HR Manager - Design Agency

£50K - 1 year FTC

ASAP START - MUST BE FREE TO START BY EARLY-MID MAY 2026

We are partnering with a global creative business, who are looking for an HR Manager to cover maternity for 1 year. If working in a people-first environment, who are embarking on an exciting time of change sounds appealing, this ones for you! We want a strong, steady, trusted presence that can handle operations and strategic projects.

You’ll be the go-to HR partner for around 80 employees in London, with some international presence. Owning the full employee life cycle you will handle the day-to-day people operations from onboarding, performance cycles, to policy implementation and coaching managers. Making sure the team feel supported, informed, and empowered! Reporting into the Global HRD, you will be operate a top down, bottom up approach and be happy to lead projects and well as handling HR administration.

The role:

• Leading employee relations cases with confidence and discretion - must be comfortable handling a range of ER cases including redundancies, disciplinaries and grievances
• Coaching managers through performance management cycles
• Handling recruitment
• Full Employee life cycle
• Coordinating performance cycles and development conversations
• Managing HR systems, reporting, payroll inputs, and documentation
• Supporting engagement, wellbeing, and culture initiatives
• Partnering with teams across the business to keep people processes running smoothly

We are looking for....

• Solid HR generalist or HR Manager experience (ideally in creative, agency, or professional services environments)
• Hands-on experience managing ER cases
• Ideally CIPD Level 5 qualified (or working toward it) or equivalent experience
• A calm, empathetic, organised approach, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities
• Confident working in an ever changing, agile environment
• Clear communication, sound judgement, and a practical mindset