Job Description

Synopsis
Join an airline in the midst of a remarkable growth and transformation journey. As Etihad continues to expand its global footprint and redefine the modern aviation experience, this role sits at the heart of shaping the workforce strategy that powers our success.
The Head of Global HR Business Partnering & Employee Relations sits at the center of Etihad's transformation story; providing strategic alignment, elevating leadership capability, strengthening engagement across geographies, and enabling a unified people strategy that supports the airline's growth.
In this role you will lead Etihad's global HRBP and ER framework, ensuring consistency, compliance, and risk governance across HQ and the international network. This role
You will partner with senior leaders across Sales, Cargo, Ground Operations, Finance, Legal, Airports, and international markets to shape a global workforce that is future-ready, efficient, and capable of powering Etihad's ambitious expansion.
Accountabilities
1. Network HRBP Oversight

• Lead the global HRBP community supporting network functions and international stations, ensuring seamless HR partnership aligned to business strategy.
• Collaborate with global operational leaders to design and deliver people strategies that reflect local context and global standards.
• Provide leadership to HRBPs across geographies to ensure smooth delivery of workforce initiatives, organizational planning, and talent deployment.

2. Workforce & Location Strategy

• Oversee workforce planning for all locations, ensuring alignment to business growth, operational requirements, and long-term strategic goals.
• Approve workforce plans for international stations and oversee mobility, staffing adequacy, and capability needs across the global network.

3. Global Talent Management

• Drive the talent agenda for internationally distributed teams, ensuring robust succession pipelines, leadership readiness, retention, and organizational resilience.
• Oversee lifecycle initiatives such as performance management, talent reviews, succession, and compensation calibration across network functions.

4. HRBP Framework & Governance

• Define, refine, and govern the global HRBP operating model, ensuring clarity of roles, decision rights, and ways of working across HQ and global HRBPs.
• Ensure operating standards, tools, and policies are consistently applied across all regions.
• Champion best practices to support workforce engagement, people leadership capability, and organizational effectiveness.

5. Employee Relations

• Own the global ER strategy, policy governance, and escalation pathways for complex and high-risk cases.
• Ensure ER compliance with local labour laws, global policies, and regulatory requirements across all countries Etihad operates in.
• Provide thought leadership on ER trends, risk mitigation, and workforce climate management.

Education & Experience

• 15+ years of progressive HR experience, including Director-level leadership in HR Business Partnering.
• Strong experience in Employee Relations governance and large-scale organizational HRBP frameworks.
• Previous experience in global or international HR partnering roles is essential.
• Experience in aviation, regulated industries, or large, complex multinational organizations is highly preferred.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, lead change, and manage distributed teams.

About Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, was formed in 2003 and quickly went on to become one of the world's leading airlines. From its home in Abu Dhabi, Etihad flies to passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Together with Etihad's codeshare partners, Etihad's network offers access to hundreds of international destinations. In recent years, Etihad has received numerous awards for its superior service and products, cargo offering, loyalty programme and more. All this ties into Etihad's ambitious Journey 2030 strategy. The airline plans to double its fleet size and triple the number of customers over the next six years as it sets out to be the airline everyone wants to fly!
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Skills Required