People Business Partner (AWM EUR) at Alpha FMC
- Division: Business Operations
- Function: People (HR, Recruitment, Learning)
- Location: Paris
About Alpha FMC
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (Alpha) is a leading global consultancy to the financial services industry. Founded in 2003, we have worked for over 20 years to bring together specialist, sector-focused strategy, management consulting and technology expertise to support the entire client transformation lifecycle. Having partnered with more than 1,200 clients worldwide across the asset and wealth management, alternatives and insurance industries, Alpha is truly a trusted advisor for complex change programs. We now have over 1,180 consultants working with clients across North America, the UK, Europe, Middle East and APAC. In 2024, in recognition of our successful track record and strong growth prospects, Alpha was acquired by Bridgepoint, one of the world's leading quoted private asset growth investors.
Our people are at the heart of everything we do. We are delighted that many of our team have built long and fulfilling careers with us, many staying over a decade. We believe this is because Alpha offers a genuinely rewarding place to work: a meritocratic environment where your career can flourish, and a welcoming culture where you can be yourself, connect with others and thrive. As we look to the future, we’re excited to be looking for new Alpha colleagues - individuals who are collaborative, innovative and ambitious. We hope you will join us and help shape the next chapter of our growth journey.
Why join Alpha?
- Established yet entrepreneurial – with over 20 years of success and a proven record on the London Stock Exchange, Alpha offers the stability of an established consultancy with the energy of a fast-growth business.
- Backed by Bridgepoint – as part of one of the world’s leading growth investors, Alpha benefits from strategic investment that fuels innovation, expansion and new offerings – creating even more opportunity for our people.
- Exposure to senior leadership – whether you are in an internal or a client facing role, you will have the opportunity to work with and learn from the best of the best – high performers at the top of their game.
- Learning and growth opportunities – we run tailored training to help you be successful, provide you excellent mentorship, and offer up to 5 days paid training time per year. Perhaps the best training though is the experience on the job – as everyone at Alpha has high responsibility and autonomy, you can develop your skillsets quickly.
- Performance-driven culture with real impact – advancement at Alpha is based on impact and capability, not tenure or quotas. You’ll have autonomy and see the tangible difference your ideas and decisions make.
Overview of Business Operations
While consultants focus on delivering client value, our 'Business Operations' function ensures that the company runs efficiently and appropriately across a number of operational areas: Finance, People, Operations, IT, and Legal, Risk & Compliance. Together, these teams ensure the consultants are fully supported - working from a strong operational base that’s efficient, innovative and compliant. Business Operations doesn’t just enable delivery; it empowers Alpha’s long-term success. ‘People’ at Alpha refers to all parts of the employee lifecycle – including Recruitment, HR and Learning.
Role & Requirements
We are investing into a People Business Partner aligned to our Asset & Wealth Management, Europe (‘AWM EUR’) business unit. This role has a strategic dual role. Embedded into both the business units (AWM EUR) and the Business Operations function (People function) to ensure alignment with the AWM EUR business unit’s strategic goals, while also maintaining strong ties with Business Operations to uphold functional standards and best practices.
- To the Business Head – reporting to the Co-Heads of Asset & Wealth Management, Europe, who provide day-to-day direction, priorities, and operational objectives.
- To the Business Operations – reporting ultimately into the Group Head of HR and Head of Recruitment & Learning who ensure functional alignment, capability development, and mentoring support.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leadership Engagement:
- Engage directly with senior leaders as a trusted business partner.
- Have a ‘seat at the table’ to facilitate the business vision and to define the people agenda behind that.
- People Data Reporting & Analysis:
- Analyze people data to identify trends, strengths, and gaps across recruitment, HR, and learning.
- Support the Business Head to define, iterate and drive the strategy across the people agenda – ultimately answering key questions e.g. what our employer value proposition is, how do we attract the best talent, and how do we manage, develop, and retain talent to help them be successful.
- Support the Business Head in partnership with the Finance Business Partner to make sure recommendations are commercially relevant and executable.
- Key Processes Management:
- Drive and oversee annual business-as-usual (BAU) processes:
- Recruitment: year-end and mid-year planning and budgeting processes
- HR: year-end and mid-year job evaluation, compensation planning and goal setting
- Strategic Project Management:
- Contribute and drive key initiatives based on the Business Unit’s People strategy and priorities covering:
- Strategic Workforce & Talent Planning
- Develop and implement workforce strategies aligned to business plans, anticipating future skills and capacity
- Partner with business unit’s leaders to plan headcount growth and critical role coverage.
- Shape recruitment priorities based on commercial demand, utilization patterns, and emerging practice/proposition areas.
- Performance, Reward & Retention Strategy
- Partner with business unit’s leadership and finance to evolve reward frameworks that support growth, profitability, and retention. This will include assessing reward against an benchmark and making recommendation to the business unit’s leadership and the board
- Identify retention risks in key talent pools and co-develop targeted retention interventions.
- Employee Engagement
- Drive employee engagement initiatives by partnering with leadership to foster a positive work culture, improve retention, and enhance overall employee experience.
- Leverage engagement survey data and employee feedback to identify trends and recommend targeted action plans.
- Leadership Development & Succession Planning
- Support and coach senior leaders to enhance leadership effectiveness and build high-performing teams.
- Monitor emerging talent and partner with leadership to identify and develop future leaders. Lead succession planning processes that anticipate organizational growth and mitigate leadership risk.
- Provide focused oversight to Senior Leadership transitions (including onboarding & exits)
- Capability Development & Learning
- Partner with business unit’s leaders to design and deliver a training framework for each level that addresses the business unit’s strategic priorities, client needs, and skill gaps.
- Lead the continuous review and evolution of each business unit’s career framework, ensuring it reflects current market expectations, future skills, and the changing consulting environment.
- Collaborate with business unit’s leadership to evolve all people related matters (career, recruitment, etc.) as we deploy AI and other emerging technologies that enhance productivity, streamline delivery, and evolve the nature of the consultant role.
- Organizational Design & Growth Enablement
- Advise on team structures, spans of control (consulting pyramid), and operating models to improve scalability, collaboration, and efficiency.
- Post-acquisition integration: driving the people integration following acquisitions and monitoring success on an ongoing basis.
- Contractors: ensuring that relevant and efficient frameworks for sourcing and onboarding are in place, as well as understanding commercial visibility of contractor usage.
- People Delivery Team Mobilization and Optimization:
- Mobilize the internal people delivery teams (Recruitment and HR) who are responsible for execution.
- Monitor service quality and performance, supporting them to resolve any issues that arise.
- Ensure good productive relationships with wider Business Operations teams in order to facilitate execution.
- Play role of a lead in that functional area – driving effectiveness and good culture, and coaching and supporting individuals to achieve the business goals.
- Senior Leadership Reporting:
- Prepare people reports for senior leadership (both on a proactive and reactive basis), such as for the business unit Board, Group Leadership or Group Board. This will include but not be limited to reporting on matters such as – Reward & Retention, Strategic Hires/Workforce Planning, Talent Development and Strategic Projects
- People Communications:
- Designing and executing effective people communications as they relate to organizational change, compensation, and new policies.
Qualifications:
Must have:
- 5-7 years’ HR or recruitment experience, with experience in strategic business partnering or relationship management role.
- Proven ability to influence and advise senior leaders on people strategy and organizational design.
- Strong experience in talent attraction and management, succession planning, and leadership development.
- Demonstrated capability in post-acquisition integration, change management, and cultural alignment.
- A university degree (2:1 or above) in a relevant discipline
- Certification such as CIPD 5, SHRM-SCP, or equivalent academic or professional accreditation.
- Excellent communication, analytical, team-work and stakeholder management skills.
- Professional working proficiency in English and French.
Good to have:
- Experience within a consulting firm – ideally within Financial Services
- Strong working knowledge of European employment law, HR processes and best practice, especially France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark.
- Exposure to global or matrixed organizations with complex stakeholder environments.
- Professional working proficiency in German.
Location and working patten:
- Office-based in the same location as the Business Heads, in Paris. For this role it is important that this individual is co-located with the business and is able to attend key meetings in person – e.g. senior leadership meetings, strategic initiative workshops and 1:1s. We expect that on average this will require c. 2-3d/w in the relevant office, but this may flex up or down depending on the week.
Benefits & Compensation
- Competitive base salary
- Share of the profits of the business
- 25 working days of paid leave + discretionary rest days granted annually (currently additional 2 days off, 27 days in total)
- Lunch vouchers (10€)
- Life insurance and travel insurance
- Laptop and mobile phone
Our Commitment to Inclusion
At Alpha, diversity, equity and inclusion are critical to our success. Our priorities show a focus on fostering an inclusive, equitable workplace where individuals are treated fairly regardless of gender or background. We welcome applications from disabled people and are committed to making our recruitment process and workplace accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Data Privacy Policy: Full details around what data we hold, why we hold it and for how long are available in our recruitment privacy statement (https://alphafmc.com/privacy-policy/).
