Global Head of Employment Relations & Compliance

The Global Head of Employment Relations & Compliance serves as AutoStore's senior global subject matter expert for employment relations, employment law compliance, and employee-risk matters. The role is accountable for building and maintaining a consistent, practical, and scalable approach to employment compliance across a rapidly expanding international footprint.

The role currently covers 21 countries across North America (NAM), EMEA and APAC, as well as 25 U.S. states, with the scope continuing to expand as the company grows. Operating across highly diverse legal and regulatory environments, the Global Head provides hands-on guidance on complex employee relations matters, employment legislation, investigations, organizational change, and compliance risk, while ensuring that global People practices remain locally compliant.

This is a highly business-facing role, partnering with senior leaders, HR Business Partners, HR Operations, Legal, Payroll, Finance, and Centers of Excellence. The role combines strategic ownership with hands-on casework: it sets global standards and governance while directly supporting sensitive, complex, or precedent-setting matters across jurisdictions. The position is expected to translate legal requirements into pragmatic business solutions that protect the company while enabling an effective employee experience.

The Global Head will also strengthen global capability by establishing clear frameworks, playbooks, training, escalation routes, and external counsel governance. As AutoStore continues to expand, the role will help ensure that employment relations and compliance practices scale consistently across new countries and U.S. states, while recognizing the need for appropriate local differentiation.

Role reports to: Vice President, People Operations, Platforms & Governance

Key Responsibilities

• Own the global employment relations and employment compliance agenda across all countries and U.S. states in scope, serving as the senior subject matter expert and escalation point for complex matters.

• Provide hands-on advice and case leadership on complex employee relations matters, including performance, conduct, grievances, investigations, terminations, protected leave, accommodations, and other sensitive employment issues.

• Monitor changes in employment legislation and regulatory requirements across jurisdictions and translate them into clear, actionable requirements for People policies, processes, contracts, and manager practices.

• Lead the development, implementation, and ongoing governance of global employment policies, standards, playbooks, and compliance frameworks, balancing global consistency with local legal requirements.

• Advise on organizational restructurings, reductions in force, workforce transitions, acquisitions, integrations, and other business transformations, ensuring legally compliant and well-governed execution across jurisdictions.

• Lead or oversee sensitive workplace investigations and ensure consistent standards for case assessment, documentation, decision-making, confidentiality, and remediation.

• Partner closely with Legal and external employment counsel on high-risk or precedent-setting matters, litigation and claims, regulatory inquiries, and interpretation of complex employment law requirements.

• Provide expert guidance on employee representative matters, including works councils, consultation obligations, collective processes, and union-related requirements where applicable.

• Identify employment compliance and employee relations risks proactively, establish appropriate controls and escalation mechanisms, and drive mitigation actions across the global People organization.

• Build global manager and HR capability through training, practical toolkits, coaching, and knowledge sharing on employment relations, investigations, documentation, and compliant decision-making.

• Establish meaningful employment relations and compliance metrics, case trends, and risk reporting to support senior leadership decision-making and continuous improvement.

• Manage relationships with external employment counsel and specialist providers, including appropriate governance of quality, responsiveness, risk, and cost.

Qualifications & Experience

• Extensive hands-on experience in a senior employment relations, employment law, HR compliance, or comparable role within a complex multinational organization.

• Demonstrated experience personally advising on employment matters across multiple countries and legal systems; experience spanning NAM, EMEA, and APAC is strongly preferred.

• Strong knowledge of employment law and employee relations principles, with the ability to quickly assess unfamiliar jurisdictions and determine when specialist local advice is required.

• Proven experience handling complex and sensitive employee relations matters, workplace investigations, terminations, restructurings, consultation processes, and employment-related risk.

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into practical, scalable policies, processes, guidance, and business decisions.

• Experience establishing global governance, compliance frameworks, case-management standards, risk controls, and employment-law change processes across multiple jurisdictions.

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with credibility to advise senior executives, HR leaders, managers, and cross-functional partners in high-stakes situations.

• Comfort operating as both a strategic global leader and a hands-on practitioner, including direct involvement in complex cases and detailed country-specific issues when required.

• Experience managing and collaborating effectively with external employment counsel and specialist advisors across multiple countries.

• Law degree and relevant legal qualification are strongly preferred; alternatively, extensive equivalent experience from comparable multi-country employment relations and compliance roles is required.

• Fluent in English with excellent written and verbal communication skills; additional languages relevant to AutoStore's international footprint are an advantage.

We Offer: 

• A Collaborative and Inclusive Culture where we celebrate and value everyone’s contributions, encouraging diverse perspectives in decision-making.

• Work-Life Balance & Well-being: We offer 1 hour per week of paid exercise, prioritizing your mental and physical well-being.

• A Creative and Safe Workplace by joining a company experiencing rapid growth, with the stability of being Norway’s first unicorn listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

• International and Supportive Environment within a Norwegian multinational that values collaboration and innovation.

This role can be based in Norway, France, Germany, or the United Kingdom, preferably within commuting distance of one of AutoStore's office locations.
• Norway: Oslo, Stavanger, or our headquarters in Nedre Vats
• France: Lyon
• Germany: Ulm, Berlin, or Hamburg
• United Kingdom: Nottingham

Application deadline: September 1, 2026. Please note that we review applications on a continuous basis. If this opportunity excites you, we encourage you to apply as early as possible. All inquiries will be treated confidentially.
 
If you are applying from outside the listed locations, please indicate your willingness to relocate to one of the specified locations in order to be considered for the role.

Recruitment Agencies

AutoStore does not accept agency resumes or assistance for this role. Please do not forward resumes to our job's alias or AutoStore employees. AutoStore is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. This policy should be respected.