We are recruiting an HR Business Partner for an international luxury beauty and fragrance business, based in Dubai.
This is a broad, commercially focused HR position supporting a business that combines corporate teams with a sizeable frontline retail population across the region.
The role needs someone who enjoys being close to the business. You will work directly with senior leaders, line managers and employees, providing day-to-day HR support while also helping shape longer-term decisions around organisation, talent, performance and growth.
This is not an HR role that sits at a distance from the operation.
The successful candidate will need to understand what is happening within the business, spend time with teams in the market and build enough credibility with managers that HR is involved early in conversations rather than brought in once a problem has already developed.
The environment is international, commercial and fast-moving, with the standards and expectations that come with a leading luxury brand.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
HR BUSINESS PARTNERING
Act as the HR partner to designated functions and business leaders across the region.
Build strong relationships with senior management and develop a detailed understanding of their teams, priorities and challenges.
Provide practical HR advice while balancing employee considerations with the commercial needs of the business.
Support leaders on organisational structure, headcount planning, team effectiveness and future capability requirements.
Participate in business discussions where people, organisation or talent decisions are required.
Work closely with managers on changes within their teams, ensuring these are handled thoughtfully and consistently.
Provide managers with constructive challenge when needed rather than simply implementing decisions.
Maintain regular visibility across both corporate and retail populations.
TALENT & ORGANISATION
A significant part of the role will be understanding the people within the organisation and helping the business build stronger teams for the future.
Partner with management on talent reviews and succession planning.
Identify high-potential employees and support meaningful development plans.
Work with managers to identify capability gaps within their teams.
Support career development and internal mobility across the organisation.
Review organisational structures and identify opportunities to improve effectiveness.
Support workforce and headcount planning in line with business growth.
Work with regional and international HR teams on talent initiatives.
Help build succession pipelines for critical and difficult-to-replace positions.
Encourage managers to have regular, useful conversations around development rather than limiting talent discussions to an annual process.
RECRUITMENT & WORKFORCE PLANNING
The HR Business Partner will work closely with Talent Acquisition and hiring managers to ensure recruitment reflects both immediate requirements and the longer-term needs of the business.
Responsibilities will include:
Reviewing recruitment needs with business leaders.
Challenging and clarifying requirements before recruitment begins.
Supporting workforce planning and annual headcount discussions.
Partnering with Talent Acquisition on key and senior appointments.
Supporting selection and interview processes where appropriate.
Ensuring new employees are integrated effectively into the organisation.
Monitoring recruitment trends, turnover and recurring talent gaps.
Supporting internal mobility where this provides a stronger solution than external recruitment.
PERFORMANCE & DEVELOPMENT
Manage the annual performance management cycle across the relevant business population.
Coach managers on setting meaningful objectives and managing performance throughout the year.
Support managers with difficult performance conversations.
Ensure underperformance is addressed fairly, consistently and in a timely manner.
Work with Learning & Development to identify individual and organisational development needs.
Support leadership and management development initiatives.
Use performance and talent information to identify wider capability requirements.
Encourage a culture where feedback and development happen throughout the year rather than only during formal review periods.
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
The role will be a key point of contact for employee relations matters across the business.
Advise managers on employee relations issues and appropriate courses of action.
Manage disciplinary, grievance, performance and conduct matters.
Support investigations where required.
Ensure cases are handled professionally, consistently and with appropriate documentation.
Work with management on sensitive or complex employee situations.
Maintain a sound understanding of UAE employment requirements and company policies.
Partner with relevant regional HR or legal teams on more complex matters.
Identify recurring employee relations themes and address underlying issues rather than treating every case in isolation.
Discretion, judgement and the ability to handle sensitive conversations calmly will be particularly important.
RETAIL HR
The position will have significant exposure to the retail organisation.
The HR Business Partner will work closely with Retail Management, Store Managers and other field leaders to understand what is happening within the store population.
This will include:
Regular interaction with retail teams and management.
Supporting managers with team structure, staffing and performance.
Understanding turnover, absence and retention patterns.
Identifying stores or teams where additional HR support may be required.
Supporting new store openings, team changes and other retail projects.
Helping managers develop stronger leadership and people-management capability.
Ensuring HR policies and processes are understood and applied consistently across the retail network.
Maintaining visibility with frontline employees rather than operating solely through management.
Experience working with a sizeable retail or frontline employee population would therefore be particularly useful.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT & CULTURE
Luxury beauty and fragrance is ultimately a people-led business, and the employee experience has a direct impact on the experience delivered to clients.
The HR Business Partner will help maintain a working environment where expectations are clear, performance is recognised and employees have confidence in their managers.
Responsibilities will include:
Supporting employee engagement initiatives.
Reviewing engagement feedback and working with managers on meaningful actions.
Identifying themes affecting morale, retention or performance.
Supporting communication around organisational changes and business initiatives.
Promoting an inclusive and respectful working environment.
Helping leaders maintain the culture and values of the organisation as the business develops.
Supporting wellbeing and employee experience initiatives where appropriate.
REWARD & ANNUAL HR CYCLES
Support annual salary and compensation reviews.
Coordinate with regional HR and Compensation & Benefits teams on salary recommendations and benchmarking.
Support bonus and incentive processes.
Provide managers with guidance around compensation decisions.
Ensure salary decisions are consistent with internal structures and regional guidelines.
Support promotions and other employee changes.
Contribute to annual manpower and personnel-cost planning.
Work closely with HR Operations and Payroll to ensure employee changes are processed accurately.
HR OPERATIONS & DATA
Although this is a business partnering position, the successful candidate must be comfortable with the operational detail behind good HR.
Ensure employee information and organisational data remain accurate.
Work closely with HR Operations on contracts, employee changes, transfers, promotions and exits.
Review HR data to understand turnover, headcount, recruitment, absence and other workforce trends.
Produce meaningful people analysis for business leaders.
Ensure managers complete required HR processes within agreed timelines.
Support improvements to HR systems and processes.
Maintain appropriate confidentiality across all employee information.
We are looking for someone who uses HR data to ask better questions rather than simply producing reports.
REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
The position will operate within an international organisation and will regularly work with colleagues outside the UAE.
Partner with regional and global HR teams on group initiatives.
Adapt international HR programmes appropriately for the local business.
Contribute regional insight to wider HR discussions.
Support cross-market projects and organisational changes.
Work effectively within a matrix structure where decisions may involve both regional and international stakeholders.
The successful candidate will need to be comfortable navigating a business where local requirements and international expectations do not always arrive in exactly the same shape.
EXPERIENCE & REQUIREMENTS
Solid generalist HR experience with meaningful HR Business Partnering responsibility.
Previous experience supporting both corporate and retail or frontline populations would be highly advantageous.
Experience within luxury, beauty, fragrance, fashion, retail, hospitality or another premium consumer-facing environment would be relevant.
Strong experience partnering with senior leaders and line managers.
Good knowledge of talent management, succession planning and organisational development.
Experience managing performance and employee relations matters.
Exposure to recruitment and workforce planning.
Experience supporting annual compensation, performance and talent cycles.
Good understanding of UAE employment practices and the regional working environment.
Previous experience within an international or matrix organisation would be advantageous.
Strong commercial awareness and an ability to understand the priorities of the business.
Comfortable interpreting HR data and identifying meaningful trends.
Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
Able to manage sensitive and confidential matters with discretion.
Organised, pragmatic and comfortable managing several priorities at the same time.
Strong written and spoken English.
Arabic or additional regional language capability would be advantageous but is not essential.
Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology or a related discipline would be preferred.
