Kennedys is looking to recruit a Head of HR Operations to lead and continuously improve the firm's HR operational infrastructure, governance and service delivery, ensuring consistent, compliance and scalable people operations globally, with direct accountability for operational delivery and continuous improvement.

The role is responsible for core HR operations, policy and governance, people data and analytics, payroll and global mobility. The role will play a key part in ensuring the HR function can scale efficiently as the firm grows and as new systems or technologies are introduced, including hands-on leadership of process reviews, redesign and implementation.

Team

The Kennedys HR team is over 85 strong and supports the firm around the world with all people related matters.

The HR team is based across Kennedys' five regions; APAC, EMEA, US, LATAM and UK. The areas of HR that we have responsibility for are Business Partnering, Talent, Recruitment, Responsible Business, Operations, and Reward.

You will be working in a fast-paced, demanding, and global environment as we strive to make a difference for our people, clients and communities where we work.

Key responsibilities

HR Operations & Service Excellence

• Lead the delivery of high-quality, consistent HR operational services across the employee lifecycle, remaining closely involved in day-to-day operational performance, creating effective experiences for employees and managers.
• Set and uphold clear service standards, monitoring performance through SLAs, issue resolution metrics and feedback loops, and driving continuous improvement.

Process, Controls & Governance

• Ensure consistency, compliance and strong operational governance across core HR processes (including onboarding, data changes, offboarding and contractual documentation), with ownership for reviewing and improving end-to-end processes.
• Regularly review operational risks, controls and policy application to ensure processes are robust and compliant with regulatory and audit requirements, leading and delivering reviews and improvements as required.

Scalability, Efficiency & Continuous Improvement

• Ensure our HR operational model scales with firm growth and organisational change, translating strategic requirements into practical, deliverable operational solutions.
• Drive process excellence and innovation, including standardisation, automation and the reduction of manual activity where appropriate.

Data, Analytics & Insight

• Own the HR reporting and analytics framework, ensuring data quality, integrity and consistency across regions.
• Use people data and insight to support decision-making, identify trends and risks, and anticipate firm and employee needs, providing regular, actionable reporting to leadership.

Enablement & Self-Service

• Lead the development and maintenance of HR knowledge bases, workflows, process guides and toolkits to enable effective manager and employee self-service, ensuring materials are practical, current and actively used.
• Ensure operational processes are clearly documented, understood and embedded across the firm, with accountability for adoption, not just design.

Stakeholder Relationships

• Partner closely with Regional HR Directors to support front-line HR delivery and embed operational excellence, remaining actively involved in resolving operational challenges where escalation is required.
• Act as a key partner to IT, Finance and other Business Services teams to ensure HR operations are aligned to wider firm infrastructure and controls.

Key skills & experience

• Leadership experience in HR Operations / People Infrastructure within a global, multi-region organisation.
• Demonstrated ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels, leading delivery while retaining accountability for outcomes.
• Deep expertise in HR operational models, governance, data and service delivery.
• Strong understanding of HR systems and digital enablement.
• Proven track record of building scalable, efficient operating models and driving continuous improvement.
• High commercial acumen with the ability to balance service quality, risk, costs with employee engagement.
• Confident leader with the credibility to partner across HR, IT, Finance and Risk.

Metrics to measure success

• Service performance and stakeholder satisfaction
• Quality, consistency and compliance of HR operations
• Data accuracy and effectiveness of people insight
• Reduced manual processing and improved scalability
• Successful embedding of new systems into HR operations
• Scalable delivery aligned to headcount and cost targets

Key relationships

• Global HR Leadership Team and Regional HR Directors
• IT, Finance, Risk & Compliance
• Business Services leadership

Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys.

*where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.

About Kennedys

Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,750 people worldwide across 47 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.

Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We're a fresh-thinking firm, and we're not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

What do we have to offer?

We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you'll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.

Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive, distinctive and ambitious. Our values are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.

The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people's development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on-the-job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.

We strive to celebrate diversity, empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We've created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.