HR director jobs · permanent, interim and fractional

HR director jobs: what the seat is, and what our board lists

An HR director leads the people function and answers for it to the chief executive and often the board. The work is the people plan behind the business plan: reward and pay structures, employee relations, recruitment and succession, the HR team itself, and the people side of a restructure, an acquisition or fast growth. The CIPD describes its most senior Profession Map level as driving long-term sustained value through strategic business insight and people expertise. That is the HR director seat.

The same seat goes by several titles: HR director, people director, director of people, human resources director. In larger companies a chief people officer or CHRO sits above it; below it sits a head of HR or head of people. Read the scope and the reporting line, not the title.

What the board below lists

The board shows the roles on our board for this seat, HR director and chief people officer roles, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time. Each card says how the employer advertised the role: permanent, interim or fractional. If the seat has nothing current, the board says so and shows the nearest roles, labelled as what they are. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time HR directors.

Human resources director jobs the titles and the duties behind them

Human resources director jobs and HR director jobs are the same roles under the long and the short title; search both, and add people director and director of people, which some employers use instead. Where the advert says head of HR, check the reporting line: some are the top people role in a smaller company, others sit a level below an HR director.

Much of the seat is the employer’s legal duties, owned and explained to the board. An employer with 250 or more employees on its snapshot date must report its gender pay gap. Disciplinary and grievance cases follow the Acas Code of Practice, which an employment tribunal takes into account. Every hire needs a right to work check before the person starts. An HR director is expected to know these cold and to build the processes that keep the company inside them.

The roles sit in every sector. The interview tests the same three things: how you have changed a people function, how you handled the hardest employee relations case you owned, and how you work with the chief executive and the finance director on pay.

How to get an HR director job qualifications and the route in

No law requires a qualification, but the profession has a clear standard. The CIPD’s Chartered membership (MCIPD) is for experienced people professionals with strategic and operational expertise; the routes are a Level 7 Advanced Diploma, the Level 7 apprenticeship, or the CIPD’s Experience Assessment. Chartered Fellow (FCIPD) is the level above, for professionals influencing at senior levels.

The Advanced Diploma in Strategic People Management lists Director of People among its typical job titles and covers strategic employment relations, resourcing and talent, and strategic reward. Robert Half’s 2026 HR guide names CIPD among the most in-demand HR credentials.

The usual route runs through HR business partner and head of HR roles into the director seat, with at least one restructure or major change led end to end. Employment law depth and a record of working with a board count for more than the title you hold now. Interim and fractional roles are a route in as well: they put a board-level brief on your CV sooner. See how to become a fractional executive.

If you take an interim or fractional role through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply; a medium or large client decides the status, based on how the engagement runs in practice.