About the Role
Our Senior People Manager plays a critical leadership role within our People Team, delivering high quality operational people support across the organisation. Acting as a trusted advisor to leaders and managers, this role leads on complex employee relations, manager capability, organisational effectiveness and people operations, ensuring a consistent, commercially focused and people centred approach across the business.
The role combines hands on operational leadership with proactive coaching and capability building, helping managers confidently lead their teams while ensuring people processes, policies and organisational standards are applied fairly, consistently and effectively. Working closely with the Group Director of People, our Senior People Manager will help shape and strengthen our people practices, build leadership capability and contribute to the continued growth and success of the organisation.
Responsibilities
People Operations Leadership
- Act as a senior operational lead within the People Team, supporting delivery of the wider people strategy.
- Management of a team of People Partners, People Experience Lead and People Operations Lead to deliver organisational objectives.
- Provide expert advice and guidance across the full employee lifecycle.
- Partner closely with senior leaders and managers to support business objectives and operational priorities.
- Support the Group Director of People in developing and embedding effective people practices and frameworks.
- Ensure operational consistency across policies, procedures and people processes.
- Act as a trusted advisor, providing balanced, commercially focused and pragmatic people guidance.
- Support and mentor members of the People Team, developing capability and confidence.
- Use people data and operational insight to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement.
- Contribute to organisational development initiatives that support workforce planning, engagement, retention and performance.
Employee Relations and Risk Management
- Lead and manage complex employee relations casework including disciplinary, grievance, absence, capability, performance and organisational change matters.
- Ensure fair, legally compliant and commercially appropriate outcomes across all ER activity.
- Identify trends, risks and recurring issues, implementing proactive solutions where required.
- Support managers with early intervention approaches, reducing escalation and improving resolution outcomes.
- Manage organisational change processes including restructures, redundancies, consultations, M&A and TUPE where applicable.
- Maintain strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders including legal advisors where required.
Support, Development and Coaching
- Drive improvements in management capability across the organisation.
- Coach and support managers on leadership behaviours, people management and performance expectations.
- Deliver practical guidance and training on employee relations, performance management, absence management, wellbeing and people processes.
- Develop management tools, frameworks and guidance materials to improve consistency and accountability.
- Support the delivery and quality of performance and appraisal processes.
- Participate in the planning, design, and development of programs to meet onboarding, training and staff development needs.
- Manage and assess organisational development and training needs of operating business and functional units.
- Provide constructive challenge to managers, promoting effective decision making and leadership accountability.
- Work collaboratively with the wider team to identify capability gaps and targeted interventions where required.
Wellbeing, Culture and Engagement
- Promote a positive, inclusive and high performing workplace culture.
- Support delivery of wellbeing initiatives and interventions across the organisation.
- Work collaboratively with leaders to improve engagement, communication and employee experience.
- Act as a role model for organisational values and behaviours.
Compliance and Governance
- Ensure compliance with employment law, GDPR, internal policies and HR best practice.
- Maintain up to date knowledge of employment legislation and emerging HR trends.
- Ensure accurate and consistent application of people policies and procedures.
- Support audit, governance and reporting requirements where needed.
Change and Continuous Improvement
- Lead and support people related projects and change initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve processes, systems and ways of working across the People function.
- Drive continuous improvement through data, feedback and operational insight.
- Support implementation of new people initiatives and frameworks.
International
- Provide ad hoc HR support to EU-based teams where there is no local HR presence, acting as the primary point of contact for people-related matters.
- Work closely with local legal advisors to ensure compliance with country-specific employment law and regulations.
- Support managers with employee relations casework in EU locations, ensuring a pragmatic and legally compliant approach.
- Build effective relationships with key stakeholders across international locations, maintaining visibility and consistency of HR support.
The Essentials
- Previous experience as a senior specialist and leader, including management of a People Team.
- Strong experience managing complex employee relations casework in fast paced operational environments.
- Exceptional relationship building skills at all levels of the organisation to ensure the People Team is seen as trusted employee and business advisors.
- Able to autonomously balance people needs with business objectives.
- Strong integrity and ability to discretely handle sensitive, confidential information.
- Excellent working knowledge of UK employment law and the application of HR best practice.
- Demonstrated experience coaching and influencing managers at all levels.
- Experience supporting organisational change, restructures and workforce planning initiatives.
- Commercially aware with strong problem solving and decision making capability.
- Experience enhancing people processes, delivering frameworks and operational improvements.
- CIPD Level 5 or Level 7 qualified (or equivalent experience).
- Experience of working in companies of comparable size (approx. 450 FTE) and geographical complexity (EMEA) is desirable.
About You
You are a credible, resilient and outgoing senior HR leader, recognised for your visibility, impact and ability to operate effectively within fast-paced, evolving environments. You bring a strong blend of operational HR expertise and strategic awareness, underpinned by excellent relationship-building capability and a pragmatic, solutions-focused mindset.
You are highly experienced in Employee Relations, with the confidence and judgement to lead on complex, high-risk and sensitive cases. You take a proactive approach to ER, anticipating issues, identifying patterns and addressing root causes early, rather than reacting to escalations. You provide clear, balanced guidance that protects the organisation while supporting fair, consistent and people-centric outcomes.
You build strong, trusted partnerships with senior leaders and managers, establishing yourself as both a supportive advisor and a credible voice of challenge. You are comfortable influencing at all levels, using insight and experience to guide decision-making, strengthen leadership accountability and improve overall management effectiveness.
You are hands-on and operationally grounded, with an expert understanding of how people processes translate into day-to-day business performance. You are equally comfortable shaping approach at a strategic level and rolling up your sleeves to ensure delivery, consistency and quality on the ground.
You demonstrate a highly proactive and commercially aware mindset, continuously scanning for organisational risks, capability gaps and opportunities for improvement. You take ownership for driving practical, timely interventions that enhance performance, strengthen culture and support business objectives.
You are passionate about developing leadership capability, raising standards and embedding best practice across the organisation. Through coaching, guidance and visible leadership, you enable managers to handle people matters with confidence and consistency.
With a strong sense of personal accountability and a commitment to continuous improvement, you role model organisational values and contribute to the development of a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing culture.
About Us
CMAC Group is a fast‑growing leader in global passenger transport and accommodation solutions - trusted by airlines, rail operators, major corporations and emergency breakdown providers to keep people moving safely and seamlessly, 24/7/365.
Since 2007, we’ve built a powerful technology-led aggregation platform that connects clients to a vast, reliable global supply network, enabling us to move over 5 million passengers every year across the UK, Europe and beyond.
Our portfolio of specialist brands include Suntransfers.com, CoachHireComparison.co.uk, Minicabit.com and CheckedSafe, which gives us unmatched capability to coordinate transport and accommodation at scale, even in the most complex or time critical situations.
Backed by ComfortDelGro, one of the world’s leading mobility groups, CMAC continues to operate with the agility and innovation of an independent business whilst benefiting from the strength, stability and global reach of a major international parent company.
At CMAC, you’ll join a team that thrives on solving real world challenges, shaping the future of mobility and delivering exceptional service when it matters most. If you’re driven, curious and excited by meaningful impact, you’ll feel right at home here.