Job Description

Purpose of the role

To partner with senior HR business leaders to develop and implement a people strategy that enables business goals. 

Accountabilities

• Design and delivery of the people strategy for their aligned portfolio of businesses, using insights to diagnose people related trends and opportunities to drive business performance.
• Cross functional collaboration to ensure delivery of the people strategy and associated HR products into the business.
• Provision of advice and counsel to the most senior business leaders on an ad-hoc basis as it relates to specific people related issues and opportunities to drive improved performance, whether in relation to activity driven at the Group level which falls outside of the People Strategy, or opportunities identified within business (e.g. cultural trends, senior ER related issue, talent skill gaps/hiring needs etc.). Use of organisation effectiveness principles, partner with senior business leaders to ensure structures are organised in a way to deliver efficiency aligned to strategic objectives.
• Participation in HR product design, using commercial acumen, deep business knowledge and external insights and represent HR service and products back into the business, using relationships and business knowledge to ensure products and processes drive the desired outcome at the local business level.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

We’re at an exciting point in transforming Barclays Payments, and as we continue to shape and scale up our new CPO function, providing end to end business partnering with our leadership team is critical. Reporting directly into our Head of Business Partnering, this is a superb opportunity to join our CPO function as an HR Business Partner (HRBP) to provide a high-quality, commercially focused HR service across BPL. Working within a lean HR team, the role will be highly hands-on, combining day-to-day business partnering with operational delivery, people processes and HR projects.

The role will work closely with managers and colleagues across the business, providing practical HR support while helping to build scalable people practices appropriate for a fast-paced environment.

Key responsibilities:

• Support the Director of Business Partnering with delivery of the people agenda across BPL

• Support the HR workstream for the separation of BPL, helping ensure a smooth transition for colleagues, managers and the organisation, while maintaining BAU support

• Coordinate HR activities across key workstreams including employee transfers, organisational design, employee data, HR policies, compensation and benefits, and HR systems

• Support employee consultation and communication activities during the separation

• Build trusted relationships with managers and colleagues at all levels

• Support CPO leadership with the creation and execution of all HR process, procedures and frameworks

• Support managers with people planning, team structures, talent management

• Ensure HR data is up to date and can be reliably used to inform decision making

• Support compensation and benefits processes, including salary reviews and promotions

• Support HR projects and business change initiatives across BPL

• Support organisational changes, restructures and other transformation activity

To be successful as a HR Business Partner, you will have experience with:

• Strong generalist HR knowledge across employee relations, performance, talent, reward and people processes

• Comfortable working in a lean team where everyone is hands-on

• Commercially minded, with an ability to understand business priorities and translate them into practical people solutions

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills

• Comfortable working with managers and senior stakeholders

• Good analytical skills and confidence working and reporting on HR data

• Comfortable operating in a changing environment where processes are still developing

• Highly organised, pragmatic and solutions-focused

• High level of discretion and professionalism

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years. 

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield (programme ‘Gaia’), please visit Barclays.com.