Senior HR Business Partner | Corporate Services – Al-Futtaim Group

This Senior HR Business Partner role sits within Al-Futtaim’s Corporate Services function, supporting Group Finance (Tax, FSSC, Treasury, Corporate Finance), Legal, Audit, Procurement and Communications. It’s an HRBP role in the fullest sense — working directly with senior leaders across those functions to align people strategy with business needs, rather than a purely transactional HR administration role.

Day to day, the work covers the full HR business-partnering remit: workforce planning, organizational design support, performance management cycles, employee relations, talent development conversations, and translating Al-Futtaim’s broader people strategy into something that works for the specific needs of finance, legal, audit, procurement and communications teams. Expect a lot of stakeholder management with senior leaders who have very different functional priorities.

It suits an experienced HR professional who is comfortable operating as a genuine partner to leadership rather than an order-taker, with strong judgment on people issues and the credibility to push back when a business ask doesn’t align well with good HR practice or company values.

Because Corporate Services spans several distinct, senior-heavy functions, this role requires range: understanding the different pressures and cultures across finance, legal and procurement teams, and flexing the HR approach accordingly.

HR Business Partners supporting corporate functions like finance, legal, audit and procurement have an outsized influence on how well those teams actually perform, because these functions tend to be lean, senior-heavy and highly dependent on retaining specialist talent. Getting workforce planning, succession and employee relations right in these areas protects the business from the kind of disruption that happens when a key finance or legal specialist leaves without a plan in place. This role is also where company-wide HR policy gets translated into something workable for functions that often have very different working rhythms and pressures — audit cycles, financial close periods, legal deadlines — than the rest of the business. Done well, it builds trust between HR and senior leadership across Corporate Services, which makes it easier to implement broader organizational changes when they're needed. Because this role touches multiple senior stakeholders simultaneously, its influence on retention, engagement and organizational health within Corporate Services is proportionally larger than a typical HRBP role covering a single, more junior-heavy business unit.

Being an HR Business Partner to senior corporate functions like Finance, Legal, Audit and Procurement is one of the more demanding and respected tracks within HR, because it requires operating credibly with experienced, often skeptical senior stakeholders rather than just executing standard HR processes. The role builds strong business acumen alongside HR expertise, since effective partnering with finance or legal teams requires genuinely understanding what those functions care about and why. It also sharpens judgment on sensitive employee relations matters, stakeholder influence skills, and the ability to flex communication style across very different professional cultures within the same group. People who perform well as HRBPs to corporate/shared-service functions are well positioned to move into Head of HR, HR Director, or broader people-strategy leadership roles, because this kind of role is widely seen as proof that someone can operate at a senior, strategic level rather than a purely operational one. Working within a large, diversified group like Al-Futtaim also provides exposure to the scale and complexity of managing HR across multiple business lines, which is valuable experience for anyone aiming at a group-level or multi-business HR leadership career down the line. It's also worth noting that experience gained in a role like this tends to read well on a CV precisely because it shows a candidate can operate within a structured, process-driven organization, which many employers specifically look for when hiring for their next level of responsibility.

• Several years of experience as an HR Business Partner or senior HR generalist, ideally supporting corporate/shared-service functions
• Strong understanding of workforce planning, organizational design and performance management
• Experience managing employee relations issues with sound judgment and discretion
• Ability to build credibility and influence with senior leaders across diverse functions
• Bachelor’s degree in HR, business or a related field; HR certification (e.g. CIPD) is an advantage
• Strong communication skills, able to tailor approach to finance, legal, audit and procurement stakeholders
• Alignment with and ability to champion Al-Futtaim’s mission, vision and values in practice