People Operations Manager

We are Eversheds Sutherland, a global law firm, with more than 5,000 people across over 30 countries. We’re full-service with deep niche and sector experience. Whatever challenge, wherever in the world, we’re equipped and ready to meet it. We live our values, we’re purposeful and purpose-led. So although the world is fast-moving and rapidly changing, we see it as a place where everyone can thrive. We’re ambitious for our clients, our communities – and for you. Whether you’re starting out on your career or well established, whether you’re a lawyer or in business services. If you’re looking for what’s next, we are too. Our Team This role sits within the International People Operations team and is based in our Birmingham office. This is a hybrid role, with a current requirement of working 3 days on site in the Birmingham Office. Eversheds Sutherland prides itself on being a great place to work. The International People Operations team is a People Shared Service which is at the very heart of the employee experience. You will work as part of a professional and energetic team that is at a pivotal point of change, introducing new technology to enhance our service delivery. You can expect to get involved right across the spectrum of HR activity to make a real difference to our business. You can expect to achieve professional satisfaction by using your skills to the full. Role and key responsibilities Reporting into the Senior People Operations Manager, the People Operations Manager plays a pivotal role in shaping and delivering a modern, strategic people operations function within a fast-paced, global professional services environment. This role goes beyond service delivery to focus on transforming the employee experience, optimising operational effectiveness, and developing a proactive, customer-centric People service. You will work closely with the Senior People Operations Manager to lead the evolution of People Operations by driving continuous improvement, digital transformation, and alignment with business priorities, while ensuring a highly visible, trusted, and well-promoted service offering across the firm. Key responsibilities for the People Operations Manager are: Operational Leadership: Provide leadership and direction to the People Services team (3 direct reports & wider team of approx. 15) Oversee day-to-day operations, ensuring efficient handling of queries, transactions, and service requests in line with SLAs. Drive accountability, performance, and continuous development within the team. Ensure effective governance, documentation, and maintenance of policies, processes, and knowledge resources. Create and embed a high-performing team culture that is open, collaborative, and focused on continuous learning and development, ensuring a positive and supportive place to work. Transformation: Lead the development and execution of the People Operations strategy, aligning with wider People team and business objectives. Drive transformation initiatives to modernise processes, systems, and ways of working, ensuring scalability and long-term efficiency. Identify opportunities to streamline and digitise services, improving stakeholder, employee and manager experience. Customer Experience & Service Excellence: Champion a customer-first approach, ensuring all services are designed around our key stakeholder requirements. Continually enhance the end-to-end user experience across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, and query resolution. Establish and monitor meaningful service metrics to drive quality, responsiveness, and satisfaction. Embed a “right first time” culture, improving accuracy and reducing rework across the function. Service Visibility & Promotion: Proactively promote People Operations services across the business, increasing awareness, engagement, and utilisation. Build strong relationships with stakeholders (such as Payroll, Talent Acquisition and the HR Business Partners) and position People Operations as a trusted, value-adding partner. Develop clear communication strategies to showcase services, improvements, and successes. Act as a visible ambassador for the function, ensuring alignment between service offering and business expectations. Process Improvement & Innovation: Work closely with the Quality & Audit Team Leader to continuously review and refine operational processes to improve efficiency, consistency, and scalability. Collaborate closely with the People Service Delivery Manager (Europe) to drive continuous improvement in ways of working and foster effective cross-regional collaboration. Recruitment & Onboarding Experience: Oversee and enhance onboarding processes, ensuring a seamless and high-quality candidate and new joiner experience. Maintain oversight of employee screening to ensure full compliance with regulatory and organisational standards. Own and manage the relationship with the firm’s third party screening provider. Projects: Play a lead role in projects that impact People Operations, including a comprehensive review of employee screening and the implementation of ServiceNow. Requirements We are looking for the following: Demonstrated success in driving transformation, process improvement, and operational strategy. Motivated by customer experience and service design, with the ability to translate insights into improvements. Ability to challenge and manage stakeholders constructively and drive continuous improvement. Excellent analytical, organisational, and problem-solving capabilities. Excellent communication and influencing skills. Commercial awareness and business alignment. Collaborative and solutions-focused approach. Demonstrable experience leading People/HR Operations within a centralised or shared services environment. Solid understanding of the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, contractual changes and benefits administration. Comfortable working with process documentation, SOPs and operational controls. Experience line managing and developing a sizable team, to include performance management, coaching and prioritisation of work. Experience delivering business change initiatives and contributing to projects. What’s in it for you? At Eversheds Sutherland, we provide benefits focused on looking after you: your development, your performance, your financial future and your health, as well as providing the opportunity to make a contribution to the world. We’re fair, transparent and equitable We share in the success of the firm, reward alignment to our values, going above and beyond and your individual performance We support flexible ways of working through our remote working policy and commitment to flexible, agile and hybrid ways of working We support your health and performance through our dental, healthcare and wellness support We support everything you are and all you bring through our powerful commitment to diversity and inclusion We provide a platform for your career, whatever your ambitions through our structured professional and personal training, mentoring and development programs We provide experience and opportunity through international and cross-function exposure We provide an opportunity to give back through our pro bono work and community engagement We help you plan ahead through retirement planning, insurance and assurance Diversity & Inclusion At Eversheds Sutherland, “Inclusive” is a core business value. We bring together different skillsets, global mindsets and approaches. We foster diversity of thought and the freedom to put ideas into action. We have an inherent respect for the individual. We have a strong belief in collaboration and teamwork. Sharing ideas, asking questions, solving challenges and meeting our clients’ goals: together. We want all our people to thrive at work and reach their full potential and we work hard to continue to build a diverse and inclusive culture, monitor and report on our progress and impact, and develop our approach. This is reflected in our policies, systems and processes, and in our work with diversity membership organisations. Many of our people work flexibly in some way and we are open to considering how we can accommodate flexible working arrangements alongside role requirements. If this is important to you, please talk to us about it during the recruitment process. We want you to perform at your best during our recruitment process. If there is any adjustment or support you need, please contact us so we can discuss how we can best assist you. For you, For your success. And what's next.