HR director · job description template
HR director job description
The short answer · updated
An HR director job description sets out the senior leader responsible for a company’s people: how it hires, pays, develops and keeps them, within employment law. The core responsibilities are people strategy, organisation design, reward, employee relations and compliance, talent and development, and leading the HR team.
Job purpose
The purpose line should say why the company needs an HR director now: fast growth that has outrun informal people practice, a restructure or merger, a run of employee relations cases, a culture or retention problem, or a board that wants people data it can trust. Name that problem first, then what the HR director owns.
The CIPD’s Profession Map, the standard for the people profession, includes guidance on designing a role and designing a people function, which helps when deciding how much of the function this role leads. Acas publishes an outline job description template whose headings (the main duties and who the post reports to) suit the rest.
Key responsibilities
Order the duties by importance and start each with a verb. A typical HR director job description covers:
- setting the people strategy and workforce plan to match the business plan;
- leading organisation design, restructures and change;
- owning reward: pay structures, benefits, bonus and pay reviews;
- managing employee relations, with disciplinary and grievance procedures that meet the Acas Code of Practice;
- keeping policies, contracts and practice compliant with employment law, including the changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025;
- running recruitment and onboarding, including right to work checks before anyone is employed;
- leading talent, performance, succession and learning and development;
- building culture, engagement, wellbeing and inclusion;
- owning HR systems, people data and the reporting the law requires;
- advising the chief executive and leadership team on people decisions;
- supporting the board and, where there is one, the remuneration committee;
- leading, hiring and developing the HR team.
Reporting line and scope
The HR director usually reports to the chief executive, and sometimes to the COO or CFO. HR business partners, HR advisers, and the reward, recruitment, learning and HR operations leads report in. In a group, an HR director may run people for one division and report to a group CHRO; see what does a CHRO do for the most senior version of the role.
Board exposure varies. Many HR directors attend board meetings for people items without a board seat; in larger companies the HR director works with the remuneration committee on executive pay and with the audit or risk committee on people risk. Say which committees the role supports.
Skills, experience and qualifications
No law requires an HR director to hold a qualification, but many employers look for CIPD professional membership. The CIPD describes Chartered membership (Chartered MCIPD) as the level for experienced people professionals with strategic and operational expertise, and Chartered Fellow for those influencing at senior levels. Mark it essential only where the role needs it, and accept equivalent experience where you can.
- Chartered MCIPD or Chartered FCIPD, or equivalent senior people experience;
- experience leading an HR function at a comparable scale and complexity;
- a record against the specific problem: growth, restructure, merger, employee relations, culture or reward;
- up-to-date knowledge of UK employment law and how to apply it;
- advising a chief executive and leadership team, and reporting to a board;
- building and leading an HR team;
- sector knowledge where the workforce, unions or regulation are specialised.
Fractional HR director job description
A fractional HR director works a set number of days a week or month, so the job description narrows. Name the days, the few problems that matter most (contracts and policies brought up to date, a restructure run fairly, a reward framework, a first HR hire) and the outcomes expected over the first six to twelve months. Say who handles day-to-day HR administration in between.
A fractional HR director often works through their own company, so the engagement may fall within the off-payroll working rules (IR35). Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on the wording of the job description, and a medium or large client makes the determination. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests. To see how the engagement works, read how to hire a fractional HR director.
Interim and permanent versions
Interim. An interim HR director works full-time for a fixed period, so the job description leads with the situation (a restructure, a merger, a transformation programme, a run of cases, or cover while the permanent search runs) and the date or event that ends the assignment. See our interim HR director page.
Permanent. The permanent version looks further ahead: the people function over several years, the team to be built and the systems to scale on. When the HR director is hired as an employee, the job title or a description of the work goes into the written statement of employment particulars they must have on the first day, so keep the two consistent. For a permanent search, see our HR director recruitment and CHRO headhunter pages.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives, and non-executive directors. For an HR director brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting.
A template you can copy
Copy these headings and write one short block under each. Keep pay out of the job description and state it in the offer.
- Job title: HR director or people director, and whether the role is fractional, interim, part-time or permanent.
- Reports to: the CEO or the executive named, with any board or committee attendance; list the HR roles who report in.
- Purpose: two or three sentences on why the role exists now and the people problem it must solve.
- Responsibilities: eight to twelve duties, each starting with a verb, in order of importance.
- Requirements: essential and desirable experience, described specifically, and any professional membership you need, with equivalents accepted.
- Terms: full-time or days a week, location, start date, fixed term or permanent, and the pay basis (salary or day rate).
Questions people ask
What should an HR director job description include?
The job title and type of engagement, who the HR director reports to and who reports in, the purpose of the role, the key responsibilities, the experience and professional membership required, and the terms. Keep the people problem the HR director must solve at the top.
How long should an HR director job description be?
Long enough to cover purpose, responsibilities, reporting line, requirements and terms, and short enough to read in a few minutes: one to two pages is usually enough. The detail of the people plan belongs in the candidate pack and the interviews.
Is an HR director job description different from a CHRO job description?
In a smaller company, rarely: the titles often describe the same job. In a group, a CHRO job description covers people strategy across the whole group and the executive committee, and an HR director job description may cover a division. See what does a CHRO do.
How is a fractional HR director job description different?
It names the days a week or month, the few problems to fix, the outcomes expected over the first six to twelve months, and who handles routine HR in between. See how to hire a fractional HR director.
What does an HR director earn?
It depends on the size of the company, its sector, and whether the role is permanent, interim or fractional. Our HR director salary page sets out pay and day rates, each figure with its source.
How do I hire an HR director?
Define the people problem, choose between permanent, interim, part-time and fractional, write the job description around that problem, and test every candidate against it. Our HR director recruitment page sets out the process; we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
