Senior Manager Employee Relations

The job at a glance  

Working in the People Team, you will partner closely with our senior leaders, exec team and the wider People function to navigate complex employment challenges, lead on disputes and organisational change, and ensure our policies, processes and practices are fully aligned with UK legislation and evolving regulatory requirements. 

Join our team and you’ll be responsible for providing deep, specialist expertise in UK employment law, offering commercially focused, pragmatic advice across complex and high-risk employee relations matters. You will play a key role in protecting the business while enabling confident, well-informed decision-making across a wide range of sensitive people issues. 

You will play a vital role as we reimagine the labour market to make it work for everybody. 

Your responsibilities:  

• Act as a trusted, proactive advisor to executive leadership, providing clear guidance on complex employee relations matters, organisational change, restructures and legal risk, ensuring alignment with UK employment law.  

• Lead high-risk ER cases and disputes end-to-end, including ACAS processes, tribunals and settlement negotiations, mitigating risk through early, proactive intervention and data-led decision making.   

• Design, implement and continuously evolve UK People policies and ER frameworks, ensuring full compliance with legislation, ACAS guidance and case law, while driving consistency and best practice.   

• Partner closely with People Team Centres of Excellence to deliver seamless, end-to-end case management, sustainable outcomes (including return to work), and strong governance across the employee lifecycle.   

• Use insight, coaching and collaboration to build regional ER capability, translating data into proactive strategies, supporting EMEA markets, and embedding preventative, high-impact ER practices across the organisation. 

• Qualified solicitor or equivalent legal background, with deep, current expertise in UK employment law and legislation; broader EMEA exposure highly advantageous. 

• Extensive experience managing complex, high-risk employee relations matters, including litigation, investigations, restructures and DSARs, with expert application of ER best practice. 

• Strong commercial and legal judgement, able to balance risk with business priorities and deliver pragmatic, business-aligned solutions in fast-paced environments. 

• Proven ability to operate effectively in a complex, matrix organisation, partnering across functions such as Technology, Product, GTM and corporate teams, and influencing senior and executive stakeholders. 

• Outstanding communication, stakeholder management and capability-building skills, with a track record of translating complex legal concepts into clear guidance, embedding inclusive ER practices, and contributing to policy development and governance frameworks. 

We’re a community here that cares as much about your life outside work as how you feel when you’re with us. Because your job shouldn’t take over your life, it should enrich it. Here are some of the benefits we offer: 

• 29 days holiday allowance + bank holidays   
• Private medical and dental healthcare   
• Matching pension contribution of 4 or 5% (after 3 years of service up to 10%)   
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme 
• Life Assurance Cover  
• Cycle to work scheme   
• Hybrid working model  (3 days working from the office)
• Volunteering days   
• and you can bring your dog to the office on Mondays and Fridays!   

Our commitment 

Equal opportunities are important to us. We believe that diversity and inclusion at The Stepstone Group are critical to our success as a global company, so we want to recruit, develop, and keep the best talent. We encourage applications from everyone, regardless of background, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, ethnicity, belief, age, family or parental status, and any other characteristic.  

As a global business we further our DEI and sustainability progress by working with national and international bodies and are proud to have been recognised for our work - both locally and internationally, including:  

• Armed Forces Covenant: Silver Award, Employer Recognition Scheme 
• EcoVadis: Bronze Award 
• Fertility Friendly Employer, accredited by Fertility Matters at Work 
• RIDI (Recruitment Industry Disability) Awards: Inclusive Technology Award 2024 
• Stonewall: Gold Award 
• Stonewall: Top 100 Workplace Equality Index (85)