HR Partner - Permanent

We are looking for an experienced HR professional who enjoys building strong relationships, providing pragmatic advice and supporting managers to navigate people challenges with confidence.

Edinburgh College is seeking an HR Partner to join our HR & Organisational Development team. This is an exciting opportunity to work in a varied and rewarding generalist HR role, partnering with managers across the College to deliver high-quality people support and contribute to a positive employee experience.

About the Role

As an HR Partner, you will provide expert advice and guidance on a broad range of HR matters, supporting managers and employees across the employee lifecycle. Working closely with the HR Manager and wider HR team, you will play a key role in ensuring our HR policies and practices are applied consistently, fairly and in line with employment legislation and best practice.

A significant part of this role involves supporting and managing employee relations casework. We are particularly interested in hearing from candidates who already have experience handling matters such as absence management, disciplinary issues, grievances, capability and organisational change. However, we would also welcome applications from HR professionals with a solid generalist background who have a genuine interest in developing their employee relations expertise.

What You'll Be Doing

• Partnering with managers to provide practical HR advice and people solutions.
• Managing and supporting a varied employee relations caseload.
• Coaching managers through formal and informal HR processes.
• Supporting organisational change, absence management, performance management and wellbeing initiatives.
• Contributing to the review and development of HR policies and procedures.
• Supporting recruitment and selection activities across the College.
• Participating in HR projects and people-related initiatives that support the College's People Strategy.
• Delivering a professional, customer-focused HR service that aligns with the College's values.

About You

We are looking for someone who:

• Is CIPD qualified (or working towards qualification) and educated to SCQF Level 8 or equivalent experience.
• Has a sound understanding of employment legislation and HR best practice.
• Has experience providing HR advice and guidance to managers.
• Has employee relations experience or a strong interest in developing expertise in this area.
• Can build credible relationships and influence positive outcomes.
• Possesses excellent communication, coaching and problem-solving skills.
• Is organised, resilient and able to manage a varied workload.
• Shares our commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and delivering an excellent service.
• Experience working within a unionised environment or the education sector would be advantageous, but is not essential.

Why Join Edinburgh College?

At Edinburgh College, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a supportive and collaborative working environment where you will have opportunities to develop professionally, contribute to meaningful projects and make a real difference to colleagues across the organisation.

If you are looking for a role where you can apply your HR expertise, further develop your employee relations skills and help shape the people agenda within one of Scotland's largest colleges, we'd love to hear from you.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme and open this to BME groups, people living with a disability, the care experienced and Armed forces veterans - if you meet the essential criteria, you will automatically be selected for an interview.

Please note that the successful candidate may be required to work at any Edinburgh College campus.

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details.

Note for Internal Applicants - appointment into this role may be considered on a secondment basis. Prior agreement from your line manager is essential.

Provisional Interview Date: Screening Interviews w/c 10 August 2026 with second interviews expected w/c 17 August 2026.