What You'll Do

Employee Relations & Advisory

• Support disciplinary, grievance, absence, performance, and termination cases in Germany, ensuring timely coordination and appropriate escalation where required.

• Advise managers on employee relations matters and help identify ER risks in absence trends and engagement data.

• Manage absence cases including return-to-work, occupational health coordination, and statutory compliance.

• Provide practical HR advice on employment law topics in Germany; engage legal counsel or senior HR support when appropriate.

• Build trust through consistent, reliable HR advice and apply growing judgement by escalating cases with a proposed path rather than only raising issues.

Local Compliance, Policy & Reporting

• Keep country HR policies legally current and accessible; update promptly when legislation changes.

• Support statutory reporting obligations, including social declarations, labour inspectorate filings, gender and pay equity reporting.

• Ensure employment contracts, addenda, and HR documentation comply with German employment law and internal standards.

• Respond to requests from labour authorities, social security bodies, and equivalent institutions.

• Maintain awareness of relevant local employment law changes and proactively flag implications, required actions, or risk areas to the Cluster Lead or senior HR stakeholders.

Works Council Engagement

• Participate in works council meetings, prepared and aligned with stakeholders, and support a coherent HR position.

• Prepare consultation documentation, WC agreements, dossiers, and meeting briefings.

• Identify and flag consultation obligations and timelines proactively to key stakeholders.

• Train and advise managers on WC processes and obligations before situations arise.

Audit & Document Governance

• Keep Germany audit-ready for ISO and customer audits on relevant HR elements, collaborating across HR functions.

• Support mandatory archiving and retention of personnel files per local law and GDPR.

• Contribute to and validate local HR knowledge articles, templates, and policies.

• Maintain a structured country audit folder that is complete, current, and retrievable at any time.

HR Systems & Programme Execution

• Deliver global HR programmes locally — performance, compensation cycles, engagement surveys, and DEIB initiatives.

• Be the local expert and champion for Workday: train managers and employees on self-service and hold them accountable for usage.

• Manage HR requests through the ticketing system (ServiceNow); redirect transactional queries to HR Shared Services consistently and document handover.

• Produce regular country briefs covering ER status, absence trends, WC calendars, and compliance deadlines.

• Use HR data to identify patterns and share proactive insights with the HR Solutions leadership team and relevant stakeholders.

• Support onboarding activities where local HR input is required, including right-to-work checks, new starter documentation, and Workday data validation until fully automated or transitioned to HR Shared Services.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to simplify or standardise country HR delivery and raise them with a concrete proposal.

• Own the country knowledge base — policies, templates, handbooks — ensuring content is current, compliant, and in plain language.

• Partner with HR Shared Services to improve the manager and associate experience in Workday and MyHR.

• Identify at least one simplification or improvement opportunity per quarter and follow through with a clear proposal and implementation support where agreed.

• Feed recurring Workday, MyHR, or process friction points back through the Cluster Lead and partner with HRSS on sustainable improvements.

Culture & One Avantor

• Operate within and reinforce the One Avantor HR framework in Germany, supporting consistent policies, standards, and associate experience across business units.

• Contribute to employee engagement and communication initiatives by helping managers and associates understand HR programmes, changes, and available support channels.

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of employees assigned to this position. Avantor is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

Why Avantor?

Dare to go further in your career. Join our global team of 14,000+ associates whose passion for discovery and determination to overcome challenges relentlessly advances life-changing science.
 
The work we do changes people's lives for the better. It brings new patient treatments and therapies to market, giving a cancer survivor the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle. It enables medical devices that help a little boy hear his mom's voice for the first time. Outcomes such as these create unlimited opportunities for you to contribute your talents, learn new skills and grow your career at Avantor.
 
We are committed to helping you on this journey through our diverse, equitable and inclusive culture which includes learning experiences to support your career growth and success. At Avantor, dare to go further and see how the impact of your contributions set science in motion to create a better world. Apply today!

EEO Statement:

We are an Equal Employment/Affirmative Action employer and VEVRAA Federal Contractor. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state/province, or local law.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Requests for accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

Privacy Policy:

We will use the personal information that you have submitted to us in order to consider your application for the relevant role.
 

Your privacy is important to us. Please click here for our Privacy Policy which explains the purposes for which we will use your personal information and the ways in which we will handle and retain your information. It also explains the rights you have in relation to your information, and how to contact us with any queries or requests.

3rd Party Non-Solicitation Policy:

By submitting candidates without having been formally assigned on and contracted for a specific job requisition by Avantor, or by failing to comply with the Avantor recruitment process, you forfeit any fee on the submitted candidates, regardless of your usual terms and conditions. Avantor works with a preferred supplier list and will take the initiative to engage with recruitment agencies based on its needs and will not be accepting any form of solicitation.