Senior Employee Relations Business Partner

Intercom is the AI Customer Service company on a mission to help businesses provide incredible customer experiences.

Our AI agent Fin the most advanced customer service AI agent on the market lets businesses deliver always-on impeccable customer service and ultimately transform their customer experiences for the better. Fin can also be combined with our Helpdesk to become a complete solution called the Intercom Customer Service Suite which provides AI enhanced support for the more complex or high touch queries that require a human agent.

Founded in 2011 and trusted by nearly 30000 global businesses Intercom is setting the new standard for customer service. Driven by our core values we push boundaries build with speed and intensity and consistently deliver incredible value to our customers.

Whats the opportunity

Were looking for a Senior Employee Relations Business Partner (ERBP) to join our People team at Intercom.

This role has a global remit sitting at the heart of how we support our people and leaders through complex sensitive and high-impact situations. But this is more than a case management role. Youll be shaping how the function operates building the frameworks and systems that scale it across our global BP team. Youll act as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert on employee relations partnering closely with HRBPs leaders Legal (including our Senior Employment Counsel) and People Ops to ensure fair consistent and legally sound outcomes.

AI is redefining how businesses operate and how people teams can drive impact. Were looking for an ambitious and curious ERBP who thrives in this kind of environment; someone who thinks big leans into change and sees AI as an accelerator for better faster smarter work. Youll bring confidence and ambition to the table. We value people who love to work hard learn constantly and consistently deliver great outcomes.

Youll play a critical role in maintaining a high-performance high-integrity culture balancing empathy with sound judgement and speed with rigour.

What will I be doing

Lead complex ER cases end-to-end

• Manage a broad range of employee relations matters including grievances investigations disciplinaries performance concerns and exits
• Conduct and support fair thorough and timely investigations
• Ensure all processes are compliant with local employment law and internal policies

Partner with HRBPs and leaders

• Act as a centre of excellence for ER supporting HRBPs on complex or high-risk cases
• Coach managers and leaders through sensitive situations with clarity and confidence
• Provide pragmatic business-aligned recommendations grounded in risk awareness

Enable managers to handle ER confidently

• Build manager capability so people issues are handled early fairly and close to the source reducing reliance on escalation
• Develop practical training and resources grounded in real scenarios: performance absence conflict conduct
• Create scalable self-service tools (guides templates decision frameworks) that give managers confidence to act
• Drive a shift from reactive case management toward proactive early intervention

Drive consistency best practice and smarter ways of working

• Standardise ER approaches across regions to ensure fairness and consistency
• Develop and refine ER frameworks templates and guidance
• Identify patterns and trends in ER data to surface root causes and drive earlier intervention
• Identify opportunities to use AI and automation to improve case management documentation and pattern detection reducing manual effort while improving consistency and speed

Mitigate risk and partner with Legal

• Work closely with our Senior Employment Counsel as a key partnership jointly owning risk assessment escalation and resolution on complex matters
• Support on pre-litigation matters and external claims where needed
• Ensure high-quality documentation and audit-ready case management
• Design and maintain case tracking and decision documentation systems that create a reliable scalable ER backbone

Enable the organisation

• Deliver training and enablement for HRBPs and managers on ER topics
• Build confidence across the business in handling people issues effectively
• Contribute to a culture of accountability high performance/standards respect and transparency

What skills do I need

Experience

• 6 years experience in Employee Relations HRBP or a related role in a fast-paced global environment
• Strong track record of managing complex high-risk ER cases independently
• Experience working across multiple jurisdictions (EMEA and/or US preferred)

Core capabilities

• Commercial mindset: You understand the business context and balance people risk with commercial impact making pragmatic decisions that support both employees and company outcomes
• Judgement: You make balanced well-reasoned decisions in ambiguous and sensitive situations
• Credibility: You build trust quickly with leaders and employees at all levels
• Influence: You can guide and challenge stakeholders effectively
• Resilience: You operate calmly under pressure and manage emotionally charged situations professionally
• Bias for action: You move with urgency avoid unnecessary process drag and push for timely resolution of issues while maintaining quality and fairness
• Detail orientation: You maintain high standards of documentation and process integrity

Knowledge

• Strong understanding of employment law and ER best practices
• Familiarity with investigation processes and case management
• Experience partnering with Legal teams on risk and compliance matters

Bonus skills & attributes

• Experience scaling ER practices in a high-growth tech company
• Background in both HRBP and ER specialist roles
• Experience building ER playbooks training or frameworks
• Strong Interest & curiosity in how AI and technology can transform ER delivery from case management to manager enablement
• Experience designing or implementing case management systems or ER tooling

Benefits

We are a well-treated bunch with awesome benefits! If theres something important to you thats not on this list talk to us!

• Competitive salary and equity in a fast-growing start-up
• We serve lunch every weekday plus a variety of snack foods and a fully stocked kitchen
• Regular compensation reviews - we reward great work!
• Pension scheme & match up to 4%
• Peace of mind with life assurance as well as comprehensive health and dental insurance for you and your dependents
• Flexible paid time off policy
• Paid maternity leave as well as 6 weeks paternity leave for fathers to let you spend valuable time with your loved ones
• If youre cycling weve got you covered on the Cycle-to-Work Scheme. With secure bike storage too
• MacBooks are our standard but we also offer Windows for certain roles when needed.

Policies

Intercom has a hybrid working policy. We believe that working in person helps us stay connected collaborate easier and create a great culture while still providing flexibility to work from home. We expect employees to be in the office at least three days per week.

We have a radically open and accepting culture at Intercom. We avoid spending time on divisive subjects to foster a safe and cohesive work environment for everyone. As an organization our policy is to not advocate on behalf of the company or our employees on any social or political topics out of our internal or external communications. We respect personal opinion and expression on these topics on personal social platforms on personal time and do not challenge or confront anyone for their views on non-work related topics. Our goal is to focus on doing incredible work to achieve our goals and unite the company through our core values.

Intercom values diversity and is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity. Intercom will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race color religion creed national origin ancestry sex gender age physical or mental disability veteran or military status genetic information sexual orientation gender identity gender expression marital status or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal state or local law.