Senior People Operations Partner

Overview

At HX our purpose is to awaken people to the beauty and fragility of the planet, with adventure that reignites a sense of wonder. We take curious travellers to incredible destinations, sustainably in true expedition-style with science and education at the heart of every journey. We bring them off the beaten track, to special destinations across the Arctic, Antarctic, Galapagos, British Isles, Alaska, Northern Norway, and Central / South America.

The Senior People Operations Partner is an experienced individual contributor supporting operational excellence, compliance, and consistent employee experiences across our diverse, global workforce. The role provides hands-on and pragmatic advisory support across people operations, employee relations, and day-to-day execution. The role balances day-to-day delivery with increasing contribution to process improvement and policy development, with a focus on shoreside operational delivery for designated regions, shipboard escalations, and continued exposure to global contexts.

The shoreside People & Culture function is building new foundations within a legacy organisation. Teamwork, humble leadership, lean thinking, and collaboration are key to success. This role is suited for someone who is curious, commercially minded, and eager to develop their business acumen in the maritime expedition industry, contributing to a broad range of people operations activities as the organisation continues to evolve. Experience in maritime, cruise, or expedition environments is beneficial but not essential.

At HX, we are a passionate team who deliver our global operations from every corner of the world and our people are instrumental in continuing to inspire this adventure, play their part and deliver on our promise of guest centric and memorable experiences, benefiting the communities we visit, enriching our guests and inspiring a more sustainable world – to change the way they see the world.

Key Responsibilities & Deliverables

Employee Relations, Policy, & Compliance

• Own and lead employee relations, grievances, disputes that impact people relations or compliance by conducting thorough interviews, analysing data, discussing issues with relevant parties, interpreting legislation, CBAs, agreements, contracts, and/or company policies in a manner that safeguards organizational integrity and mitigates risk.

• Act as a trusted senior advisor to leaders on sensitive people matters, providing clear, pragmatic recommendations that balance legal compliance, risk mitigation, and employee experience.

• Contribute to the design and implementation of global HR policies and procedures that span multiple jurisdictions, ensuring alignment with business objectives and legal requirements.

• Continuously monitor shoreside employment legislation and maritime labour requirements, to ensure readiness for regulatory changes and maintain compliance.

People Operations & Systems

• Own accurate, compliant, and efficient delivery of people operations including onboarding, offboarding, contractual documentation, employee lifecycle changes, and HR data management across systems.

• Apply and uphold standards to drive consistency for HR operational processes globally, ensuring effective execution, clear governance, and a strong employee experience.

• Shape the collaboration across People Team members as it relates to operational and advisory support ensuring consistent delivery, high-quality HR processes and employee experiences.

• Serve as an escalation point for employees and managers on HR processes, navigating benefits, organisational change, and communications.

• Manage and optimise HR data across systems to ensure data integrity, accurate reporting, compliance, and process automation.

Global People & Culture Generalist

• Act as an experienced People & Culture generalist, contributing subject matter expertise and practical knowledge across performance management, succession planning, employee engagement, workforce planning, and compensation programs, in close partnership with domain owners and specialists / subject-matter experts as appropriate.

• Positively influence colleagues in managing change associated with new technology, new processes, changing org structures, and a changing global landscape.

• Play an active role in developing capability within the People & Culture team by sharing expertise, mentoring colleagues, and fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• Think sustainably and bring this mindset to the team and partners.

• Contribute to and support cross-functional projects, operational needs, or special initiatives as assigned.

• Champion the HX Spirits in the way you work.

Requirements

• Fluency in English is required. Additional business level language fluency in Czech, Norwegian, or German beneficial but not required.

• Significant experience in employee relations, complex case management, and people operations, including ownership of high-risk or sensitive matters. Experience in maritime, expedition or cruise industry beneficial including an understanding of maritime labour conventions, global employment legislation, and CBAs.

• Significant HR Operations experience in the UK required. While some responsibilities are global, day-to-day HR administration is primarily UK-focused.

• Strong ability to independently lead, optimise, and continuously improve HR processes, to deliver high quality HR services in a fast paced, highly dynamic/changing environment.

• Experience providing guidance to managers and contributing to team development.

• Experience working in complex multi-national organisations with a global guest mix ideal.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to support audit requests, interpret data, identify trends, and maintain exceptional attention to detail.

• Professional HR certification or qualification desired, equivalent experience considered.

• Tech-forward and adaptable, with a proven ability to quickly learn new systems. Experience using AI tools to improve employee access to information is highly valued. Solution oriented, even when working on legacy platforms.

• Proficiency in MS Office applications including Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.

Key Personal Attributes

• Safety and compliance minded for yourself and others.

• High degree of personal integrity and honesty.

• Passionate about inclusion and belonging. You take pride in bringing people and different perspectives together to promote a diverse and inclusive workforce.

• Demonstrates pride and ownership in all aspects of HR work, from high level advisory to essential day-to-day administration.

• Demonstrated polish and professionalism at all times when engaging with leaders and team members with differing points of view.

• Effective problem solving, conflict resolution, networking, continuous improvement, and technical aptitudes.

• Ability to work in an organised and logical manner with the flexibility to adapt to change when necessary.

• Strong sense of initiative and urgency, with the ability to follow-up on outstanding matters efficiently.

• Clear and effective communication with internal and external stakeholders.

• Ability to manage execution and competing demands.

• Ability to adapt to change in a positive, productive manner.

• Excited to work in a hybrid work environment to leverage time in person with colleagues across the business.

Salary

£60,000 – £65,000 per annum (DOE)

HX Spirit

• Passionate Explorers: We are proud of our history and are driven to create more.

• ‘Can-do’ Mindset: We jump-in and proactively contribute to the greater good.

• Humble Leadership: We have a short distance between leaders and teams.

• Genuine Interactions: We want all people to be their true selves.

• Supportive & Collaborative Teams: We are curious and generous with our knowledge. We Trust.

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