Sr HR Manager - Capability development & strategic initiatives

The HR Senior Manager, Capability Development & Strategic Initiatives plays a critical role in supporting the HR Europe Leader and enabling the successful execution of the European People Strategy across a complex and diverse region.

Acting as a strategic partner to the HR Europe Leader, this role helps translate strategic priorities into actionable plans, coordinates key regional initiatives, and drives the execution of major transformation, organizational effectiveness, and integration programs across Europe. The role serves as a central point of coordination for the European HR Leadership Team, ensuring alignment, governance, and effective delivery of strategic priorities.

The position leads cross-functional HR projects, supports mergers & acquisitions, integrations, and drives organizational effectiveness initiatives that enable business performance and growth. The role also identifies opportunities to improve HR effectiveness through process simplification, analytics, automation, and AI.

This position requires exceptional project management, stakeholder management, and change leadership capabilities, combined with strong business acumen and the ability to operate effectively across multiple countries, cultures, and regulatory environments.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Partner to the HR Europe Leader

• Act as a trusted advisor and operational partner to the HR Europe Leader, helping drive the execution of the European People Strategy.
• Support the prioritization, planning, and execution of strategic HR initiatives across Europe.
• Serve as a key coordination point for the European HR Leadership Team, ensuring alignment, governance, and follow-through on key priorities.
• Coordinate interactions with Global HR COEs and support the deployment of global initiatives across the region.
• Identify risks, dependencies, and opportunities requiring leadership attention and propose mitigation plans.
• Prepare strategic reviews, presentations, and executive materials to support leadership decision-making.

HR Transformation & Organizational Effectiveness

• Lead HR transformation projects across Europe, ensuring successful implementation of regional and global initiatives.
• Support organizational design, workforce planning, and right-sizing initiatives in partnership with HR Business Partners and business leaders.
• Establish governance, project plans, milestones, and success measures for major regional initiatives.
• Drive change management and stakeholder engagement activities to support successful implementation and adoption of new ways of working.
• Identify opportunities to improve HR effectiveness through process simplification, analytics, automation, and AI

Mergers, Acquisitions, Integrations & Strategic Projects

• Lead and coordinate HR workstreams for acquisitions, divestitures, and integration activities across Europe.
• Coordinate HR due diligence activities, including workforce assessments, organizational analysis, reward practices, employee relations considerations, and cultural diagnostics.
• Develop and execute integration plans that support business continuity, organizational effectiveness, and successful change adoption.
• Partner with business leaders, HR teams, and COE to ensure successful post-transaction integration and delivery of expected outcomes.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a Project Manager supporting the delivery of strategic HR initiatives, transformation projects, and integration activities across Europe.

Qualifications

Experience

• 12+ years of progressive HR, consulting, transformation, project management, or organizational effectiveness experience.
• Experience leading complex, cross-border projects in a multinational environment.
• Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, integrations, or major organizational change initiatives.
• Experience working across multiple European countries, legislations and cultures.

Skills & Competencies

• Exceptional project and program management skills.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing capabilities.
• Ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity.
• Strategic thinking combined with strong execution discipline.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Experience with HR technologies, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled solutions.
• Ability to work effectively with senior leaders and global stakeholders.
• Fluency in English and at least one additional European language (ideally German) is required; proficiency in multiple European languages is strongly preferred.