Strategic Employee Relations Business Partner

Salary: £75,000 up to £80,000 dependent upon experience

Contract Type: FTC 2 years – Full-time

Security Level: BPSS

Location: Gatwick, Aviation House – min 2 days in the office per week or 8 days across the month.

Visa Restrictions: This position does not offer visa sponsorship

Closing Date:  16th August 2026

Interview Date: 2nd September 2026 – in person Gatwick - Aviation House.

We are the UK's aviation and aerospace regulator and recognised as a world leader in its field. Our activities are diverse, enabling the aviation industry to meet the highest safety standards, and we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to the constantly evolving aviation environment.

The Role

The Strategic Employee Relations Business Partner is a newly created role within the CAA and has been designed to help shape and deliver our Employee Experience through our Employee Relations strategy across the organisation. It is intended to provide proactive, insight-led employee approach which drives a positive and values driven workplace culture, mitigates organisational risk and enables high performance.

Working closely with senior leaders, Strategic People Partners, and Centres of Excellence, the role moves beyond transactional case management to identify trends, influence organisational decisions, and embed effective, equitable, and consistent people practices. This role will hold direct line management responsibility for the ER Casework Manager and oversee their leadership of the People Consultants team.

Core Accountabilities

Strategic ER Leadership

• Develop and implement a forward-looking employee relations strategy aligned to organisational priorities and culture.
• Provide expert ER insights to inform business transformation, organisational design, and workforce planning.
• Act as a trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders and Strategic People Partners on complex, high-risk, and sensitive people issues.

Capability Building

• Build ER capability across the business facing people teams, specifically the Strategic People Partners and the People Consultants in addition to line managers through coaching, training and guidance.
• Promote early intervention and informal resolution approaches.
• Build capability and confidence of line managers to manage employee relations situations focused on early intervention and building confidence.
• Enable a shift from reactive case management to proactive people management.

Complex Case Management & Risk Mitigation

• Lead on the advice for the most complex, high-impact employee relations cases (e.g. disciplinary, grievance, whistleblowing, capability exits & P and C employment tribunal lead).
• Provide guidance and quality assurance to Strategic People Partners and wider people teams on ER case handling.
• Ensure risks are proactively identified, escalated, and mitigated in line with legal and organisational requirements.
• Provide lessons learnt insights and action plans to leaders and management in relation to risk mitigation, culture change and operational improvement

Insight & Continuous Improvement

• Analyse ER data and trends to identify systemic issues, root causes, and emerging risks generating recommendations for corporate and local action.
• Use insights to influence policy, leadership capability, and organisational interventions. Drive continuous improvement in ER processes, ensuring efficiency, consistency and high-quality outcomes.

Policy & Governance

• Overall accountability for Leading the development, review, and implementation of existing and new people policies and frameworks.
• Ensure policies align with employment legislation, best practice and organisational values.
• Ensure polices and processes are co-created with joint authors/owners
• Ensure people are accountable for timely policy work, helping to enable them on what good looks like and escalate risks to management where governance is not working or deliverables are not being realised.
• Promote equitable, inclusive, and consistent application of policies across the organisation.

Stakeholder Management & Influence

• Partner with senior leaders, Strategic People Partners, Legal, and reward colleagues, specifically the Employee and Industrial Relations Manager where relevant
• Build strong relationships to influence decision-making and embed effective ER practice.
• Act as a key escalation point for complex and sensitive issues.

Change & Transformation Support

• Provide ER expertise during organisational change (e.g. restructures, TUPE, redundancy).
• Support leaders to manage people impacts effectively and ethically.
• Ensure compliance with consultation requirements and governance processes.

About You

Essential:

• Significant experience in ER at a senior and / or strategic level.
• Experience of leading and coaching a team of Employee Relations experts
• Deep knowledge of employment law and its practical application.
• Proven ability to manage complex, high-risk ER cases, evidencing balancing risk with business need.
• Strong analytical skills with experience using data to drive insights, recommendations, and business decisions.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, particularly at senior level.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical language into operational context where applicable.
• Experience working within a business partnering model.
• Ability to operate both strategically and operationally when required.
• Strong judgement, resilience, and ability to handle sensitive situations with discretion.
• CIPD level 5 or equivalent experience

Desirable:

• CIPD Level 7 or working towards (or equivalent experience).
• Relevant degree.

Additional Information

For many appointments within the CAA, these roles require access to operationally sensitive infrastructure and/or Nationally Protected information. For these roles the post holders must undergo National Security Vetting and achieve the appropriate level of clearance.

To be vetted you must have the right to work in the UK so that meaningful checks can be undertaken.

If you do not meet these requirements, we may not be able to accept your application.

For more information on BPSS clearance please visit - BPSS clearance

The CAA values high ethical standards and personal integrity among employees. If invited for interview you will be asked to complete a declaration of interest.

Relocation & Property

The CAA will be relocating from Aviation House (Our Gatwick Office) to new premises in a few years’ time. Our move is driven by strategic, operational and environmental considerations.

We will be moving to a new local home, up to a 15-mile radius of Aviation House, to minimise disruption for our valued colleagues and customers.

We are now working with colleagues and visitors to understand what we need in our new office, before we start our property search. We will sell Aviation House and land, vacate the site and move to new premises, but we do not expect to move before 2028

Inclusive Recruitment

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome applications from all backgrounds. As a Disability Confident employer, candidates who meet the minimum requirements will be guaranteed an interview. Find out more about the Disability Confident Scheme. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Use of Artificial Intelligence by candidates in the CAA recruitment process

We recognise that many of our candidates find Artificial Intelligence to be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected on that basis.

Working With Us

Explore What We Offer section on our careers website to find out about our benefits and how we support work-life balance.

Our Values

Do The Right Thing, Never Stop Learning, Build Collaborative Relationships, Respect Everyone – For more information please Click Here

Closing Date: 16th August 2026

Interview Date: 2nd September 2026 – in person – Gatwick – Aviation House.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

No recruitment agencies please.