Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

The Role

The HR Operations Manager is responsible for the design and delivery of effective and efficient HR Operations, including transactional and advisory services to the business, to help them achieve the goal of being a trusted department committed to providing a first-class HR service.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and deliver high-quality HR operational services, ensuring effective workload allocation and team development.
• Provide leadership and functional management for the HR Admin Team, People Partners, and UK Payroll Team.
• Drive continuous improvement in HR delivery through best practices, system enhancements, and process optimization.
• Assess current HR system utilization and implement improvements.
• Ensure standardized HR processes align with business growth.
• Introduce technology-driven efficiencies for HR services.
• Maintain a strong focus on employee and leader experience.
• Establish and monitor HR Operations service levels using KPIs (e.g., case handling time, resolution rates, employee satisfaction).
• Support managers with employee relations cases, including performance, absence, disciplinaries, and grievances.
• Manage external HR service providers, including occupational health, HR systems, and benefits.
• Ensure compliance with HR reporting, auditing (internal and external), and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee the UK flexible benefits program.
• Develop standardized HR processes that can be scaled across global regions.
• Lead HR projects as directed by the SVP People & Resourcing Development.
• Implement governance structures to track and measure HR service effectiveness.

Key Competencies and Experience

• Proven experience in HR team management, with a track record of developing and aligning teams to strategic goals.
• Strong background in HR operational shared services, preferably on a global scale.
• Experience working within the Ulrich HR Model.
• Demonstrated success in managing HR projects within a transforming business environment.
• Expertise in HR systems, policies, processes, and UK employment law.
• Leadership experience in payroll management.
• Experience working in global markets, particularly Europe, China, and the US.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to balance operational execution and transformational change.
• Proven ability to drive innovation and continuous improvement in HR operations.
• Strong change management skills, with experience in HR transformation initiatives.
• Ability to build trust, foster collaboration, and support diverse teams.
• Skilled in influencing senior leadership and holding colleagues accountable for HR process adoption.
• Capacity to mentor and coach others in delivering complex HR initiatives.
• CIPD qualified or equivalent.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on.  Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance 

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. 

Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.