HR Director

BRAND: Publicis Production
Job Function: Human Resources
Location: London, United Kingdom
Experience Level: Management
Workplace Type: Hybrid

Company description

Within Publicis Groupe's Intelligent Creativity business, we specialize in bringing creative ideas to life, and to consumers. By combining 100 years of craft excellence with 6,000 experts across 52 locations of the world's biggest studio network, we leverage the industry's richest data, through the power of agentic AI, to radically redefine content production with Intelligent Content. We intuitively deliver this through Marcel Make, the world's first Intelligent Content agent. The result? Predictively performing content that unlocks business growth in unprecedented ways. No more guesswork. No more waste.

Just content that works, working a lot harder.

Overview

As the HR Director (internally known as Talent) you will be a key senior HR specialist for the Global Production practice. You will work closely with the International Talent Director and Talent Partner to lead the day-to-day people activities across a fast paced, dynamic business structure, which is led overall by the Chief Talent Officer. You will act as a trusted advisor to leaders shaping organisational effectiveness, contribute to workforce strategy and transformation initiatives.

To be successful in this role, you'll need to have the experience and confidence of navigating a leadership team with a start-up mentality, whilst being a seasoned operator from global, matrixed organisations. You will easily build credibility with senior / global leadership teams and happy turning your hand to a wide range of people activities, from global strategic projects to leadership coaching, employee relations and culture building.

You will need to operate at speed whilst not compromising on quality. You will be comfortable striking a balance between best practice and commercial realities, providing strong judgement in an ambiguous, fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Strategic Partnership:

• Cultivate and maintain excellent relationships with client groups and internal stakeholders, particularly senior leadership.
• Become embedded in the business, understanding the unique challenges and opportunities.
• Partner with senior business leaders to shape and execute people strategies aligned to global business objectives.
• Provide expert coaching and challenge to leadership on organisational design, performance and change.
• Drive workforce planning and talent strategies.
• Act as a key contributor to HR strategy in partnership with the HRD and broader HR leadership.

Organisational Effectiveness & Change:

• Lead and implement organisational design and transformation initiatives in a matrix environment
• Support leaders in navigating complexity, ambiguity, and global collaboration challenges
• Champion a high-performance, inclusive, and accountable culture

Talent Management & Development (including L&D):

• Together with the Chief Talent Officer and International Talent Director design and deliver talent development frameworks, succession planning, and leadership programmes
• Support L&D strategy, leveraging Groupe programmes and identifying L&D skill and capability gaps across the organisation and devising solutions suited to the Global Production practice.
• Partner with leaders to identify critical capability gaps and implement targeted interventions
• Facilitate workshops and team effectiveness programmes as required

Employee Relations & Engagement:

• Provide expert guidance and support on a wide range of complex employee relations, including cases, restructures, redundancies, TUPE processes, etc.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant employment legislation and company policies. Leverage support from Talent Partner or more senior teams as needed. Proactively identify and mitigate potential ER risks.
• Drive engagement strategies and interpret data to influence action planning.
• Promote consistent application of HR policies and practices globally.

HR Leadership & Team Contribution:

• Act as a senior member of the HR team, supporting and mentoring HRBP
• Collaborate closely with Talent Attraction and C&B team, as well as broader Groupe HR functions
• Deputise for the HRD as required

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion:

• Drive initiatives that promote diversity in hiring, development, and promotion. Measure and track DE&I metrics and report on progress.

Talent Acquisition:

• While not directly responsible for recruitment, this role will help with talent forecasting, and provide and support the talent acquisition team, encouraging partnership with our internal TA team vs agencies.

Operations:

• Provide guidance and support with the day-to-day operational transactions across the Talent team, such as liaising with the Finance team to ensure alignment, Groupe submissions and initiatives.
• Significant Senior HR Business Partnering experience in a global, matrixed organisation (ideally within tech or production, or similarly complex environments)
• Demonstrated ability to influence and operate at senior leadership level
• Strong organisational design, change management, and transformation experience
• Proven track record in talent management and leadership development; experience building L&D frameworks is highly desirable
• Commercial acumen with the ability to link people strategy to business outcomes
• Experience working across multiple geographies and cultures
• Strong coaching, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills
• Be comfortable operating with autonomy with ambiguity and a fast-paced environment
• Professional HR qualification (e.g., CIPD or equivalent) preferred.

Essential Experience:

• Significant Senior HR Business Partnering experience in a global, matrixed organisation (ideally within tech or production, or similarly complex environments)
• Demonstrated ability to influence and operate at the senior leadership level
• Strong organisational design, change management, and transformation experience
• Proven track record in talent management and leadership development; experience building L&D frameworks is highly desirable
• Commercial acumen with the ability to link people strategy to business outcomes
• Experience working across multiple geographies and cultures
• Strong coaching, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills
• Be comfortable operating with autonomy with ambiguity, and a fast-paced environment

Success Profile

• Strategic yet hands-on; able to operate from boardroom to execution
• Credible, resilient, and able to challenge constructively
• Agile thinker with strong problem-solving capability
• Collaborative mindset with the ability to influence without authority.

Scope & Impact

• Global remit across multiple business units/functions
• Direct impact on organisational performance, leadership capability, and culture
• Key role in shaping the future HR agenda alongside the HRD and Chief Talent Officer

Qualifications

• Professional HR qualification (e.g., CIPD or equivalent) preferred

Additional information

Diversity and inclusion is a core part of who we are at Publicis Production. We're committed to building an inclusive culture that encourages, celebrates and supports our wonderfully diverse employee group - whatever their age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability or ethnicity. Diversity and inclusion doesn't just fuel our creativity and innovation, it brings us closer to our people and audiences. We will continue to strive to create a culture and environment where everyone feels empowered and more importantly comfortable enough to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and for candidates in our application process. If you need assistance or adjustment due to a disability, please contact us.