ICON is a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation united by a mission to bring new medicines and treatments to patients faster.
As a values-driven organisation, integrity, collaboration, agility, and inclusion are at the heart of how we work and interact with each other, customers, patients and suppliers.
Senior Manager, Regional HR Operations. UK & Ireland
At ICON, it's our people that set us apart. As a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation, we are driven by a mission to advance and improve patients' lives through innovative clinical research and technology-enabled solutions.
We are seeking an experienced Senior Manager, Regional HR Operations to lead the delivery of high-quality HR operations across our largest region. Supporting approximately 4,000 employees across Ireland and the UK, you will play a critical leadership role in ensuring an exceptional employee experience, operational excellence, and compliance across a complex and fast-paced environment.
This is an exciting opportunity for a senior HR leader who thrives in a large-scale, matrixed organisation and has a strong track record of leading HR teams, driving continuous improvement, and partnering with business leaders to deliver impactful people solutions.
The Role
Reporting to the EMEA Regional HR Operations Director, you will lead a team of HR managers responsible for delivering operational HR support across Ireland and the UK.
You will act as a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders, ensuring HR processes, policies, and practices are executed effectively while continuously enhancing service delivery and employee experience.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of HR Managers and HR professionals across Ireland and the UK.
- Drive the delivery of HR operations across the employee life cycle, including onboarding, employee relations, performance management, policy implementation, and workforce support.
- Partner closely with business leaders to understand organisational priorities and develop effective people solutions.
- Ensure compliance with employment legislation and company policies across Ireland and the UK.
- Provide guidance and support on complex employee relations matters, investigations, and organisational change initiatives.
- Monitor HR metrics, trends, and service performance, using data-driven insights to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance operational efficiency, employee experience, and service quality.
- Collaborate with HR Shared Services, Talent Acquisition, Reward, Payroll, and broader HR teams to ensure seamless service delivery.
- Support business transformation, organisational design, and workforce planning initiatives as required.
- Foster a culture of accountability, high performance, and customer-focused HR service delivery with the broader EMEA HR managers team.
To be successful in this role, you will ideally have:
- Significant HR Operations or HR Business Partnering experience within a large, complex, multinational organisation.
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams, ideally including the management of HR Managers.
- Strong experience supporting employee populations in Ireland, with a thorough understanding of Irish employment legislation and HR practices.
- Experience partnering with senior business leaders and influencing decision-making.
- Strong employee relations experience, including the management of complex cases and organisational change.
- Proven ability to drive operational excellence and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Experience using HR data, metrics, and analytics to inform decision-making and measure performance.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and relationship-building skills.
Preferred Experience
- Experience supporting both UK & Ireland within a regional HR leadership capacity.
- Knowledge of UK employment legislation and HR practices.
- Experience working within highly regulated, professional services, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical, or clinical research environments.
- Experience leading HR transformation or process optimisation programmes.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related discipline.
- CIPD qualification or equivalent HR certification preferred.
Employment with ICON is contingent upon having the legal right to work in the country where the role is based.
Rewards & Benefits
ICON offers a competitive and comprehensive total rewards package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and career development.
Benefits may include:
- Competitive base salary and performance related incentives
- Health and wellbeing programmes including medical, dental, and vision coverage where applicable
- Retirement and pension plans
- Life assurance and disability coverage
- Employee assistance programmes and wellbeing resources
- Learning and development opportunities through structured training and career pathways
Benefits may vary depending on role and location.
Visit our careers site to read more about the benefits ICON offers.
Inclusion and Accessibility
ICON is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone feels valued and supported.
If you require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know or submit a request here.
Are you a current ICON Employee? Please click here to apply
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, or related discipline
- Proven management experience in HR operations
- Extensive experience in HR operations
- Experience working within a multinational organization
- Strong understanding of HR policies, procedures, and employment legislation in relevant regions
- Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills with ability to engage and influence diverse workforce
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to use HR metrics and analytics to inform decisions
- Willingness to travel as required (approximately 10%)
- Legal right to work in the country where the role is based
ICON plc Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about ICON plc and has not been reviewed or approved by ICON plc.
-
Healthcare Strength — Benefits are described as comprehensive, with medical coverage and wellness initiatives highlighted. Larger sites are also associated with added wellness supports such as onsite fitness options and access to an employee assistance program.
-
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off and flexibility provisions are positioned as a meaningful part of the total package, including vacation/annual leave and flexible work scheduling. Flexibility is sometimes cited as helping offset long hours in certain roles.
-
Retirement Support — Retirement and savings support is presented as a core component of the benefits package, including offerings such as pension arrangements in some locations and a U.S. 401(k) plan with company match. Financial planning resources are also emphasized as part of broader security benefits.
ICON plc Insights
What We Do
Since our foundation in Dublin, Ireland in 1990, our mission has been to help our clients to accelerate the development of drugs and devices that save lives and improve quality of life. We do this by delivering best in class information, solutions and performance, with an unyielding focus on quality at all times. We offer a full range of consulting, development and commercialisation services from a global network of offices in 53 countries. We focus our innovation on the factors that are critical to our clients – reducing time to market, reducing cost, and increasing quality – and our global team of experts has extensive experience in a broad range of therapeutic areas.
