HR Operations Manager (8m FTC)

Are you an experienced HR leader who thrives on balancing strategic oversight with hands on delivery?

We're looking for an HR Operations Manager to join our HR Senior Leadership Team on an 8 month fixed term contract basis in London. In this role, you will lead a small, dedicated team that keeps our people processes running smoothly and efficiently across Penguin Random House UK.

This role has been created to free up the Head of HR Operations to focus on the implementation of our new HRIS project, so you'll be stepping into a pivotal position ensuring that business as usual HR operations continue seamlessly during a period of transformation.

A January 2026 start date is essential.

About The Role

You'll play a key part in ensuring our HR operations deliver a seamless employee experience - from day to day administration and data integrity to reward cycles and policy governance. Reporting to the Head of HR Operations, you'll oversee HR Administration, Reward Operations, and People Data, acting as a vital link between our HR specialist, Business Partnering teams, and external partners.

Key Areas Of Responsibility Include:

• Leadership & Team Management: Leading, developing and motivating the HR Admin team, creating a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and exceptional service delivery.
• Reward Operations: Supporting the delivery of annual reward cycles - including pay review, bonuses, and benefits windows - ensuring accuracy, governance, and timely execution.
• Pay Gap Reporting: Leading our pay gap reporting across gender, ethnicity, and disability, partnering with OD and Communications to ensure accurate data, meaningful insights, and clear action plans.
• Policy & Compliance: Acting as the escalation point for policy interpretation, ensuring all HR policies remain compliant, up to date, and employee centred.
• Data & Systems: Driving data integrity, analytics, and reporting through our HRIS, identifying trends and opportunities to improve processes and decision making.
• Financial Oversight: Managing invoice approvals and HR vendor relationships, including benefits providers, brokers, and external legal or HR advisory partners.
• HR Governance: Acting as the point of contact for internal and external audits, ensuring compliance and follow through on any resulting action plans.
• Collaboration: Partnering with the wider HR Leadership Team and global PRH C&B colleagues on compensation, benefits, and reporting initiatives.

What You'll Bring Essential Criteria:

• Proven experience in HR operations or reward within a large, complex organisation.
• Strong understanding of compensation, benefits, and HR data management.
• Experience leading and developing a team in a fast paced, evolving environment.
• Confidence communicating with senior stakeholders and navigating complex situations with good judgement.
• Solid working knowledge of employment law, HR systems, pay gap reporting and policy design.
• You'll be someone who enjoys improving processes, connecting people, and making data work harder - with the resilience to handle competing priorities and the credibility to influence across all levels.

Application Instructions

Please apply with your CV and Cover Letter outlining your reasons for interest in this role by 23:59 on Sunday 7th December 2025.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the advert may close at any time. We would encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Please note, a January 2026 start date is essential for this role.

Ai

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.

We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

Salary

The salary band for this opportunity is £55,000-£60,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus scheme and benefits.

Hybrid Working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work from the Embassy Gardens office in London 2 days per week (Tuesday & Thursday).

The recruitment process: You can read about our recruitment process at

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing . Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request.

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

Company: The Random House Group Limited Job ID: 284714