Job Title

Director of People Operations

Department

Human Resources-BG-UK

Overview of Department

The People team develops the capabilities, culture and experiences that create a human and commercial edge for Baillie Gifford. We exist to make the firm the world’s most distinctive place to grow a career, investing in our people with the same long-term conviction as our portfolios and continually reimagining how work is done to outpace the industry.

The team supports the full people lifecycle, including people operations, people partnering, leadership, learning and capability development, attraction and resourcing, organisational culture, reward, wellbeing and the end-to-end people experience. Through this work, we ensure that people and performance are deeply connected and that our colleagues are equipped to deliver long-term value for clients.

Purpose of Role

This role leads People Operations across Baillie Gifford, delivering clear, human-centred and technology-enabled services across our people lifecycle. The role protects organisational health, compliance, and trust, while enabling the wider People Team to focus on long-term value.

Reporting to the Chief People Officer, you are a senior member of the People Leadership Team and the operational voice of the People function across cross-firm initiatives and regulatory engagement.

This is a newly created role, reflecting the firm’s ambition to strengthen its People Operations capability as part of the wider People strategy. The focus is on building modern, human-centred and technology-enabled services that support colleagues and leaders today, while creating strong foundations for the future.

We welcome applications from leaders beyond traditional people function backgrounds, including those who have led people-adjacent operations in fintech, technology or platform-led organisations. We are interested in judgement, operating mindset and leadership impact — not job titles.

Responsibilities

Lead all People Operations activity, creating an integrated team that delivers high-quality, efficient, and human-centred services.
Oversee employment law and complex people relations matters, ensuring fair outcomes, compliance, and policy clarity.
Own people risk reporting, governance, and operational resilience for the People function.
Lead change enablement, automation, and readiness for AI across people processes and ways of working.
Own self-service platforms and the People technology roadmap, improving adoption, reliability, and colleague experience.
Simplify policies and processes so it is easy for colleagues and people managers to do the right thing.
Build and lead a service-oriented team that works in close partnership with the wider People Team and the business.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, and accountability within People Operations.
Contribute as a member of the People Leadership Team to the overall People strategy.
Represent the operational perspective of the People function in cross-firm projects and external discussions.

What success looks like

1. Clear, human people experiences People Operations delivers simple, supportive services across the people lifecycle, from onboarding to exit. Success looks like:

Clear and consistent processes that respect colleagues’ time
High trust and satisfaction from colleagues and people managers
A service culture grounded in empathy, clarity, and follow-through

2. Strong organisational health, risk, and compliance People risk is well understood, well managed, and proportionate to the firm’s long-term ambitions. Success looks like:

Confident and proactive management of people risk with robust systems and controls across people processes
Fair and timely resolution of complex people matters
Fewer and clearer policies that are easy to apply in practice

3. Modern and effective people operations People Operations uses technology well to remove friction and free capacity for higher-value work. Success looks like:

Intuitive self-service and reliable core systems
Automation that reduces manual effort and error
Strong foundations for insight, knowledge sharing, and future AI use

4. Trusted people data and insight People data is accurate, timely, and used to support sound decisions. Success looks like:

Clear and practical dashboards that leaders use
High confidence in data quality and integrity
Insight that informs workforce and organisational planning

5. An engaged, service-oriented people operations team The team is confident, capable, and focused on continuous improvement. Success looks like:

Clear roles, ownership, and development pathways
Strong partnerships across People Partnering, Reward, and Learning and Talent
High engagement with a culture of service excellence and learning

6. Leadership across the People Team You provide clear operational leadership that strengthens the whole People Team. Success looks like:

Visible leadership within the People Leadership Team
Effective collaboration across functions and geographies
Trusted relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders

Your knowledge and experience:

Senior leadership experience running or transforming People Operations, Shared Services or people-adjacent operations in a complex, high-performing organisation
Experience leading operational services in regulated or risk-aware environments, with exposure to people risk and governance considerations
The judgement to engage credibly with employment law and complex people issues, knowing when to deepen your own understanding and when to draw on specialist expertise to reach fair, proportionate outcomes
A track record of building service-oriented teams with clear accountability, strong partnerships and a focus on continuous improvement
Experience using HR technology, automation and digital tools to reduce friction, improve reliability and unlock capacity
Confidence working with people data and insight to support sound decisions and organisational planning
Experience partnering with senior stakeholders and representing an operational perspective in cross-functional or external forums

The type of candidate that we’re looking for:

We’re looking for an exceptional operational leader who may not come from a traditional People background, but who has deep experience owning and improving services that matter at scale. You bring a systems mindset, strong judgement, and a genuine focus on building trust through delivery. You are comfortable operating in complex, regulated environments, making proportionate decisions that balance protection, pace and progress.

You’re digitally fluent and curious, excited by the challenge of redesigning work across modern technology stacks and exploring how automation and AI can improve both experience and effectiveness.

Above all, you are a service-oriented leader who builds high-trust cultures in changing contexts. You lead with empathy and clarity, create strong partnerships, and see continuous improvement as essential to long-term organisational health.

Critical skills:

Systems thinking
Digital effectiveness (including AI)
Data Literacy
Enabling others
Improvement mindset

Additional information:

Instead of a cover letter, candidates are asked to submit a CV and short written responses (maximum 300 words each) to the following questions:

Question 1 – Tell us about a time when you were accountable for an end-to-end operational service at scale.

Question 2 – Describe a technology-enabled change you led that improved a core people or business process.

Question 3 – Share an example of how you built or sustained a high-trust service culture during a period of change.

We expect candidates may use AI tools thoughtfully as part of their application. We are interested in your judgement, prioritisation and trade-offs – not perfection.

Closing Date February 12, 2026

At Baillie Gifford we are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful culture in which each of our colleagues can thrive and develop. We believe that our clients are best served by a diverse workforce with the experiences, ideas and perspectives that this brings.

If you are currently working at Baillie Gifford as an employee or contractor please apply to this job from the firm's Workday internal career site.

Baillie Gifford is an independent, private partnership, which allows us to focus entirely on our clients and their investments. It helps our stability, motivation and culture and enables us to take a long-term view on all that we do, including staff development, client relationships and investing.

And just like with our investments, we’re good at spotting potential in our employees. Join us and we’ll actively support you to explore the possibilities of your career and interests. We’ll give you on-going training and development, all to ensure you have valuable opportunities to grow your unique talents and pursue your goals. We’re also incredibly committed to the wellbeing of our employees.

This is just a taste of our culture. One that was created by the partners who own and will work with you every day in the firm. People who are always on hand to hear your ideas and suggestions of how to make Baillie Gifford an even better place to be. So, if this sounds like somewhere you could realise your full potential, then our next investment could be you.

If you have any questions or issues regarding your application, please contact us at HR@bailliegifford.com.

For more detail on careers at Baillie Gifford visit our careers site at: https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/careers

This page hosts our regular vacancies - to view our graduate and internship vacancies follow this link.