Lead, Employee Relations (Investigations)

Role Overview

This position anchors the organisation’s global approach to workplace grievance investigations, giving senior leaders confidence that reports of misconduct are handled with rigour, impartiality, and care. The person in this role will both carry the most sensitive and high-profile cases personally and provide expert supervision to a specialist team, turning individual case outcomes into broader learning that reduces risk and strengthens the working culture across every country office.

Key Responsibilities

• Directly investigate or oversee grievances involving senior leaders and other high-risk matters, applying consistent methodology, sound evidence assessment, and clear, defensible written findings.
• Manage the end-to-end caseload for a global investigations function, triaging incoming concerns by risk and urgency, balancing workloads, and ensuring investigators meet agreed deadlines without sacrificing quality.
• Supervise, coach, and develop a small team of investigators through regular technical reviews, feedback on reports and technique, and support for complex decision-making.
• Act as the senior point of escalation for delays, disputed findings, or conflicting evidence, intervening quickly to resolve barriers while protecting the independence of the investigation process.
• Champion a person-centred approach that respects the welfare, dignity, and confidentiality of reporters, subjects, and witnesses from initial outreach through to case closure and follow-up.
• Work closely with legal, risk, security, country leadership, and the wider people function to align on procedure, share necessary information, and safeguard the integrity of active cases.
• Identify patterns and recurring themes across investigation files, translating them into practical recommendations that help the organisation address underlying risks and improve the working environment.
• Continuously refine the function’s investigation frameworks, quality assurance tools, and professional standards in response to new legal developments, cultural contexts, and lessons from past cases.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Substantial professional history — typically eight or more years — in workplace investigations, employee relations, or a closely related field, with hands-on experience investigating grievances in multiple countries and legal environments.
• Deep understanding of employment law principles as they apply to disciplinary and grievance cases, including the ability to advise on legal risk in varied jurisdictions.
• Proven leadership of an investigations team, including setting performance expectations, delivering constructive feedback, and building a culture of openness, challenge, and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to lead intricate, high-stakes investigations involving senior figures, ambiguous or contradictory evidence, and significant organisational or reputational exposure.
• Excellent questioning, listening, and interpersonal skills, with a track record of building trust with people from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds and holding difficult conversations with empathy and resolve.
• Strong organisational skills for managing competing priorities, monitoring multiple case timelines, and taking decisive action when investigations stall.
• Genuine commitment to inclusive leadership, with acute awareness of how power imbalances and cultural norms affect both the investigation process and the people involved.
• Formal training, certification, or accreditation in workplace investigations, employment law, HR, or equivalent practical experience.
• Working proficiency in English, with professional capability in French, Spanish, or Arabic viewed as a valuable advantage.
• Prior experience inside an international, federated, or humanitarian organisation is a strong plus.

What We Offer / Why Join

This is a permanent, global-remit role with the flexibility to be based remotely from any approved Save the Children International office location, subject to the candidate’s existing right to work. The role comes with a hybrid or fully remote working pattern, a team of three to four investigators to lead, and minimal international travel expectations of up to 5%. It offers an opportunity to shape the integrity of workplace culture across one of the world’s most complex humanitarian networks, working alongside senior leaders who treat safe and respectful working environments as a strategic priority.