Vista Technology Support
HR Director
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Location: Cardiff, with travel required across UK and Ireland operations as necessary.
Reporting To: Chief Executive Officer
Vista is a specialist technology services business supporting retail and hospitality customers across the UK and Ireland. Operating in a fast-paced environment, the business continues to strengthen its people, governance and organisational capability to support future growth.
The Opportunity
This is an opportunity for an experienced HR leader to own and deliver the people strategy, working closely with the CEO and Executive Team. The successful candidate will modernise HR practices, strengthen governance, support organisational change and develop scalable people frameworks across the UK and Ireland.
Role Purpose
The HR Director leads the organisation's people strategy across the UK and Ireland. As a member of the senior leadership team, the role provides direction across all areas of HR, ensuring the organisation attracts, develops and retains the talent required to achieve its objectives.
The role is responsible for HR governance, organisational development, workforce planning, employee relations, reward, culture and compliance. The successful candidate will lead the HR team and ensure delivery of a professional, commercially focused HR service across the business.
Key Priorities in the First 12 Months
- Develop a people strategy aligned to business objectives.
- Strengthen HR governance and compliance across UK and Ireland operations.
- Build a consistent HR operating model.
- Improve workforce planning, succession planning and leadership capability.
- Enhance HR reporting and people metrics.
- Support organisational change and growth initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
HR Strategy and Leadership
- Develop and deliver the people strategy aligned to business objectives.
- Advise the Executive Team and Board on people matters.
- Lead organisational change, restructures, acquisitions and transformation activity.
- Promote a culture of accountability, inclusion and performance.
- Develop workforce planning, succession planning and people reporting frameworks.
Governance, Risk and Compliance
- Ensure compliance with UK and Irish employment legislation.
- Maintain HR policies, procedures and governance frameworks.
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding, performance management, employee relations and payroll-related HR processes.
- Support audits, due diligence activities and regulatory requirements.
- Manage employment law changes and external legal relationships.
Employment Law and Employee Relations
- Provide expert employment law advice across the UK and Ireland.
- Lead complex employee relations matters including disciplinary, grievance, capability, redundancy and TUPE cases.
- Support consultation and organisational change programmes.
- Ensure consistent, compliant application of policies and procedures.
Organisational Development and Talent Management
- Lead workforce planning, succession planning and talent management.
- Develop leadership capability and performance management frameworks.
- Oversee recruitment and onboarding activity.
- Identify skills gaps and implement development initiatives.
- Support diversity, inclusion and employee retention.
Reward, Benefits and Payroll Oversight
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- Lead reward, benefits and compensation strategy.
- Ensure reward structures remain competitive and compliant.
- Provide guidance on benchmarking, incentives and recognition programmes.
- Oversee pensions, benefits and payroll-related HR activities.
Leadership and Team Management
- Lead, coach and develop a high-performing HR team.
- Responsible for the recruitment, development and succession planning of the HR department.
- Establish clear objectives, performance measures, regular one-to-ones, appraisals and development plans for team members.
- Prioritise and delegate HR activity effectively while maintaining positive communication, morale and service quality.
- Ensure the HR team provides a professional, practical and confidential HR service across the organisation.
- Oversee HR operations across UK and Ireland operations, including SCT in Ireland, attending sites where necessary and implementing consistent HR practices across teams.
- Work with department managers to analyse department needs and build business cases for additional resources and changes to structure to the CEO and CFO where required.
- Manage key external HR partners, including employment law advisers, recruitment providers, training organisations and benefits providers.
Stakeholder Management and Reporting
- Build strong relationships with Directors, senior managers and operational leaders.
- Influence decision-making through data-driven insights, commercial understanding and strategic recommendations.
- Represent the HR function at Board and Executive meetings where required.
- Complete documentation, reporting and monthly HR updates on time and in line with company standards.
- Liaise with senior management on matters that may affect organisational performance, resourcing or budgetary requirements.
- Collaborate effectively with Finance, Operations, Commercial and Compliance teams to support organisational objectives.
- Ensure people considerations are embedded into key business decisions and strategic planning activities.
- Be flexible and prepared to undertake any other appropriate duties designated from time to time by the management team to meet business needs.
Key Challenges and Complexities
The HR Director will operate in a complex, multi-site environment across the United Kingdom and Ireland, requiring the ability to navigate differing employment legislation, regulatory environments and workforce practices while maintaining consistency of approach and high-quality HR service delivery.
- Ensuring compliance with UK and Irish employment legislation and evolving case law.
- Managing organisational growth, acquisitions, integrations and business transformation programmes.
- Balancing commercial objectives with employee wellbeing, legal obligations and organisational culture.
- Leading sensitive employee relations matters with significant legal, financial and reputational implications.
- Supporting a diverse workforce operating across multiple locations, customer environments and jurisdictions.
- Influencing senior stakeholders and driving strategic change throughout the organisation.
- Developing scalable people frameworks capable of supporting future organisational growth.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
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Essential Experience
- Significant senior HR leadership experience, ideally as an HR Director, Head of HR or equivalent.
- Proven experience developing and implementing organisation-wide people strategies.
- Experience supporting multi-site operations across the UK and Ireland.
- Extensive experience managing complex employee relations matters and employment law issues.
- Experience supporting organisational growth, transformation, acquisitions or integration programmes.
- Experience leading, developing and mentoring HR professionals.
- Experience advising Executive Teams and Boards on strategic people matters.
- Strong experience working within commercially focused and operationally complex organisations.
- Experience of working within a unionised environment is desirable.
- IT or technology sector experience is desirable.
Essential Knowledge and Skills
- Expert UK employment law knowledge and understanding of Irish employment legislation.
- Knowledge of organisational development, workforce planning and change management.
- Strong understanding of reward, payroll, HR systems and people analytics.
- Strategic thinking and commercial awareness.
- Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills.
- Ability to operate effectively at Executive and Board level.
Qualifications
Essential
- Degree level qualification or equivalent professional experience.
- CIPD Level 7 qualification or Chartered Member/Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
- Evidence of continuous professional development in HR leadership, employment law and organisational development.
- Significant HR experience, including substantial experience in a senior HR leadership role.
Desirable
- Master’s degree in human resources, Business Management, Organisational Psychology or a related discipline.
- Additional qualifications in employment law, organisational development, executive coaching or business leadership.
- Project management, change management or transformation-related qualifications.
Personal Profile
The ideal candidate will be a commercially minded and credible HR leader with the ability to create a compelling vision for the people agenda and translate that vision into measurable business outcomes. They will combine deep technical HR expertise with pragmatic judgement, strong stakeholder management and the ability to influence, challenge and support Executive and Board-level decision-making.
- Proven ability to develop and execute organisation-wide HR strategies.
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to align people initiatives to business objectives.
- Experience operating across multiple locations and jurisdictions.
- Strong leadership capability with experience managing and developing small teams.
- Exceptional communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience leading organisational change, transformation and cultural development programmes.
- High levels of integrity, professionalism and sound judgement.
- A proactive and pragmatic approach to problem solving within complex operational environments.
Benefits
- Competitive salary and annual leave entitlement
- Private healthcare
- Group Income Protection plan
- Life assurance plan
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