Director of Human Resources

Role Title: Director of Human Resources
Reports to: SPI Pharma CEO

Location : Based in the Head Office of Wilmington - Delaware USA

Directly Supervises: 5  Indirectly Supervises: 4

Role Purpose

Business Partner to CEO and a key member of the SPI Pharma Senior Leadership Team, the Director of Human Resources will shape and deliver a future-ready, high-performing organisation that fuels commercial growth, operational excellence, and cultural strength across global sites and functions.

This role demands a leader who brings strategic HR leadership, commercial insight, and strong execution capability—grounded in sound judgment and able to navigate complexity with clarity and composure. This role also has an important role to play as part of the HR Leadership Team at Divisional Level.

Responsibilities / Key Tasks

• Act as a strategic business partner to the SPI Pharma CEO and senior leadership team, shaping and translating the business strategy into an agile, high-performing organisation operating across manufacturing sites in the US and Europe, a technical centre in India, and commercial teams across the Rest of World (ROW).
• Lead the development and execution of a commercially focused People & Culture strategy aligned to SPI Pharma’s global priorities, as well as broader ABFI growth ambitions.
• Ensure robust organisational design and workforce planning processes to enable business agility and scalability—ensuring the right structures, capabilities, leadership, and development plans are in place for both current performance and future growth across all geographies.
• Build a culture of empowerment and accountability, enabling leaders to drive high performance and lead their teams effectively within the desired ABFI and SPI Pharma leadership culture.
• Be a visible, proactive leader both within SPI Pharma and across the Global HR community—balancing strategic advisory with hands-on delivery across diverse, multi-site operations.
• Drive a transformation mindset across all people processes—ensuring talent, inclusion and diversity, capability development, and workforce engagement initiatives create measurable business impact in manufacturing, technical, and commercial functions.
• Ensure that people aspects of change programmes (e.g. restructuring, business transformation) are actively managed to enable smooth transitions and sustainable benefits realisation across global operations.
• Champion effective communication and engagement—ensuring robust two-way channels are in place to support transparency, trust, and a cohesive culture across the US, Europe, India, and ROW commercial teams.
• Own and continuously improve HR service delivery: ensure excellence in all foundational HR operations (including payroll, recruitment, compensation & benefits, employee relations, and compliance), delivered efficiently, consistently, and on time across all locations.
• Manage the HR function for commercial effectiveness: optimise structure, cost, systems, tools, and ways of working to enable HR to act as both a strategic enabler and operational backbone.
• Stay ahead of evolving HR practices, talent trends, and pharmaceutical market dynamics to ensure SPI Pharma remains competitive in attracting, retaining, and developing talent globally.
• Lead SPI Pharma’s response to relevant HR aspects of incidents and crises, ensuring compliance with SPI Pharma Crisis Procedures.
• Model safety, compliance, and ethical leadership in all people-related matters—ensuring HR practices meet ABF standards and national legal requirements.
• Be an active and progressive contributor to the ABFI and ABF HR communities, sharing insights and shaping cross-business HR priorities.

Knowledge & Experience

• Strategic and Commercial Acumen: Demonstrates strong strategic thinking and commercial insight, combining conceptual and analytical skills with a broad business perspective. Applies sound judgement and critical reasoning to address complex challenges, lead change and transformation projects, and drive sustainable business solutions.
• Senior Leadership Experience: Extensive professional experience at a senior level within a large, complex organisation. Ideally includes cross-functional exposure, with some experience gained outside HR (e.g., in commercial, operations, or P&L leadership).
• Global and Multi-Site Expertise: Experienced operating in international, multi-site businesses. Comfortable leading across geographically dispersed manufacturing, technical, and commercial environments.
• Academic and Professional Credentials: Degree-level education (or equivalent) combined with a recognised professional HR qualification (e.g., CIPD, SHRM).

Person Specification

• Gravitas and Presence: Demonstrates strong personal impact with a calm, composed, and well-organised approach, inspiring confidence at all organisational levels.
• Proactive and Judicious: Exercises sound judgement with a strong sense of initiative—anticipates challenges and acts decisively to achieve results.
• Resilience in Complexity: Proven ability to navigate and deliver results in complex, dynamic organisations and situations, balancing multiple priorities effectively.
• Versatile Stakeholder Experience: Skilled at engaging with businesses and individuals across different stages of growth and development, tailoring approach to diverse needs.
• Energetic and Enthusiastic: Brings high levels of energy and a positive mindset that motivates teams and drives momentum.
• Emotional Intelligence: Exceptional interpersonal skills, with empathy and self-awareness to build strong relationships and foster collaboration. Excellent written and verbal communicator.
• Location and Mobility: Based in the Head Office of Wilmington - Delaware, with regular travel to SPI Pharma sites of operations and global locations as required.