HR Team Lead

Team Lead – HR Admin, Systems & Process | Denham

Lead it. Optimise it. Trust it with lives!

Advance your career in a role where operational HR excellence meets real-world, life-saving impact. As a Team Lead within our central Human Resources department at Denham, you will join an ambitious, close-knit group of professionals dedicated to supporting our global workforce. This position offers an exceptional balance of team leadership, systems administration, and strategic data mapping. From initial onboarding to long-term lifecycle tracking, your technical precision and process optimisation will support the world-class engineering teams who design and build the ultimate lifelines in aerospace safety.

Direct Impact, Global Scale. Life-Saving Mission.

At Martin-Baker, the work we do matters. We design, manufacture and support life-saving equipment used by aircrew around the world. Our products operate in demanding environments, where quality, reliability and attention to detail are critical.

We’re proud of our long history in aerospace and defence, also focused on the future. Joining Martin-Baker means becoming part of a business with a clear purpose, strong engineering capability and a long-term commitment to its people, products and customers.

Whether you work in engineering, operations, commercial, finance, supply chain or support functions, your contribution helps deliver equipment that protects lives. It is challenging work, but it is also meaningful, and with over 7,700 lives saved, it gives our people the opportunity to be part of something with real impact.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the Group VP of Human Resources, you will step into an influential leadership role with a clear dual mandate: to champion our people data and elevate the overall employee and manager experience. Managing a dedicated team of three HR Administrators, you will serve as a core driving force behind our day-to-day corporate operations while maintaining a dotted reporting line to the central Health & Safety function.

This is a premier career opportunity for an analytical, people-focused leader who wants to go beyond transactional administration. In this position, you are given the autonomy to shape our digital future by building a robust People System Roadmap, managing external software vendors, and directly collaborating with the HR Leadership Team to advise on major operational projects and change initiatives.

What You’ll Do

• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and manage three HR Administrators—allocating workloads effectively, setting transparent objectives, and designing clear professional progression pathways.
• Systems Administration (CIPHR): Act as the core internal System Administrator for our CIPHR HRIS platform, ensuring value for money, evaluating vendor performance, and spearheading system optimisation to support business-wide self-service.
• Process Optimisation & Data Integrity: Build out streamlined, compliant HR workflows across the entire employee lifecycle while maintaining rigorous GDPR compliance and flawless internal data records.
• Insightful Analytics & KPIs: Design, generate, and monitor comprehensive People KPIs to provide the wider business and HR leadership with actionable metrics and strategic workforce insights.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with internal Payroll, IT, Sourcing, and Compliance teams to guarantee seamless data mapping and robust operational delivery.
• Strategic Projects & Policy Support: Assist in drafting and implementing modernised HR policies, coordinating Pay Panel/benchmarking reviews, and managing sensitive compliance audits (including data cleansing and DSARs).

What We’re Looking For

• Team Leadership Background: Proven practical experience successfully managing or operating a busy HR Operational or Administration team.
• HRIS Systems Expertise: Direct technical experience implementing, maintaining, or acting as a super-user/administrator for a modern Human Resource Information System (HRIS)—ideally with CIPHR platform frameworks.
• Legal & Analytical Foundation: A strong working knowledge of UK employment law and a proven track record of handling high-volume HR data analysis, reporting, and statutory auditing.
• Manufacturing or Engineering Sector Insight (Desirable): Prior experience navigating the operational nuances of a high-integrity manufacturing or complex engineering setting is a major advantage.
• Change Frameworks (Desirable): Experience assisting with organizational design, process re-engineering, or business-wide change initiatives.
• Share and demonstrate the Martin-Baker values.

Our Values

At Martin-Baker, we value professionalism, understanding, teamwork, humility, accountability and integrity. We look for people who take pride in their work, collaborate openly and act with care because the work we do matters.

What We Offer

• Excellent pension package with strong employer support — Martin-Baker contributes 9% of your salary (non-contributory to the employee), with further employer contributions that grow as you increase your own
• Life Assurance
• Lunchtime finish on a Friday
• Personalised training and development plan
• Healthcare plan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Opportunity to purchase additional annual leave
• Martin-Baker + (retail discounts platform)
• Occupational Health team
• Workplace Nursery Benefit scheme
• Cycle to work scheme

How to Apply / Your Interview Journey

Please submit your CV and should you wish, a brief covering letter outlining your suitability, including any relevant experience, skills and expertise you can bring to the role.

Hit "Apply Now,"

After submitting your application, your details will be reviewed, and the recruitment team will be in touch.

• Stage 1 (Telephone Interview): A detailed conversation with your Recruitment Business Partner to explore your leadership background, systems proficiency, and operational approach.
• Stage 2 (Final Face-to-Face Interview): A formal site panel interview at our Denham facility with the Group VP of Human Resources to discuss technical system roadmaps, compliance capabilities, and team management alignment.

We believe in equal opportunity, committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone is respected. We want you to be able to do your best work.

Martin-Baker is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, showing our support and commitment to our Armed Forces and their families, proudly supporting those who serve.

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

The role also involves access to information governed by U.S. Export Control Laws (including ITAR); therefore, all applicants must satisfy ITAR eligibility requirements.