people partner

• 6898

• Dartford

• Permanent

At Laing O'Rourke, our people are at the heart of everything we do.

Location: Dartford HQ, with nationwide travel to regional offices and project sites.

This is an opportunity to work closely with senior leaders, influence projects across the UK, and play a key role in shaping the future of our specialist in-house businesses – including Expanded, Vetter, Select Plant Hire, Crown House Technologies and Explore Manufacturing.

You'll support a workforce of around 600 people across multiple projects and locations, working as part of a close-knit partnering team of three People professionals and the wider central People Operations function. With significant growth and transformation underway, we're looking for someone who thrives in change and can help guide it.

Check out our specialist businesses link here - Specialist Businesses

The Role:

This is a varied, end-to-end operational and strategic role where you will:

• Build trusted relationships with operational leaders, gaining a deep understanding of their projects and people.

• Act as the first point of contact for all people-related matters, supported by our specialist ER, Reward, Resourcing and Talent teams.

• Coach and support leaders to manage, develop and motivate their teams.

• Anticipate people challenges and design proactive, forward-thinking solutions.

• Use data and reporting to inform decision-making and tell compelling stories that drive action.

• Sit on senior leadership teams (SLTs), contributing to business and project strategy by identifying opportunities, risks and people implications.

• Drive consistency in people processes, governance and compliance across business units and projects.

• Support succession planning, talent reviews and recruitment strategies that promote internal mobility, career growth and diversity & inclusion.

About You:

You're an experienced HR professional who thrives in a dynamic, multi-site environment and values being closely connected to the business. With a proactive mindset and a passion for driving organisational effectiveness, you'll help shape the future of our specialist businesses.

Experience in change management and organisational design is highly desirable, as you'll play a key role in supporting evolving structures, enabling culture shifts and guiding strategic workforce planning.

You'll bring:

• Experience supporting multiple business units, projects and/or locations.

• Proven ability to build relationships and influence senior leaders with confidence.

• Strong HR knowledge and experience, ideally with CIPD Level 5+.

• Comfort with HR systems and data – using insights to drive action.

• Background in construction, engineering or a similar environment (advantageous, not essential).

About Us:

Laing O'Rourke are an international engineering and construction company delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure and buildings projects for clients in the UK, Middle East and Australia.

Certainty, reliability, quality – this is what our clients want. And at Laing O'Rourke, we have more than 150 years of experience delivering it. Laing O'Rourke's story is one of energy, passion, ambition, people and teamwork. We harness the power of our experience, stretching back over a century and a half to deliver certainty for our clients.

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we would like to enable access to candidates with long term conditions and disabilities through the 'Offer an interview scheme'. This supports applicants that meet the essential criteria by offering an interview for the advertised position. Please let us know if you would like to opt in to this scheme and let us know if you require any adjustments for the interview process.

We want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible to all. If you need the application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please email

We offer a competitive remuneration package (base salary + car/travel allowance) with access to Private Medical Insurance; enhanced pension and parental leave schemes; Life/Dental/Critical illness insurance and income protection; 33 days holiday inc. bank holidays + 1 paid day for volunteering; professional development opportunities and more