Job Description Summary
We are hiring a Labour & Employee Relations Leader for the UK & Ireland to lead and execute labour and employee relations strategy across our British and Irish entities. You will partner closely with senior business leaders, HR teams, and recognized trade unions or employee representative bodies to foster a constructive, high-performing working environment amidst complex industrial landscapes.
GE Vernova’s footprint in the UK & Ireland comprises critical engineering, manufacturing, and service operations. The Labour & Employee Relations (L&ER) COE team is responsible for managing collective bargaining, trade union recognition, industrial action disputes, statutory bodies such as the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), workforce change management, and significant business transformation projects. As our primary ER/LR expert on the ground in the UK & Ireland, you will be the trusted advisor to local leadership, navigating complex UK and Irish employment law and industrial relations frameworks, leading collective consultations, and ensuring that all organizational changes are executed smoothly, legally, and in alignment with both local legislation and company strategy. This is a newly created role: there is currently no dedicated labour relations resource in the UK & Ireland, so you will build the function and its relationships from the ground up.
As our subject matter expert in UK and Irish labour law and industrial relations, you will design and implement proactive ER frameworks, manage delicate relationships with trade unions, and shape how employee relations risks, industrial disputes, and change projects are managed locally. You will own the ongoing health of our local labour practices—ensuring statutory compliance, maintaining effective collective governance, and driving continuous improvement—treating employee relations as an enabler of cultural transformation and organizational resilience. In addition, you will be responsible for coordinating local information and consultation processes, facilitating formal dispute resolution, managing external legal counsel and industrial relations consultants, and tracking all activities in auditable systems.
Candidate Profile
We are looking for a seasoned, commercially astute labour relations professional with a proven, hands-on ability to navigate complex industrial action disputes, trade union negotiations, CAC proceedings, and large-scale workforce transformations within unionized UK and Irish environments. This is an advanced role where deep expertise in UK employment law, collective bargaining, stakeholder management, and change management is essential. We are seeking someone who has held a dedicated labour or industrial relations role, who brings pragmatism and pace. If you enjoy solving complex industrial relations challenges and building collaborative relationships that provide clear answers to critical business questions, this is an excellent opportunity to make a tangible, lasting impact on our UK, Ireland, and broader European operations.
Job Description
Industrial Relations (~65%)
•Serve as the primary L&ER subject matter expert for the UK & Ireland, engaging constructively with trade unions, employee representatives, and statutory bodies to build trust and resolve disputes
•Lead negotiations on collective agreements, annual pay reviews, trade union recognition/derecognition claims, and proceedings involving the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC)
•Directly manage industrial action disputes and balloting processes, applying robust risk-mitigation strategies, contingency planning, and effective conflict resolution frameworks
•Partner with senior HR and business leaders to design intake, approval, and consultation strategies for complex restructuring, workforce change, and business transformation programmes
•Lead collective redundancy consultations and major organizational redesign projects across UK and Irish entities
•Use the COE’s centralised…