Department: People(HR) Location: Amsterdam Basis: Fulltime (38 hours, hybrid)
Role Overview
The People Services Team Lead is responsible for leading the day-to-day delivery of employee life cycle operations in the Netherlands, ensuring payroll accuracy, compliance, and timely payroll and HR administration services. This role oversees the orchestration, optimisation, and supervision of core administrative and contractual workflows. It ensures maximum operational efficiency, data integrity, and compliance. As a key link between the team, employees, and management, the role is responsible for delivering a seamless employee lifecycle experience while ensuring operations remain scalable and efficient. In addition, it drives continuous improvement, operational excellence, and a strong service-focused culture. This position leads a team with accountability for core HR administration and payroll operations, including employee lifecycle management, ensuring accurate and timely payroll processing, while driving automation, continuous improvement, and alignment with broader People and business objectives.
Key Responsibilities
• Lead the People Services function, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and full operational
compliance
• Provide clear direction aligned with organisational goals and operational strategy
• Act as the escalation point for issues, ensuring effective resolution
• Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Lead initiatives to automate, standardise, and improve processes
• Drive continuous improvement to enhance service quality, cost efficiency, and colleague
experience
• Optimise systems and workflows to support scalability and operational efficiency
• Maintain audit readiness across payroll and employee lifecycle processes
• Ensure strong internal controls and compliance with all relevant legislation and regulatory
requirements
• Monitor performance, identify risks, and implement corrective actions
• Create & oversee team KPIs and performance metrics, using data to improve service
delivery
• Monitor service levels and ensure delivery against agreed targets
• Supervising, coaching, and developing and fostering a culture of high performance,
accountability, and growth.
• Leading People Services workstreams within wider People and business projects
• Delivering initiatives successfully by managing timelines, resources, and stakeholder
expectations
Experience & Qualifications
• Bachelor's Diploma or equivalent
• Extensive experience in HR shared services and/or payroll leadership roles, ideally within high-volume, multi-entity environments
• Strong understanding of Dutch payroll, legislation, pensions, and compliance
• Proven ability to lead change and transformation initiatives
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing high-performing teams
• Ability to improve processes through technology and automation
• Proficiency in HRIS systems and advanced Excel skills
What we offer
- Competitive salary
- 24 vacation days
- Staff Discount on qualifying purchases across Group retail stores and online
- Personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work
- Continuous professional development in hard and soft skills
- Work arrangement: Hybrid
- Pension scheme
- Access to TELUS wellbeing platform
- Access to the ''Benefits at work'' app
An integrity check via the warning register of the Fraud Approach Detailhandel foundation is part of the application procedure.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's diploma or equivalent
- Extensive experience in HR shared services and/or payroll leadership roles, ideally in high-volume, multi-entity environments
- Strong understanding of Dutch payroll, legislation, pensions, and compliance
- Proven ability to lead change and transformation initiatives
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing high-performing teams
- Ability to improve processes through technology and automation
- Proficiency in HRIS systems
- Advanced Excel skills
What We Do
In 2013 JD Sports expanded into the Netherlands market and you can now find us in 29 locations across the country, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen and Tilburg . We combine the best of physical and digital retail to give a compelling consumer proposition with JD over 900 stores across 21 territories worldwide. Established in 1981 with a single store in the North West of England, JD Sports is a leading sports fashion multi-channel retailer of branded sports and casual wear. We are proud to offer customers the latest products from globally recognized brands such as Nike, adidas, Puma and The North Face, with strong private labels such as Pink Soda and Supply & Demand. We inspire our people to reach for higher levels of performance. To achieve these standards, we only recruit the best! All of our colleagues are highly skilled, self-motivated and constantly pursue perfection. The opportunity to progress arise quickly for those with the right qualities and ambition. We encourage our people to seek ways to improve our business by challenging how we merchandise, sell and manage the business, being creative and always thinking forward by suggesting alternative solutions. Colleagues from all levels of the organisation come together to solve problems and seize all opportunities. Our people are at the core of JD Sports and everything we do – could you be the next colleague to join the King of Trainers?
