Senior People Business Partner

Arup’s purpose, shared values and collaborative approach has set us apart for over 80 years, guiding how we shape a better world.

The Opportunity

The HR Business Partner is accountable for operationalising the People Plan by connecting Arup’s business strategy to the day-to-day realities of the business, ensuring that people priorities are translated into decisions and actions that enable business performance and delivery of our strategy, including workforce planning, capability development, and member experience.

Business Partners work alongside leaders to shape decisions on performance, capability, organisation, and culture as well as delivering the cyclical activities and moments that matter for our members. They bring together insight, judgement, and people expertise to guide leaders through complex decisions, ensuring that outcomes are aligned to both business priorities and Arup’s values.

The role requires experienced professionals who can operate credibly with leaders, apply sound judgement in complex and sensitive situations, and ensure that people work is effectively led within the business.

Business Leadership Partnership

• Partner with leaders to shape decisions on performance, capability, organisation, and culture
• Translate business priorities into clear people actions and plans that deliver measurable business outcomes
• Partner with leaders to shape workforce plans, ensuring the right capability, capacity, and deployment of talent to meet business needs
• Provide thoughtful challenge and guidance with sound commercial acumen, supporting leaders to navigate trade-offs and make informed decisions
• Build leadership capability through coaching, influence, and feedback
• Ensure cyclical people processes (talent, performance, reward, workforce planning) are effectively led and drive strong performance and feedback culture within the business
• Facilitate and guide key moments such as talent reviews, succession discussions, and performance outcomes
• Support leaders to make well-judged, fair, and commercially sound decisions on pay, progression, and performance
• Apply global approaches and tools in a way that reflects business context and need

Integrating the People Plan

• Bring together performance, reward, engagement, employee relations, talent, learning, and inclusion into integrated, forward-looking advice
• Use data, insight, and experience to diagnose organisational challenges and identify priorities
• Shape a consistent and high-quality member experience across the employee lifecycle, with a focus on engagement, belonging, and wellbeing
• Guide leaders through complex and sensitive people decisions with sound judgement and care
• Identify patterns, risks, and opportunities, and take action with leaders to address them

At Arup, you belong to an extraordinary collective – in which we encourage individuality to thrive. Our strength comes from how we respect, share and connect our diverse experiences, perspectives and ideas.

You will have the opportunity do socially useful work that has meaning – to Arup, to your career, to our members and to the clients and communities we serve.

Is this role right for you?

We are looking for individuals who:

• Have operated as a HR Business partner in a complex matrix organisation with a focus on operational excellence and delivery.
• Have a growth mindset, a high level of curiosity flexibility in their approach.
• Confident working with and drawing insights from multiple data sets to support decision-making
• Are creative problem solvers with a high level of initiative and a sense of personal accountability
• Are highly skilled at relationship management with senior stakeholders and be used to resistance to change
• Have experience in professional services.
• HR professional qualification or equivalent experience

What We Offer You

At Arup, we care about each member’s success, so we can grow together.

Guided by our values, we provide an attractive total reward package that recognises the contribution of each of our members to our shared success. As well as competitive, fair and equitable pay, we offer a career in which all of our members can belong, grow and thrive – through benefits that support health and wellbeing, a wide range of learning opportunities and many possibilities to have an impact through the work they do.

We are owned in trust on behalf of our members, giving us the freedom, with personal responsibility, to set our own direction and choose work that aligns with our purpose and adds to Arup’s legacy. Our members collaborate on ambitious projects to deliver remarkable outcomes for our clients and communities. Profit Share is a key part of our reward, enabling members to share in the results of our collective efforts.

We also provide Private medical insurance, Life assurance, Accident insurance and Income protection cover. In addition, you’ll have access to flexible benefits to help you look after all aspects of your wellbeing and give you the freedom and flexibility to find the best solutions for you, your family, and your individual needs.

Different People, Shared Values

Arup is an equal opportunity employer that actively promotes and nurtures a diverse and inclusive workforce. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age (within legal limits), gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, neurotype or mental health, race or ethnicity, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you’re pregnant or on family leave. We are an open environment that embraces diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas – this drives our excellence.

Guided by our values and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we create and contribute to equitable spaces and systems, while cultivating a sense of belonging for all. Our internal employee networks support our inclusive culture: from race, ethnicity and cross-cultural working to gender equity and LGBTQ+ and disability inclusion – we aim to create a space for you to express yourself and make a positive difference. Discover more about life at Arup at www.arup.com/careers/your-life-at-arup.

We are committed to making our recruitment process and workplaces accessible to all candidates. Please contact nick.newell@arup.com to let us know if you need any assistance or reasonable adjustments throughout your application or interview process, and/or to perform the essential functions of the role. We will do everything we can to support you.

Our Application Process To understand what to expect next, please visit https://www.arup.com/careers/recruitment-process/ Stay safe online – Arup will never ask for your bank details as part of our recruitment process.

Recruitment Agencies : We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted partners to assist us when required and do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions from agencies not on the list. #LI-NN1