HR Operations Manager, Labor & Employee Relations

Job Description Summary

Job Description

Industrial Relations (~65%)

•Serve as the primary L&ER subject matter expert for the UK & Ireland, engaging constructively with trade unions, employee representatives, and statutory bodies to build trust and resolve disputes

•Lead negotiations on collective agreements, annual pay reviews, trade union recognition/derecognition claims, and proceedings involving the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC)

•Directly manage industrial action disputes and balloting processes, applying robust risk-mitigation strategies, contingency planning, and effective conflict resolution frameworks

•Partner with senior HR and business leaders to design intake, approval, and consultation strategies for complex restructuring, workforce change, and business transformation programmes

•Lead collective redundancy consultations and major organizational redesign projects across UK and Irish entities

•Use the COE’s centralised tracking tools to record local labour meetings, collective engagement activity, dispute logs, and project milestones in alignment with European L&ER standards

•Lead data governance and record-keeping for the UK & Ireland L&ER function, ensuring all statutory consultations, agreements, and information obligations are documented accurately and on time

•Use COE dashboards and early-warning analytics to flag local project and industrial relations risks ahead of statutory deadlines, enabling proactive decision-making

•Drive standard work and simplification across local ER processes, establishing repeatable templates and playbooks for grievance handling, disciplinary procedures, and collective bargaining

•Develop a strong external labour relations network to understand business trends and strategies that can further enhance our working relationships

•Deliver training on negotiation skills, employee engagement and communications strategies to support front line leadership culture and strategy

•Manage and co-ordinate Access requests consistently and compliantly for UK business to align business interests with legal requirements.

•Lead site-level labour relations assessments (leadership capability, engagement and communication) and act on the findings

•Build the capability of UK & Ireland HR teams in wage negotiation and collective bargaining, including deployment of the L&ER wage negotiation playbook, convening them in person regularly

•Respond to and manage trade union recognition campaigns and access arrangements under the new workplace-access legislation

•Ensure strict confidentiality and appropriate handling of highly sensitive employee, union, and industrial relations data at all times

Project, Vendor & Stakeholder Coordination (~20%)

•Support HR leaders with workforce planning, restructuring volume analysis, and redundancy costing, engaging with country HR and business leaders to ensure smooth execution of people projects

•Liaise with HR and Labour Relations contacts across Europe, the UK, and Ireland to share updates on current and pending projects, identify local legal or operational roadblocks, and track progress

•Own distribution and completion tracking of standard work materials, change documentation, and collective consultation notices (including statutory redundancy notices)

•Profile project volume and capacity constraints across the UK & Ireland HR team, sharing findings with COE L&ER leadership to resolve potential industrial or operational risks

•Establish and continuously improve local project and change management standards, ensuring HR managers have consistent access to guidance, templates, and reporting tools

•Coordinate local ER meeting logistics, manage relationships with external employment counsel, industrial relations consultants, and translation/outplacement vendors, and oversee associated invoicing

•Maintain local L&ER documentation, keeping standard work, training materials, and collective agreements current and accessible

•Build strong working relationships with HR, Legal, Compliance, Communications, and business leaders, influencing outcomes across a matrixed organization without direct authority

UK/Ireland Regulatory & EU Change Management Context (~15%)

•Apply expert knowledge of UK employment law (Employment Rights Act, TULRCA, Equality Act) and Irish employment legislation, collective consultation obligations, and change management processes

•Act as a confident, credible communicator who can engage and influence internal and external stakeholders directly, ensuring accurate information is provided on time to meet strict statutory deadlines

•Partner with senior Labour & Employee Relations leaders to prioritize and support strategic initiatives tied to local industrial relations and broader European change activity

•Keep a diligent record of all aspects of collective consultations and ER cases across the UK & Ireland, building a library of past projects and precedents to continuously evolve our approach

•Monitor upcoming changes to UK and Irish employment legislation (such as proposed employment rights reforms), advising leadership on potential impacts and preparing proactive mitigation strategies

Essential Requirements

•Significant professional experience in Labour Relations or Employee Relations, in a dedicated labour or industrial relations role, within complex, highly unionized manufacturing, engineering, or industrial environments in the UK & Ireland

•Demonstrable, hands-on experience in managing industrial action disputes, trade union negotiations, CAC proceedings, and trade union recognition/derecognition

•Deep expertise in UK and Irish employment law, collective bargaining, collective redundancy processes, and individual/collective dispute resolution

•Strong analytical and data management skills, with the ability to track complex multi-stakeholder projects and present clear summaries to senior executives

•Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complexes, concurrent transformation projects and competing deadlines under high-pressure scenarios

•Excellent stakeholder management, negotiation, and communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence across all levels (from shop floor delegates to executive leadership)

•Experience creating change management plans, governance models, project charters, and executive-level reporting

•Pragmatic, pace-oriented approach: able to balance legal and labour relations risk with the speed the business needs, and to influence business leaders without direct authority

Desired Characteristics

•Bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, Employment Law, Business Administration, or a related field; CIPD qualification (Level 7) or legal qualification is a strong plus

•Strong business acumen with the ability to connect operational activity and industrial relations strategies to broader business outcomes

•Excellent problem-solving, mediation, and conflict-resolution capabilities, particularly during industrial crises

•Ability to thrive in a highly matrixed, global manufacturing or industrial environment

•Passion for simplification, process improvement, and digital transformation within HR operations

•Comfortable working with data, dashboards and digital tracking tools

•Interest in, and ideally experience of, working within a European Works Council (EWC) context and cross-border European labour relations processes

What We Offer

At GE Vernova, we invest in your long-term success and wellbeing through a comprehensive and flexible benefits package.

Total Reward: Competitive base salary, car allowance, performance-related bonus, flexible pension scheme, employer-funded private health insurance, income protection, and life assurance

Time to Recharge: Generous annual leave entitlement in line with UK/Irish statutory standards and company policy, plus public and bank holidays

Flex Choice Programme: A range of optional benefits including dental cover, wellness programmes, additional insurance coverage, and financial planning services

Why Join Us?

At GE Vernova, you will be part of a team that is shaping the future of energy—and the people who power it. In this role, you will directly influence the operational integrity and social dialogue of our UK and Irish operations, acting as a trusted advisor and strategic leader during a time of significant organizational transformation. Labour relations at GE Vernova is at an early stage of its development, so you will have the opportunity to build and shape the function in the UK & Ireland, with high visibility across the business and the pace of a fast-moving organisation. If you are ready to make a measurable impact across our British and Irish entities and contribute to our broader European success, we would love to hear from you.

Additional Information

About Us

Addressing the climate crisis is an urgent global priority and we take our responsibility seriously. That is our singular mission at GE Vernova: continuing to electrify the world while simultaneously working to help decarbonize it.

If we want our energy future to be different…we must be different.

Our mission is embedded in our name. We retain our treasured legacy, “GE,” in our name as an enduring and hard-earned badge of quality and ingenuity. “Ver” / “verde” signal Earth’s verdant and lush ecosystems. “Nova,” from the Latin “novus,” nods to a new, innovative era of lower carbon energy that GE Vernova will help deliver.

Together, we have The Energy to Change the World. www.gevernova.com