Interim Associate Director, People, International
The Associate Director, People will play a critical leadership role in shaping and driving the people agenda during a period of significant growth and transformation. The successful candidate will bring a strong HR generalist background and proven experience operating within fast-paced, high-growth, and high-change environments.
This role requires a strategic thinker who is equally comfortable being operationally hands-on, supporting leaders and employees through growth, organisational change, and evolving business needs while embedding a positive and engaging working environment.
Key Responsibilities
HR Strategy & Leadership
- Deliver a scalable people strategy aligned to business growth objectives.
- Partner closely with senior leadership to support organisational design, workforce planning, and change management initiatives.
- Act as a trusted advisor to managers and leadership teams on all people-related matters.
- Lead and support the business through periods of rapid growth, transformation, and continuous change.
Culture & Working Environment
- Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance culture across the organisation.
- Champion employee engagement, wellbeing, and a positive working environment where individuals feel supported and empowered.
- Drive initiatives that enhance employee experience, communication, and team connectivity.
- Promote company values and behaviours that support innovation, accountability, and teamwork.
Talent Acquisition & Development
- Lead recruitment strategy to attract and retain high-performing talent.
- Strengthen employer branding within the beauty, retail, and consumer sectors.
- Oversee onboarding, performance management, succession planning, and talent development initiatives.
- Build leadership capability through coaching and development programmes.
Employee Relations & HR Operations
- Manage all employee relations matters with professionalism and fairness.
- Ensure HR policies, procedures, and practices remain compliant with UK employment legislation.
- Develop and improve HR processes, systems, and infrastructure to support business scalability.
- Support managers with performance, absence management, disciplinary, and grievance matters.
Change Management & Organisational Growth
- Lead HR support through periods of organisational change and business transformation.
- Help embed structure, clarity, and effective communication during change initiatives.
- Build resilience and adaptability across teams within a fast-moving environment.
Reward, Data & Compliance
- Support compensation and benefits reviews to ensure market competitiveness.
- Use HR data and insights to drive informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Monitor employee engagement, retention, turnover, and recruitment metrics.
Essential
- Proven experience in a senior HR leadership role within a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- Strong HR generalist background across the full employee lifecycle.
- Demonstrable experience managing within high-change and evolving business environments.
- Strong understanding of UK employment law and HR best practice.
- Commercial mindset with the ability to align people strategy to business objectives.
- Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with operational delivery.
- Experience building and improving HR frameworks, processes, and culture.
Preferred
- Experience within beauty, fashion, retail, e-commerce, or consumer sectors.
- CIPD qualification preferred.
- Experience supporting multi-site or international teams advantageous.
- Positive, approachable, and highly collaborative.
- Resilient and adaptable within changing environments.
- Strong emotional intelligence and relationship-building capability.
- Hands-on, proactive, and solutions-focused.
- Passionate about creating a supportive and engaging employee environment.
- Comfortable operating within ambiguity and rapid growth.
What We Offer
- Opportunity to shape and lead the people agenda within a high-growth beauty business.
- A supportive, collaborative, and entrepreneurial culture.
- Career progression and high visibility within the leadership team.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Flexible/hybrid working environment.
Top of Form
Skills Required
- Proven experience in a senior HR leadership role within a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- Strong HR generalist background across the full employee lifecycle.
- Demonstrable experience managing within high-change and evolving business environments.
- Strong understanding of UK employment law and HR best practice.
- Commercial mindset to align people strategy to business objectives.
- Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience building and improving HR frameworks, processes, and culture.
What We Do
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. stands with every eye, lip, face and paw. Celebrating the beauty of every eye, lip and face is fundamental to our DNA. It’s in our name and inspires us as a company. We are committed to creating a culture internally – and in the world around us – where all individuals are encouraged to express their truest selves, are empowered to succeed and where we do the right thing for people, the planet and animals. Our deep commitment to inclusive, accessible, cruelty-free beauty has fueled the success of the e.l.f. Cosmetics brand online and at retail since 2004. With the 2020 acquisition of the pioneering clean-beauty brand W3LL People, and the new lifestyle beauty brand Keys Soulcare created with Alicia Keys, we continue to strategically expand our portfolio with brands that support our purpose and values. Our brands are widely available online, and at leading beauty, mass-market, and natural specialty retailers.
