Head of HR

Head of HR

Final date to receive applications: 9 February 2026

Department: HR

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Donmar Warehouse Office

Reporting To: Director of Finance and Operations

Compensation: £55,000 37.5 FTE (pro rata for 30 hours a week)

Purpose of the role: The Head of HR at the Donmar Warehouse will partner with stakeholders across the organisation to support an excellent standard of staff management, welfare and engagement. Using proven skills and experience in HR generalism, recruitment and organisation design, the role will support the overarching strategy of the Donmar with a fit for purpose HR business plan and manage the full employee lifecycle.

The role will deliver on all aspects of HR operations, using a blended approach of staff welfare and culture with compliance and due diligence to keep our people and our organisation safe and thriving. The standalone role encompasses the full lifecycle of HR activity which includes business partner and business planning, through to administration and support of relevant workflows. The post works closely with the Head of Inclusion and Skills to ensure our training programmes are relevant, effective and embedded.

• Develop and deliver on an agreed HR business plan feeding into the Donmar’s current strategic plan
• Liaise with and support legal and consultant partners to respond to risks, prevention and responsive case management as necessary
• Provide regular and ad hoc reports up to and including Board level to show progress towards KPIs, highlight risks and propose solutions
• Build and manage the HR budget lines effectively and appropriately
• Develop and support a remuneration strategy with senior stakeholders including contractual and discretionary benefits and perks, pay bandings and benchmarking

• Partner successfully with relevant managers and staff across the Donmar to ensure they are supported and coached to deliver safe, effective and inclusive staff processes
• Ensure all staff processes and policies are compliant, intuitive and accessible for all of our people, keeping up to date with employment law changes, risks and improvements
• Lead recruitment and talent attraction campaigns and initiatives, supporting hiring managers to recruit safely, with inclusion and successfully
• Manage the HR side of payroll processing, working closely with Finance colleagues to ensure monthly pay is accurate and to deadline
• Manage all employee relations cases including investigations, disciplinary and grievance hearings, flexible working requests, capability processes and sickness management. Be able to manage complex and high-risk cases with colleagues of all levels. Liaise with external consultants and legal partners where appropriate particularly on ACAS, tribunal and county court proceedings.
• Manage any organisational change cases including restructures, redundancies and development
• Work with Operations and IT providers to ensure all HR related systems and software are fit for purpose, cost effective, with correct access permissions and regulatory compliance, drawing on data to write insightful reports showing trends and benchmarking standards
• Ensure all administration and support is provided to line managers against relevant HR workflows.

• Support the Head of Operations with mandatory technical and H&S training for the organisation
• Work closely with the Head of Inclusion and Skills to deliver staff inclusion, training and wellbeing initiatives, using information collected in the course of the role to inform and support objectives
• Develop people management capability, working closely with the Head of Inclusion and Skills to embed training, follow ups and refreshers, and promoting a consistent experience to our staff which is compliant with employment law and ACAS best practice, while providing agility for the nature of the organisation
• Actively contribute to the inclusion strategy by developing all HR processes to be inclusive, accessible and attract and engage with a diverse range of talent

• Strong knowledge of best practice HR processes,…