Director, Employee Relations & Compliance, EMEA

• We lean in: ownership over titles, outcomes over intentions.

The Role

This is our first Director of Employee Relations & Compliance for EMEA: a senior, hands-on role owning ER casework, employment law compliance and jurisdictional risk across Germany, the UK, Sweden, Italy, Spain and France.

Based in London, you'll be the standing authority on ER practice in the region. You'll own complex casework end to end, build dedicated ER capability where none exists today, and extend the strength we already have in Stockholm. You'll report to the EMEA People Director, with a path to running an independent function reporting to the CHRO as it scales.

What You'll Do

ER leadership and casework

• Own complex casework end to end across every market: investigations, grievances, disciplinaries, PIPs and terminations for cause, to a consistently high, legally sound standard.

• Be the escalation point when a matter turns complex, contested or legally weighted, for Local People Advisory and the wider People org.

• Hold the bar on case handling: written scoping, contemporaneous documentation, balance-of-probabilities findings, and independent second review of any outcome that could end employment.

Compliance and jurisdictional risk

• Own employment and ER compliance across all six markets: statutory notice and consultation, works council and union engagement, mandatory filings and register-keeping, and local implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive (disclosures run through a separate channel).

• Maintain the EMEA jurisdiction playbook and horizon-scan for legal changes, flagging implications to leadership early.

• Engage Employment Counsel at the right moment with a clear written scope, not as a late rescue.

• Note: comp-related compliance (pay equity, gender pay gap, benefits) sits with Rewards.

Team and capability building

• Build dedicated ER capability across EMEA, prioritised by risk and case volume, on the foundation of the Stockholm team.

• Certify and calibrate anyone running a formal ER process, keeping casework consistent as the team grows.

Stakeholder partnership and consistency

• Act as the quality check for Local People Advisory across EMEA (who sit in People Operations), signing off local ER and compliance work without managing those roles day to day.

• Partner with People Partners, People Operations, People Tech and Rewards so policy and tooling reflect what EMEA markets need.

• Turn case patterns into a regular, actionable view for People leadership.

• Work with your NORAM and APAC counterparts on one shared case taxonomy, system and calibration forum, representing EMEA's regulatory and cultural nuance in global standards.

What You'll Bring

• Significant experience leading ER, HR compliance or similar at a fast-scaling company, ideally across multiple EMEA jurisdictions.

• Deep, practical knowledge of employment law and ER practice across several of these markets, and comfort working outside your home jurisdiction.

• A track record of investigations, disciplinaries and terminations that hold up to scrutiny: calm, neutral and thorough under pressure.

• Experience building an ER or compliance function from the ground up: process, hiring, and getting a distributed team to one standard.

• Confidence as a senior, independent voice, comfortable escalating to and influencing leadership.

• Based in or willing to relocate to London, able to travel across EMEA.

What Success Looks Like

• Every formal ER matter across the region handled fairly, consistently and to a legally sound standard.

• A resourced, capable EMEA ER team, built out from London to the markets that need it.

• The wider People org treats this function as the standing authority on ER and compliance, not a bottleneck.

• A function ready to stand on its own, with a credible case for direct CHRO reporting.