People & Culture Lead

People & Culture Lead

St. John’s, NL

Introduction

Brunel is currently seeking an experienced People & Culture Lead to join a dynamic organization in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

This is a key leadership position responsible for leading the local People & Culture function and partnering closely with managers and operational leaders. The successful candidate will help foster an inclusive, high-performing workplace while providing practical, hands-on HR leadership across employee relations, workforce planning, recruitment, talent development, compliance, and organizational effectiveness.

The ideal candidate is an experienced HR professional who combines strong people leadership with sound business judgement and is comfortable navigating complex employee and operational matters within a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop the local People & Culture team, promoting consistency and best practices across the function.
• Partner with leaders to support an inclusive, engaged, and high-performing workplace culture.
• Translate employee feedback and organizational needs into practical people initiatives and actions.
• Lead employee and industrial relations matters, including workplace investigations, disciplinary matters, performance management, and terminations.
• Coach and advise managers on both day-to-day and complex employee matters, providing practical and solutions-focused guidance.
• Support workforce planning, employee rotations, scheduling, and crewing requirements within an operational environment.
• Identify workforce gaps and people-related risks and communicate these effectively to operational and senior leadership.
• Partner with hiring managers throughout the recruitment process, including job advertising, candidate assessment, selection, and onboarding.
• Manage relationships with recruitment agencies, staffing partners, and other external workforce providers.
• Support talent development, succession planning, employee engagement, and retention initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with applicable employment legislation, regulatory requirements, and internal HR standards.
• Maintain accurate HR practices and documentation to support reporting and audit requirements.
• Identify significant workforce or employee-related risks and escalate appropriately to senior leadership.
• Maintain and continuously improve local policies and procedures in alignment with broader organizational frameworks and applicable legislation.
• Champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and respectful workplace practices across the organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Professional HR designation such as CPHR, CIPD, or equivalent is preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated experience in a senior HR, People & Culture, or HR business partnering capacity.
• Strong leadership and team-development capabilities, with experience coaching and developing HR professionals.
• Solid experience managing complex employee relations matters, including investigations, performance management, discipline, and terminations.
• Strong understanding of employment legislation, HR compliance, policy development, and established HR practices.
• Experience supporting workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, talent development, and succession planning.
• Operational or industrial HR experience, particularly within environments involving rotational or remote workforces, is considered a strong asset.
• Strong commercial and business acumen with the ability to translate organizational priorities into practical people solutions.
• Excellent judgement and the ability to confidently navigate complex, sensitive, or ambiguous situations.
• Proactive, solutions-focused approach with the ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Excellent communication, coaching, stakeholder-management, and influencing skills.
• Ability to build trusted relationships and work effectively across different functions, cultures, and levels of an organization.

What We Offer

Why work with Brunel? We are proud to offer exciting career opportunities from over 100 offices globally in 42 countries. Advancing your career takes time and effort – let us match you to your ideal position.

About Us

Brunel has a reputation for working with some of the best in the business. That’s what we continually strive for. Brunel provides the global recruitment and workforce services you need to lead your industry. With 50 years of market experience in Renewable Energy, Automotive, Oil & Gas, Life Sciences, Mining and Infrastructure, we help you finish major projects safely, compliantly, on-time, within budget and at the highest quality, so you can keep growing – anywhere in the world.