{"id":1366885,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader","title":"HR Services Operations Team Leader","company":{"id":1795137,"name":"DS Smith","domain":"dssmith.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/dssmith-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":77,"open_postings":28,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.929,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":42,"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"}},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Caerphilly, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":42000,"max_usd":92000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":377},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"GDPR","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-21","last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T11:19:09Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":43,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":43},"description":"About the Role\nOur people are at the heart of everything we do, and we're looking for an experienced HR professional to join our Shared Service Centre as an HR Services Operations Team Leader. This is an exciting opportunity for a highly organised, people-focused leader to oversee our HR Operations team and ensure the seamless delivery of HR administration and employee lifecycle services across the business.\nThe successful candidate will play a key role in driving service excellence, leading and developing a high-performing team, and continuously improving HR processes to enhance the employee experience. If you have experience in HR Shared Services, HR Operations, or People Services and enjoy combining leadership with operational excellence, we'd love to hear from you.\nWhat You'll Be Doing\nLeading and Developing the Team\nLead, motivate, coach, and develop a team of HR Operations professionals.\nConduct regular one-to-one meetings, performance reviews, and development discussions.\nAllocate workloads and resources effectively to ensure service delivery targets are met.\nSupport recruitment, onboarding, and training of new team members.\nFoster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and customer service excellence.\nDelivering Outstanding HR Services\nYou will oversee the accurate and timely delivery of employee lifecycle activities, including:\nRecruitment administration\nNew starter and onboarding processes\nContract changes\nPromotions and transfers\nFamily leave administration\nLeaver and offboarding processes\nYou'll monitor team performance against Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and act as the first escalation point for complex HR operational queries.\nSupporting Employees and Managers\nProvide guidance on HR policies, procedures, and systems.\nResolve escalated employee and manager queries.\nEnsure a positive and professional customer experience.\nManaging HR Systems and Data\nMaintain accurate employee records and HR data.\nMonitor data quality and implement corrective actions where needed.\nSupport system upgrades, testing, and process enhancements.\nProduce operational reports and management information.\nEnsuring Compliance\nEnsure compliance with employment legislation, GDPR, and company policies.\nSupport HR audits and governance reviews.\nMaintain the confidentiality and security of employee information.\nEnsure all HR documentation is legally compliant and accurate\nDriving Continuous Improvement\nIdentify opportunities to improve efficiency and service delivery.\nSupport automation and digital HR initiatives.\nContribute to HR transformation projects.\nDevelop and maintain standard operating procedures.\nBuilding Strong Stakeholder Relationships\nPartner with managers and HR colleagues across the business.\nWork closely with Payroll, Finance, Recruitment, and Learning & Development teams.\nSupport wider organisational and HR projects.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nEssential Experience & Skills\nExperience working within HR Operations, HR Shared Services, or People Services.\nPrevious team leadership or supervisory experience.\nStrong understanding of HR processes and employee lifecycle administration.\nExperience working with HR systems and employee data.\nExcellent organisational and prioritisation skills.\nStrong customer service focus.\nExperience handling confidential information with discretion.\nGCSEs (or equivalent) in English and Maths\nDesirable\nCIPD Level 3 or Level 5 qualification.\nExperience within a Shared Services environment.\nKnowledge of UK employment legislation.\nExperience leading process improvement initiatives\nBenefits\nA competitive salary and discretionary bonus\nStudy support and career development pathways\n25 days’ holiday + bank holidays, plus banked hours\nHybrid working: 3 days in the office, 2 from home\nPension scheme, life assurance, income protection\nEmployee assistance programme and digital GP access\nCycle to work scheme and discounts on shopping, travel and more\nLocation: Caerphilly\nHours: Monday - Friday - 09:00 - 17:00 (we operate on a hybrid basis, with 3 days in the office and 2 at home)\nContract: Perm\nAbout us\nWe are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 65,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!\nFair recruitment at DS Smith\nTo fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated, and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.\nOur people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria\n#LI-TB","description_format":"text","description_chars":5345,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Manufacturing","Packaging & Labeling","Packaging Design"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-28T02:34:29Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":24,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.554,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":43,"expected_fill_days":42,"reasons":["conf:4","stale_co","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T15:42:56Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":21898,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1795137},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1795137"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/ds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fds-smith-hr-services-operations-team-leader"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1366885}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"dssmith.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1366885},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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