People Operations Partner (14 month - Fixed Term Contract)

People Operations Partner Fixed-Term Contract: November 2026 to January 2028 Are you an experienced HR professional who enjoys solving problems, improving how things work and creating a great employee experience? We’re looking for a People Operations Partner to join our People & Culture team on a fixed-term basis, supporting employees and leaders across the UK and Europe. This is a broad, hands-on role where you’ll be involved across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and employee changes through to benefits, payroll support, learning and offboarding. You’ll also have the opportunity to help us evolve how we deliver People services, including making greater use of automation and AI-enabled tools. We’re looking for someone who is comfortable working in a fast-moving environment, can build strong relationships with different stakeholders and, importantly, looks beyond simply fixing an issue to ask: how can we stop this happening again? What you’ll be doing As part of our UK & European People team, you’ll: · Act as a key point of contact for employee and manager HR queries, providing clear, practical and timely guidance. · Manage employee lifecycle activities within Workday, ensuring data and employee records are accurate and well maintained. · Support the offer, contract, pre-onboarding and Day 1 experience for new starters. · Coordinate employee changes and offboarding, working closely with HR Business Partners, IT and other specialist teams. · Support the administration of employee benefits across our European markets, partnering with our Reward team. · Assist with European payroll activities, ensuring accurate and timely inputs. · Support onboarding, learning and development activities, including training coordination and maintaining learning records. · Work alongside HR Business Partners on more complex employee cases and People projects. · Help maintain policies, processes, employee documentation and HR knowledge articles. · Support internal and external audits and wider HR governance activities. · Identify opportunities to simplify, automate and improve People processes, reducing manual activity and improving the employee experience. · Partner with IT to explore and develop AI-enabled solutions and automated workflows, including tools such as Microsoft Copilot Agents. What we’re looking for You’ll ideally bring: · Previous experience using Workday HCM. · At least 3 years’ experience within an HR advisory, People Operations or similar HR generalist role. · Experience administering employee benefits within at least one European market. Experience across multiple countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy or Finland would be advantageous, but isn’t essential. · Experience working across different areas of the employee lifecycle. · Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to work with employees, managers and senior stakeholders. · Excellent attention to detail and confidence managing sensitive and confidential employee information. · Strong organisational skills and the ability to balance competing priorities. · A practical understanding of compensation, benefits and/or payroll would be advantageous. · Exposure to HR automation, AI-enabled tools or technologies such as Microsoft Copilot would be beneficial, but you don’t need to be a technical expert. More than anything, we’re looking for someone who... Is proactive. You don’t just resolve the problem in front of you. You look for the underlying cause and consider how a process, system or way of working could be improved to prevent it happening again. Enjoys continuous improvement. You’re curious about how things could work better and are comfortable suggesting and implementing improvements. Is adaptable. We have established ways of working and a clear plan for what we want to achieve, but priorities can change. You’ll be comfortable reprioritising, learning quickly and finding new ways to get things done. Is a strong communicator. You’ll work with a wide variety of stakeholders across different functions and countries, so you’ll be equally comfortable communicating clearly in writing and in conversation. Enjoys being part of the team. This is a hybrid role with an expectation of being in the office 2 to 3 days per week. There will also be occasions when office attendance is essential, including supporting new starters and in-person audits, so you’ll need to be comfortable with that balance. Why this role? This is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys the variety of People Operations but also wants to influence how HR services are delivered. You’ll join at a time when we’re looking at ways to make our processes smarter, simpler and more scalable across Europe. You’ll therefore have the opportunity not only to deliver a great service today, but to help shape and improve it for the future.