Job Description
General Summary:
The Human Resources Business Partner Senior Director (HRBP SD) provides strategic HR leadership and consultation for the NECAD region, covering Northern Europe (UK, Ireland and Nordics), Canada, Australia/New Zealand and distributor markets across more than 40 countries. As a key advisor to the RVP NECAD and regional leadership team, the HRBP SD translates business strategy into people priorities, delivering expert guidance, advanced HR solutions and hands-on execution across talent, organisation effectiveness, employee relations, total rewards, talent acquisition and performance management. This role drives talent management, strategic workforce planning and organisational change, ensuring current and future business objectives are fully integrated into HR strategies that build capability, enable growth and foster a culture where change, inclusion and continuous improvement are expected and valued.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provide strategic HR leadership for the NECAD region and act as an integrated business partner to the RVP NECAD, regional leadership team and assigned client groups, ensuring people priorities directly support business plans and growth objectives.
- Translate business strategy into value-added HR strategies, workforce plans and solutions, including long-term capability planning, talent acquisition priorities, succession planning and organisational effectiveness initiatives.
- Leverage complex data and analytics to identify business and talent trends, provide clear and actionable insights, challenge current thinking and influence leaders to make decisions that improve business outcomes.
- Advise senior leaders on organisation design, development and change leadership, helping to architect and manage significant organisational change initiatives across a complex, multi-country region.
- Drive talent management, succession planning, career development and leadership capability building to ensure the business attracts, develops and retains high-quality, diverse talent at all levels.
- Partner closely with HR Centres of Excellence, including Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, People Experience, Employee Services, Culture and Strategic Analytics, to deliver globally aligned and locally relevant HR programmes and solutions.
- Lead and support core HR processes for the region, including year-end performance management, calibration, compensation planning, rewards and recognition, benefits implementation and local HR programme deployment.
- Provide expert employee relations guidance, ensuring compliance with company practices and applicable country laws; investigate employee matters, recommend appropriate action and partner with internal and external legal counsel on complex employment issues.
- Coach leaders and managers on performance, engagement, organisational change and employee matters, building leadership effectiveness and enabling timely, balanced decision-making.
- Contribute to regional or enterprise HR and business projects, programmes and initiatives as required.
Knowledge and Skills:
- Expert experience developing and implementing HR strategies with broad regional or corporate-wide impact.
- Significant international HR experience, ideally across multiple countries and complex commercial or matrixed environments.
- Expert-level capability in strategic workforce planning, organisation design, organisational effectiveness and change management, from conception through implementation.
- Significant expertise in talent management, succession planning, career growth and leadership development.
- Strong business acumen and the ability to use data, analytics and external insights to influence priorities, challenge assumptions and improve business outcomes.
- Excellent relationship-building, influencing, negotiation, problem-solving, communication and coaching skills, with the ability to work effectively with leaders, managers and employees at all levels.
- Strong knowledge of employee relations principles, employment practices and country-level compliance considerations; experience partnering with legal counsel on complex employment matters.
- Demonstrated ability to build inclusive environments where diverse perspectives are encouraged, heard and represented in decision-making.
- Ability to foster innovation, continuous improvement and effective use of technology to optimise performance and challenge the status quo.
- Self-motivated and comfortable operating with minimal direction; able and willing to travel across Vertex offices in the region as required.
Education and Experience:
Bachelor's degree in human resources or a related, relevant discipline required; MBA or other advanced degree desirable.
Typically requires significant, progressive Human Resources experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience, including significant HR business partner experience supporting senior leaders in complex, multi-country or regional environments
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Flex Designation:
Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site EligibleFlex Eligibility Status:
In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as:
1. Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2. On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.
Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.
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Company Information
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.
Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.
Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at [email protected]
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in human resources or related discipline
- MBA or other advanced degree
- Significant, progressive Human Resources experience including HR Business Partner experience supporting senior leaders in multi-country/regional environments
- Expert experience developing and implementing HR strategies with broad regional or corporate-wide impact
- Significant international HR experience across multiple countries and matrixed environments
- Expert capability in strategic workforce planning, organization design, organizational effectiveness and change management
- Significant expertise in talent management, succession planning, career development and leadership capability building
- Ability to leverage data and analytics to identify talent trends and influence senior leaders
- Strong knowledge of employee relations principles, employment practices and country-level compliance; experience partnering with legal on complex employment matters
- Experience leading compensation planning, performance management, calibration and rewards implementation
- Demonstrated relationship-building, influencing, coaching and communication skills with leaders at all levels
- Ability and willingness to travel across Vertex offices in the region as required
- Demonstrated ability to build inclusive environments and foster diversity in decision-making
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Vertex Pharmaceuticals and has not been reviewed or approved by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies provide 12 weeks of 100% paid bonding leave for all U.S. parents with additional fully paid time for birth parents. Family-forming supports include adoption and surrogacy assistance, fertility options like IVF and egg cryopreservation, breast‑milk shipping, subsidized childcare, backup care, and a DCFSA match.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off includes roughly four weeks of vacation, 13 holidays, sick time, and two companywide shutdowns (summer and year‑end). Some roles also include flexible or unlimited time off and paid volunteer time.
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Retirement Support — Programs include a 401(k) plan with employer contributions and an employee stock purchase plan. Filings describe employer contributions occurring in company stock, supporting long‑term ownership.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Insights
What We Do
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious and life-threatening diseases. We discovered and developed the first medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare, life-threatening genetic disease. In addition to clinical development programs in CF, Vertex has more than a dozen ongoing research programs focused on the underlying mechanisms of other serious diseases. Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, our corporate headquarters is now located in Boston’s Innovation District, and our international headquarters is in London, United Kingdom. We currently employ approximately 3,500 people in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America with nearly two-thirds of our staff dedicated to research and development. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry’s top places to work by Science Magazine, The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal and the San Diego Business Journal. Our research and medicines have also received esteemed recognitions, including the Robert J. Beall Therapeutics Development Award, the French Prix Galien and the British Pharmacological Society awards.








