People Operations Manager in London

Reporting into the Head of People, the People Operations Manager will be highly experienced and operationally focused to shape and elevate our People Operations function. This newly created role will lead a small but impactful team, including the People Operations Administrator, to deliver seamless employee lifecycle processes, ensure compliance and governance, and empower our regional People Partnering teams with data-driven insights and operational excellence.

As the Manager of our shared service hub, you’ll oversee first line support for employees across EMEA, APAC, and MENA, ensuring consistent, compliant, and people-centric operations. You’ll also collaborate closely with our small team in North America, sharing best practices to ensure alignment and consistency across regions. Your work will be instrumental in building scalable processes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and enabling a globally connected and operationally excellent people function.

What We’re Looking For

• Operational Leadership: Owns complex, cross-regional processes and confidently drives scalable improvements that enhance efficiency and employee experience.
• Proactive Problem-Solving: Anticipates challenges, identifies root causes, and implements solutions before issues escalate, even in ambiguous or fast-changing environments.
• Challenging the Status Quo: Regularly reviews and questions outdated processes, championing innovative, people-centric, and compliant ways of working.

Human Skills

• Empathetic Support: Guides the team to act as a trusted first line of support, applying policy with empathy and fairness in all employee interactions.
• Collaborative Partnering: Builds strong, respectful, and productive relationships with regional People Leads, cross-functional teams, and external partners.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information with discretion.
• Culturally aware and adaptable in supporting diverse international teams.

Smart Skills

• Global Operational Expertise: Demonstrates deep knowledge of international HR operations, compliance, and governance frameworks.
• Data Fluency: Leverages data to generate insights, shape decisions, and equip regional teams with meaningful and actionable reporting.
• Systems Thinking: Designs processes with an understanding of how people, systems (HRIS), and operations interconnect within the global ecosystem.

At Talon, our People Team is at the heart of everything we do, spanning both the UK and North America. We’re a dynamic, people-first team that lives and breathes our three core values — with “human” always front and centre. We’re collaborative, approachable, and committed to driving meaningful people initiatives, backed by strong support from the business.

Talon is an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ and develop a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and brands that we represent.