Director, People Experience, International - The Orchard

Sony Music Entertainment is seeking a Director of People Experience to lead the PX strategy for The Orchard's international teams across the UK, Europe, and Africa. This role involves partnering with business leaders, guiding a team, and fostering an inclusive culture. The director will operate as a strategic leader and hands-on coach, driving people-first solutions and contributing to enterprise-wide HR initiatives.

Must Have

• Collaborate with business units to define and implement people strategies aligned with global business objectives.
• Serve as a senior People Experience leader across international markets, supporting employees and driving business outcomes.
• Act as a trusted consultant and coach to leadership, offering insights and supporting solution development.
• Advise business leaders on people strategy, including organizational design, diverse hiring, performance management, career development, compensation, recognition, and engagement.
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with PX counterparts across regions for localized support and compliance.
• Partner with leadership to identify top talent and develop impactful development and succession plans.
• Collaborate with the Talent Acquisition team to deliver exceptional recruiting experiences.
• Support and advance the DEI strategy by coaching leaders and contributing to key initiatives.
• Champion PX programs and policies, promoting understanding and adoption while advocating for a human-centered workplace.
• Foster a progressive, inclusive culture and work environment that promotes employee engagement and well-being.
• Leverage people data to generate insights that inform decision-making and enhance team performance.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the business and industry trends to provide timely, relevant guidance.
• Contribute to enterprise-wide HR initiatives and special projects.
• 10+ years of experience in a senior business partner, head of human resources or director human resources role.
• Expert communicator, with the ability to clearly and effectively communicate both verbally and in writing.
• Prior experience supporting client groups abroad.
• Agile thinker with the ability to be highly creative, innovative and future oriented as it relates to People solutions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, change and complexity; leads with a growth mindset.
• Strong prioritization skills with a mindset that welcomes multiple projects in flight.
• Highly impactful at connecting, engaging, influencing and partnering with senior leadership, employees, internal and external partners.
• Drives change processes by applying change management methods and experience design thinking approach.
• Demonstrates empathy and experience to drive diversity, equity & inclusion strategies into accountable action.
• Experience using data to identify insights that drive action.
• Excellent consulting, coaching and strong people management skills.

Good to Have

• Experience supporting businesses operating in European markets.
• Multilingual capabilities.
• Experience in a large, complex/matrixed organization, ideally in a creative industry (music, television, entertainment, etc.).

Perks & Benefits

• Vibrant global community with opportunity to channel passion every day
• Modern office environment designed for you
• Investment in professional growth and development
• Space to accelerate progress, positively disrupt and create what happens next
• Platform to champion positive change, with opportunity to contribute to social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
• Excellent range of benefits like private medical cover
• Generous pension scheme
• Life assurance
• Income protection
• Loads of music industry perks
• Time off over winter break

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) is seeking a strategic, innovative, and human-centered Director of People Experience to join our diverse and forward-thinking PX team. In this role, you will serve as the lead Business Partner for The Orchard’s international teams across the UK, Europe, Africa, and beyond.

As the architect of the People Experience strategy in these markets, you’ll operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on coach—partnering with business leaders and guiding a small team to deliver impactful, people-first solutions.

We’re looking for someone who can contribute at both strategic and operational levels to foster a progressive, inclusive culture throughout the employee lifecycle. The ideal candidate will bring thought leadership, creative problem-solving, and strong relationship-building skills, along with the agility to lead and drive change.

This role reports to the Vice President, People Experience and collaborates closely with The Orchard’s leadership team.

What you'll do:

• Collaborate with business units to define and implement people strategies that align with and support the broader global business objectives.
• Serve as a senior People Experience (PX) leader across The Orchard’s international markets, supporting employees and driving business outcomes.
• Act as a trusted consultant and coach to leadership, offering insights and supporting the development of solutions to address people-related challenges and opportunities.
• Advise business leaders on people strategy, including organizational design, diverse hiring, performance management, career development, compensation, recognition, and engagement.
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with PX counterparts across regions to ensure localized support as well as compliance and alignment with local laws and practices.
• Partner with leadership to identify top talent and develop impactful development and succession plans to drive engagement and retention.
• Collaborate with the Talent Acquisition team to deliver exceptional recruiting experiences for candidates at all career stages.
• Support and advance the DEI strategy by coaching leaders and contributing to key initiatives.
• Champion PX programs and policies, promoting understanding and adoption while advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion, and a more human-centered workplace.
• Foster a progressive, inclusive culture and work environment that promotes employee engagement and well-being.
• Leverage people data to generate insights that inform decision-making, enhance team performance, and strengthen organizational health.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the business and industry trends to provide timely, relevant guidance and solutions.
• Contribute to enterprise-wide HR initiatives and special projects that enhance the overall People Experience across Sony Music Entertainment.

Who you are:

• Experienced human resource professional with a broad knowledge of human resource management best practices, human and team dynamic practices (including talent management, employee engagement, compensation practices, organizational and team design, employee relations, and performance management) typically gained through 10+ years of experience in a senior business partner, head of human resources or director human resources role.
• Expert communicator, with the ability to clearly and effectively communicate both verbally and in writing.
• Prior experience supporting client groups abroad. Bonus points for experience supporting businesses operating in European markets.
• Agile thinker with the ability to be highly creative, innovative and future oriented as it relates to People solutions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, change and complexity. Leads with a growth mindset.
• Strong prioritization skills with a mindset that welcomes the challenge of having multiple projects in flight at any given time.
• Highly impactful at connecting, engaging, influencing and partnering with senior leadership, employees, internal and external partners at all levels.
• Drives change processes by applying change management methods and experience design thinking approach.
• Demonstrates empathy and experience to drive diversity, equity & inclusion strategies into accountable action.
• Experience using data to identify insights that drive action.
• Excellent consulting, coaching and strong people management skills.
• Experience in a large, complex/matrixed organization preferred; ideally in a creative industry (music, television, entertainment, etc.).
• Multilingual candidates preferred.

What we give you:

• You join a vibrant global community with the opportunity to channel your passion every day
• A modern office environment designed for you, empowering you to bring your best
• Investment in your professional growth and development enabling you to thrive in our vibrant community
• The space to accelerate progress, positively disrupt and create what happens next
• We give you the platform to champion positive change, with the opportunity to contribute to our social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
• We provide an excellent range of benefits like private medical cover, a generous pension scheme, life assurance, income protection, plus loads of music industry perks. There’s also time off over winter break

Equal Opportunities

As an active part of a culturally and socially diverse society, Sony Music’s aim is that our workforce is diverse and inclusive. Sony Music is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce diversity.

We employ, retain, promote and otherwise treat all employees and job applicants according to their merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We apply this policy without regard to any individual’s sex, race, religion, origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition or disability.

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Please note that applicants must be at least 18 years of age.