Head of People- France

As Head of People France, you play a central role in shaping and delivering the people agenda for one of Rituals’ key retail markets. Partnering closely with local leadership, you translate business priorities into a strong and future-focused HR strategy that drives performance, engagement, well-being, and growth across a large and dynamic store population.

This is a highly visible leadership role for a senior HR professional who combines strategic thinking with a hands-on mindset. You are not a corporate HR executive operating at a distance, but a true business leader for the French organisation: close to the business, connected to the reality of the stores, and actively involved in both people decisions and execution. You bring together strong business partnership, leadership capability building, and solid operational HR expertise in a complex, fast-paced, multi-site retail environment.

You report in a matrix: functionally to the Director International HR and operationally to the Managing Director / France Country Director. In this role, you embody the Group HR strategy and translate it into strong local execution for the French market. You are a key member of the local Management Team and an active contributor to the global HR community, while ensuring that local business needs, priorities, and realities remain fully understood and addressed.

You lead and develop the local HR team and ensure that HR policies, systems, and programmes are aligned with business needs and support a consistent, high-quality employee experience at scale. At the same time, this role requires a leader who stays close to the operation, challenges the organisation constructively, supports managers directly, and is willing to step in hands-on whenever needed. Local stakeholders have high expectations in this respect.

This role therefore requires both strategic leadership and strong operational involvement. You help create a culture where trust, pride, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement are at the heart of how people work and grow. You also lead and contribute to cross-functional initiatives that strengthen organisational effectiveness, leadership capability, and business performance.

While the role has broad strategic scope, it also requires deep understanding of the operational realities of a large retail population, including workforce planning, talent flows, employee relations, occupational health, payroll complexity, and diverse contract structures.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead and develop a high-performing local HR team, creating clarity, collaboration, capability, and reliable execution
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, shaping HR strategy, key people decisions, transformation, and organisational priorities
• Ensure strong local execution of the Group HR strategy, translating central direction into practical business impact for France
• Partner closely with Store Managers, Area Managers, Heads of Retail, and local leadership to strengthen performance, engagement, and team effectiveness
• Challenge the business constructively and support leaders in making strong people decisions that drive performance and culture
• Drive leadership development and learning initiatives that build stronger leaders and support business growth at every level
• Shape and implement people strategies that support talent attraction, retention, workforce planning, and a strong employee experience
• Build a high-performing and inclusive culture through engagement initiatives, change management, and continuous improvement
• Ensure strong employee relations and support a healthy, safe, and motivating work environment, including CSE and occupational health topics
• Bring operational oversight and sound judgment across core HR processes in a large, dynamic, and scaling retail environment
• Stay close to execution and step in hands-on where needed to ensure quality, progress, and business continuity
• Use HR data, workforce insights, and people metrics to inform decision-making and steer key business and HR priorities
• Help ensure fair, competitive, and business-relevant compensation and benefits practices

What success looks like

• You operate as a credible and influential HR leader who combines strategic perspective with operational realism
• You are seen as a true business partner who is close to the organisation, understands store reality, and supports execution where it matters most
• You build trusted partnerships across local leadership, managers, and the wider HR community, and know how to align different stakeholders around shared priorities
• You create visible impact through stronger leadership, better people decisions, and a more consistent employee experience across the retail organisation
• You thrive in a dynamic growth environment where pace, visibility, and people impact go hand in hand
• You bring structure, analytical thinking, and sound judgment, while staying pragmatic, engaged, and action-oriented
• You do not rely only on reporting and delegation, but lead with presence, ownership, and follow-through
• You act as a thought partner and role model, influencing leadership behaviours and ways of working across the organisation
• You live the Rituals culture and translate it into tangible business impact

You are high on energy, low on ego, and bring a healthy sense of humor. You are a strong team player who adapts naturally to changing situations and actively looks for opportunities to collaborate.

In addition:

• You bring 6+ years of experience in a managerial HR role, ideally within an international retail or other multi-site environment
• You have proven experience partnering with senior business leaders and translating people strategy into business impact
• You have strong experience leading HR teams and driving end-to-end people agendas
• You bring experience in leadership development, talent, engagement, and organisational change in fast-paced environments
• You understand the realities of operating in larger employee populations, including workforce planning, hiring and turnover flows, employee relations, occupational health, and operational HR complexity
• You are comfortable balancing strategic leadership with hands-on involvement where needed
• You are confident using data and insights to support workforce decisions and strategic prioritisation, without losing connection to the day-to-day reality of the business
• You have a strong understanding of employer branding, talent attraction, and building sustainable talent pipelines
• Experience in international, growth-oriented, retail or hospitality environments is highly relevant
• You hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, or a related field
• You are based in Paris and have an excellent command of English and fluency in French

Grow with us as Head of HR France! The next steps are:

• Please apply via our website with an ENGLISH! cv (and motivation). 
• Please do this before July 23rd
• Frederik van Zeggeren (Executive Talent Acquisition) will contact you (please expect some delay due to the holiday season)
• 2 on site interviews follow
• In the event of a positive outcome, we are good to go!

Any questions about the procedure? Let Recruitment know via [email protected].