportive high performance: Clear expectation‑setting combined with coaching, support, and accountability.
• Passion & energy: Engages the business with passion and energy to build understanding, trust and momentum.

Equal opportunities

Our approach to our people is underpinned by our approach to diversity, inclusion and well‑being. Our ambition is to build a diverse and ambitious workforce that reflects all backgrounds and talents, and a workplace that is supportive and inclusive, recognises and nurtures talent, and has a strong sense of community between colleagues. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.