Senior HR Business Partner North East & Yorkshire
Location: Regional North East & Yorkshire
Contract: Permanent
Salary: Competitive plus benefits
Arriva is looking for a Senior HR Business Partner to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the people agenda across our North East and Yorkshire region. This is a complex and high profile operational area at the heart of our UK Bus business.
This is a senior, influential role for a commercially minded HR leader who can balance strategic thinking with operational delivery and who thrives in fast paced, unionised environments.
The Role
Reporting to the HR Director Regions, you will act as a trusted advisor to senior operational leaders, providing both strategic and hands on HR leadership. You will play a central role in delivering an effective people strategy aligned to the UK Bus Medium Term Plan, driving performance, engagement and sustainable change.
You will deputise for the HR Director when required and act as a key escalation point for the Operations leadership team. Working closely with colleagues across HR, Operations and our Trade Union partners, you will deliver pragmatic, risk aware HR solutions that support both our people and commercial objectives.
Key Responsibilities
1. Partner with senior leaders to deliver the regional people plan and provide a high quality, consistent HR service
2. Influence strategic business planning through insight led HR solutions
3. Lead HR workstreams for major business change initiatives, ensuring effective implementation and minimal disruption
4. Build strong, credible relationships with Trade Union representatives, fostering a culture of partnership
5. Coach and support senior leaders, HRBPs and ER Partners to ensure consistency, capability and risk mitigation
6. Drive employee engagement, wellbeing and retention initiatives
7. Champion talent management, succession planning and learning to build long term organisational capability
8. Promote the effective use of self service via the HR Hub, empowering managers and colleagues
9. Deputise for the HR Director Regions as required, providing leadership across the wider HR function
About You
You will be a confident, resilient and experienced HR professional with a strong generalist background and the credibility to influence and challenge at a senior level. You will bring proven experience operating in complex, unionised environments and the judgement to balance commercial priorities with employee advocacy.
You will also have
10. Strong knowledge of HR practices, processes and systems at both strategic and operational levels
11. Significant experience managing industrial and employee relations
12. A track record of leading and delivering business change and transformation
13. Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills
14. The ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast moving environment
15. CIPD Level 7 qualification or equivalent experience
16. Strong IT skills including Microsoft Office and HR systems
Location Requirement
This role requires a strong on patch presence across the North East and Yorkshire region. Ideally you will be based around Wakefield, however candidates local to other Arriva locations within the region will also be considered.
Why Arriva
At Arriva, we connect communities and make a meaningful difference every day. You will join a supportive and collaborative environment where your expertise will have real impact across a key region of the business. We are committed to developing our people and offer genuine opportunities to shape the future of HR at Arriva.