Lead HR Business Partner - Europe

Role: Lead HR Business Partner – Europe

Salary: c.£120,000 – £140,000 plus bonus

Remit: Europe

Manager: Group HR Director

Location: London-based (2 days per week in office)

We are supporting a high growth international organisation through a period of significant growth and transformation, seeking to appoint a Lead HR Business Partner, Europe - based in London.

This is a newly defined, senior position that will act as the primary strategic partner to the European leadership team, responsible for shaping and driving the People & Culture agenda across multiple markets. The role combines strategic influence with operational delivery and will suit a seasoned HR leader comfortable operating across complexity, pace, and change.

The Opportunity

As the senior HR business partner for Europe, you will:

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the European leadership team, aligning people strategy with business goals and performance outcomes.
• Translate group priorities into actionable local plans, ensuring alignment across diverse jurisdictions.
• Lead all HR generalist activity across Europe, ensuring excellence in governance, compliance, and employee lifecycle management.
• Partner with HR Centres of Excellence (Talent, Reward, Employee Relations, and Operations) to drive consistency, quality, and integration.
• Build leadership capability, talent pipelines, and succession frameworks across key European markets.
• Champion a culture of engagement, inclusion, and high performance.
• Support people aspects of transformation, M&A, and market expansion.

About You

We’re looking for a strategic, commercially minded HR leader who brings:

• Extensive HR business partnering experience across Europe, ideally in multi-entity or matrixed organisations.
• Deep understanding of European employment law and employee relations, particularly within Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
• Proven success advising and influencing senior leaders within complex, evolving businesses.
• Broad generalist expertise across the full HR spectrum — from talent and reward to organisational design and culture.
• Experience operating in regulated, PE-backed, or fast-growth environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, coupled with sound commercial judgement.
• Excellent interpersonal, coaching, and influencing skills, with a pragmatic and collaborative style.
• Fluency in English is essential, along with proficiency in at least one additional European language — ideally French, German, or Dutch.

The Person

You will be:

• Pragmatic, credible, and culturally astute, with the confidence to operate at senior levels.
• Collaborative, focused on building capability and enabling performance.
• Resilient, hands-on, and adaptable, able to move fluidly between strategic thinking and operational delivery.
• Motivated by growth, transformation, and shaping a high-performing people function in an international context.

Confidential Enquiries

This is a retained search appointment representing a dynamic, international organisation with ambitious growth plans and a progressive approach to People & Culture across Europe.

For an initial confidential conversation, please contact Jenna stocks via jenna.stocks@middlemore.co.uk , or apply directly via LinkedIn.