Summary

The Global Employee Relations team at Guidewire is seeking a senior Employee Relations practitioner to support our business and colleagues across EMEA through complex employee and labour relations matters.

The purpose of Global Employee Relations is to promote a safe, fair and trusted environment where colleagues can thrive and do their best work.

As an ER Partner, you will play a central role in ensuring employee relations processes are delivered with fairness, consistency, care and sound judgement. You will balance proactive and reactive work — advising leaders and managers through complex people situations, managing sensitive employee processes, anticipating risk and ensuring our practices meet legal and organisational standards.

This role requires precision, discretion, empathy and commercial judgement, with the ability to operate confidently across multiple countries and cultures.

Job Description

Key Accountabilities

Employee Relations & Case Management

• Lead and advise on complex ER matters including investigations, performance management/PIPs, grievances, disciplinary matters, probation reviews and involuntary exits.
• Ensure concerns are heard and managed through fair, consistent and inclusive processes.
• Provide pragmatic, risk-aware advice to managers while maintaining a strong employee experience.
• Maintain high-quality case documentation, records and reporting through to resolution.
• Core expertise in UK, Ireland and France, with working exposure to Poland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland Denmark and Germany.
  

Labour Relations

• Lead Guidewire’s relationship with employee representative bodies in France.
• Support engagement with CSEs, Works Councils, unions and other employee representative groups.
• Anticipate and navigate an evolving labour relations landscape across EMEA.

Risk & Crisis Management

• Identify emerging employee and labour relations risks arising from organisational change, business decisions and employee concerns.
• Develop practical strategies to mitigate risk and support leaders through high-stakes and time-sensitive situations.
• Exercise sound judgement and composure when managing sensitive or potentially contentious matters.

Compliance & Policy

• Monitor employment legislation and emerging requirements across EMEA and translate these into practical actions.
• Review and refresh ER policies, processes and guidance to ensure they remain legally compliant and aligned with best practice.
• Develop learning and manager interventions that support effective and consistent application of policy.

Governance, Data & Continuous Improvement

• Analyse ER metrics and trends to identify opportunities, risks and areas requiring intervention.
• Develop dashboards, tools, processes and governance forums that improve ER effectiveness, consistency and compliance.
• Maintain robust ER governance, case records and reporting.

Global ER Initiatives

• Independently scope and deliver scalable ER products, toolkits and programmes for global use.
• Support major corporate initiatives including compensation changes, multi-market reorganisations and other organisational transformations.
• Contribute to or lead ER technology and systems implementations.

Skills & Experience

Required

• Fluent French speaker.
• Significant Employee Relations experience within a multinational, technology-driven or complex organisational environment.
• AI fluency
• Proven experience managing sensitive employment processes including investigations, PIPs, grievances, disciplinary matters, probation reviews and involuntary exits.
• Strong knowledge of UK, Ireland and France employment practices, with the ability to operate across multiple EMEA jurisdictions.
• Excellent judgement, communication and influencing skills, with the ability to advise confidently at all levels.
• Highly organised, analytical and comfortable managing multiple complex cases and competing priorities.
• Exceptional standards of confidentiality, integrity, accuracy and discretion.
• Ability to translate employment legislation and risk into clear, practical advice for managers and leaders.

Preferred

• End-to-end ER capability across the employee lifecycle.
• Workplace investigation accreditation or equivalent experience.
• Experience partnering with Legal, HR Business Partners, Centres of Excellence and senior business leaders.
• Experience working with employee representative bodies, Works Councils and/or unions.
• Strong process-improvement mindset, with experience developing scalable ER tools, dashboards or systems.
• Resilient and adaptable, with the ability to operate effectively under pressure and across multiple time zones.

About Guidewire

Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 540+ insurers in 40 countries, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record with 1600+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our Marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localization, and innovation.

For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on Twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.

Guidewire Software, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to an inclusive workplace, and believe that a diversity of perspectives, abilities, and cultures is a key to our success. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability. All offers are contingent upon passing a criminal history and other background checks where it's applicable to the position.

Guidewire is proud to be a disability inclusive employer. We are committed to providing individualized accommodations and support to candidates for any part of our hiring process. If you think you may need disability-related accommodations, please email EmployAbility at accommodations-gw@employ-ability.org.uk, our disability partner, or schedule a call with an EmployAbility expert (calendar booking slot) for a confidential conversation.