Senior HR Compliance & Escalations Specialist – EMEA

Job Responsibilities

• Act as the senior escalation point for complex employee and client HR queries across EMEA, taking ownership from initial assessment through to a clear, compliant resolution.

• Provide practical, accurate guidance on employment compliance, contracts, leave, benefits, payroll-related queries, employee relations and offboarding.

• Independently assess risk and resolve high-priority cases wherever possible, reducing unnecessary reliance on external providers or internal specialist teams.

• Apply strong working knowledge of employment practices across key EMEA countries—particularly Spain, France and Germany—to provide timely, actionable answers.

• Lead sensitive employee and client conversations by phone or video when written communication is not sufficient, using empathy and sound judgement to de-escalate concerns and restore trust.

• Work closely with Payroll, Legal, Compliance, Operations and local providers when specialist input is required; provide clear case context, recommendations and next steps to drive resolution efficiently.

• Manage a varied case queue through tickets and email, prioritising urgent issues and ensuring cases are documented accurately and resolved within agreed service levels.

• Identify recurring case themes, investigate root causes and create practical SOPs, knowledge-base guidance and process improvements to prevent repeat escalations.

• Support and coach junior support team members on complex cases, compliance principles and best practices for case ownership and communication.

• Maintain clear, audit-ready case documentation, including risk considerations, decisions taken, stakeholder input and employee/client communications.

Key Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive HR Operations, Employee Relations, EOR, PEO, HR shared services or employment-compliance experience in a multi-country EMEA environment.

• Strong hands-on knowledge of employment compliance and employee lifecycle processes, with direct experience supporting Spain, France and Germany strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated experience independently resolving complex escalations involving contracts, leave, payroll, benefits, terminations, employee relations or compliance, not simply routing cases to other teams.

• Proven ability to de-escalate sensitive employee or client situations through clear, calm and empathetic communication.

• Experience working in a ticket-based HR support environment and managing case queues, SLAs, quality standards and competing priorities.

• Ability to assess employment risk, make sound recommendations and recognise when Legal, Payroll or a local provider must be involved.

• Strong stakeholder-management skills and experience coordinating effectively with Payroll, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Benefits and external partners.

• Track record of improving HR processes through root-cause analysis, SOPs, knowledge management or workflow automation.

• Excellent written and spoken English; additional European languages are a plus.

• Experience with HRIS and case-management tools such as Zendesk, ServiceNow, Jira, Workday, InterCom or similar.

• Comfortable working independently in a fast-paced, fully remote environment.