Director, HR Employee Relations

Our client focuses on developing first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutics that provide meaningful advances to patients who live with serious and life-threatening rare genetic diseases.

Join a pioneering organization dedicated to developing groundbreaking therapeutics for patients with rare genetic diseases. As the Director of HR Employee Relations, you will serve as a strategic leader, shaping our employee relations practices across our client's US operations. This critical role offers the opportunity to influence organizational culture, promote a fair and inclusive workplace, and partner with executive leadership to foster a high-performance environment.

Leveraging your expertise, you will oversee conflict resolution, policy interpretation, and legal compliance, ensuring that employee concerns are addressed with integrity and professionalism. If you thrive in a rapidly evolving setting and are passionate about creating supportive work environments, this role provides an exceptional platform to make a meaningful impact.

Working with the People Partners across the People function, this position is responsible for ensuring that employee relations issues are addressed in a robust, consistent, appropriate, and legal expectations and guidelines are fulfilled for both the employee and the company. This role will work closely with our partners in Legal and in Compliance.

Responsibilities include for the role include (but are not limited to):

• Overseeing the management of the employee relations processes and procedures to enable effective conflict resolution, and problem solving.
• Conducting, overseeing, and assisting employee relation issues to manage employee concerns and grievances and to identify and implement appropriate action and accountability practices.
• Identifying a fair and inclusive process appropriate for employee concerns or grievances including the leading of fact-finding, appropriate due diligence, and investigations to ensure the adherence to employee relations policies and practices.
• Staying attuned to organizational and operational changes across the company to identify potential employee relations risks and develop plans to address proactively.
• Providing guidance and coaching to managers of all levels to address employee behavior and performance.
• Providing guidance and assisting with the development and delivery of appropriate performance feedback or action plans including corrective/disciplinary actions.
• Overseeing the use of effective documentation techniques and maintaining accurate, confidential records regarding all reported matters and fact-finding documentation.
• Interpreting and applying understanding of Employee policies and practices, employment law, and other regulations to provide guidance or clarification on ER matters.
• Maintaining the highest level of integrity when managing employee relations issues and managing reported matters.
• Experience of alternative dispute resolution, specifically workplace mediation.
• Working collaboratively and proactively with other teams, within Legal, Compliance and Payroll to develop an approach that provides the best support to the business.
• Providing guidance aligned to supporting leaders to competently deal with investigations, disciplinaries, grievances, performance management issues / sickness, sensitively in line with policy principles.
• Providing insight to ensure the continued development of relevant employment related people policies and procedures.
• Supporting training initiatives and the continual development management toolkits for leaders.
• Proactively working with leaders to enable them to competently manage people issues promptly using best practice approaches & people policies principles
• Maintaining up to date knowledge on employment case law and associated legislative changes and effectively utilize this knowledge
• Ensuring ER cases are recorded, tracked, and proactively managed to conclusion or hand off to the relevant Strategic Business Partner.

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in employee relations or a related HR function
• Proven expertise in conflict resolution, investigations, and dispute mediation
• Strong knowledge of US employment laws, regulations, and compliance standards
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving abilities
• Strategic mindset with the capacity to advise senior leadership effectively
• Ability to handle sensitive issues with tact and discretion
• Skilled in documentation, record-keeping, and case management
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex, high-stakes situations with professionalism

• Experience working in biotech, pharmaceutical, or highly regulated industries
• Background in organizational change management and proactive risk mitigation
• Additional certifications such as SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or employment law qualifications
• Fluency in handling alternative dispute resolution and workplace mediation techniques
• Familiarity with employees  wellbeing, diversity, and inclusion…