Senior Manager HR Solutions EMEA - maternity contract (until July 2027)

This is a temporary position until August 2027, with an opportunity to start as soon as possible.

Santen is a specialized company with a proud 130-year heritage focused exclusively on eye health. As a Japan-originated, global company with our footprint in over 60 countries and regions, our mission is to provide essential and significant value to patients and society through our products and services created from our expertise in ophthalmology and from the patient’s perspective.

Join us at a pivotal and exciting time as we continue to evolve and strengthen our HR operating model across EMEA. As Manager of HR Solutions Leads, you will play a key leadership role within our EMEA HR Solutions team, helping shape the future of how HR services are delivered across the region. 

Leading a team of HR Solutions Leads, you will be responsible for driving service excellence, fostering a high-performing and collaborative team culture, and ensuring the delivery of seamless, employee-centric HR support across the full employee lifecycle. Working closely with HR colleagues and business stakeholders, you will champion a positive employee experience, while identifying opportunities to simplify processes, improve ways of working, and enhance service delivery. 

This role offers a unique opportunity to make a tangible impact during a period of transformation and growth. You will have the scope to influence how we operate, contribute to the ongoing evolution of our HR Solutions function, and help build a modern, efficient, and people-focused HR experience for employees and managers across EMEA.  

What you will do

• Lead and manage the HR Solutions Lead team across EMEA ensuring high-quality service delivery and achievement of agreed objectives through effective performance management, coaching, development support, and proactive workforce planning to balance workloads, maintain adequate coverage, and ensure continuity of service. 
• Ensure consistent and effective delivery of HR services across all core employee lifecycle processes, including onboarding and offboarding, recruitment support, performance cycles, compensation processes, employee data, contracts, and leave administration. 
• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of HR operational solutions within the assigned scope, ensuring services are delivered accurately, efficiently, and in line with agreed policies and standards. 
• Hold overall accountability for compliance with employment law, regulatory requirements, data protection, and documentation standards, proactively identifying and addressing operational risks. 
• Act as the escalation point for complex or sensitive employee and manager cases, ensuring issues are handled appropriately, consistently, and in line with legal and policy requirements. 
• Monitor service performance and delivery outcomes, using agreed measures and feedback to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement. 
• Drive continuous improvement of processes, standards, and tools, simplifying ways of working and improving service quality through appropriate use of digital solutions and self-service. 

What you will bring to the role

• 8+ years of experience in senior human resources roles, such as senior HR generalist, HR manager, or comparable roles, with responsibility for operational HR delivery and people management. 
• Proven experience leading, coaching, and developing international HR teams, including HR specialists or generalists, with accountability for performance, service quality, and delivery outcomes. 
• Strong experience delivering end-to-end HR services across the employee lifecycle, ensuring consistent application of processes, compliance with legal and policy requirements, and continuous improvement. 
• Demonstrated experience managing complex employee relations matters, acting as an escalation point and providing expert guidance on employment law and sensitive people issues. 
• Experience working in an international organization, collaborating across countries and functions in a multi-stakeholder environment. 
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to work effectively across cultures and countries. 
• Bachelor’s degree in HR or Business Administration; professional certification in HR Operations, Project Management, or Systems is a plus. 
• Fluent English required. 

What we offer:

• Competitive Salary: A market‑aligned base salary starting from £68 132,87 – £93 682,70 depending on experience and location.

Ready to make a difference?  
Apply today and help us shape the future of eye health. 

Grow your career at Santen
A career at Santen is an opportunity to make a difference. We aspire to contribute to the realization of “Happiness with Vision” by providing eye health products and services to patients, consumers, and medical professionals around the world. Guided by our CORE PRINCIPLE, “Tenki ni sanyo suru”, Santen is engaged in the global research & development, manufacturing, and sales and marketing of pharmaceutical products in ophthalmology. We have team members around the world using their diverse talents to unlock new modalities and drive innovations for patient outcomes, education and treatment. At Santen, we believe in empowering all our team members with flexible ways of working and a highly inclusive work environment.

The Santen Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building diverse teams and ensuring a safe and inclusive physical and virtual workplace for every one of our team members. All employment decisions are based on business needs, role requirements and individual qualifications regardless of race, color, ethnicity, national origin/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/ expression, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you require any kind of accommodation during our recruitment process, please let the recruiter from our team know.