Etihad Airways
Senior Manager – HR Business Partnering
- Permanent
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Experience 5 - 10 yrs
Job expiry date: 31/03/2026
Job overview
Date posted
14/02/2026
Location
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Salary
AED 20,000 - 30,000 per month
Compensation
Comprehensive package
Experience
5 - 10 yrs
Seniority
Senior Manager
Qualification
Bachelors degree
Expiration date
31/03/2026
Job description
The Senior Manager – HR Business Partnering at Etihad Airways provides high-impact HR support to senior leaders and Directors within assigned business portfolios. Acting as a trusted advisor, this role translates business strategy into actionable workforce plans while ensuring compliance, risk management, and disciplined execution. The Senior Manager HRBP leads strategic workforce planning, organisation design, and talent management initiatives, while monitoring headcount, attrition, time-to-fill, and related workforce metrics. The role supports performance management cycles, succession planning, and leadership pipeline development. It also oversees employee relations case management, ensuring fair, consistent, and lawful resolution, and partners with Total Rewards to implement pay reviews, compa-ratio management, and retention actions. The position requires collaboration across HR Centres of Excellence and the business to drive engagement, culture initiatives, and workforce optimization, while providing credible data-driven insights and recommendations to senior leadership. The role demands previous airline industry experience, autonomy, commercial awareness, and strong stakeholder influence within a fast-paced, operational environment.
Required skills
Key responsibilities
- Partner with Directors and senior leaders to understand business priorities and translate them into actionable people and workforce strategies aligned with Etihad Airways objectives.
- Lead annual and multi-year workforce planning, identify critical roles and skills gaps, and implement succession planning and Emiratisation/localisation initiatives in collaboration with HR Centres of Excellence.
- Provide expert guidance on organisation design, spans and layers, role clarity, and productivity optimization to ensure alignment with business needs and strategic objectives.
- Oversee performance management cycles including calibration, feedback, development planning, and retention initiatives, coaching leaders on effective performance and talent development discussions.
- Manage employee relations cases within delegated authority, including performance, conduct, and grievance matters, ensuring compliance with policy and UAE labour law, escalating high-risk cases as required.
- Partner with Total Rewards to implement pay reviews, compa-ratio management, and retention strategies, supporting leaders in making reward decisions within approved frameworks.
- Drive engagement action plans, culture initiatives, and mitigate attrition and employee satisfaction risks within the assigned portfolio.
- Ensure HR governance and compliance with policies, processes, and decision-making frameworks while preparing data-driven insights, briefings, and recommendations for senior management.
- Build and maintain strong, credible relationships with stakeholders across HR and business functions to enhance influence and adoption of people strategies.
- Support organisational transformation, restructuring, and growth initiatives by advising on workforce implications, risk management, and HR operational execution.
Experience & skills
- 8–12 years of progressive HR experience with significant exposure to HR business partnering in a complex operational environment.
- Mandatory airline industry experience, including partnering with senior leaders in fast-paced airline operations.
- Proven experience in workforce planning, organisation design, talent management, succession planning, and employee relations.
- Strong consulting, influencing, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to operate autonomously and handle sensitive/high-risk issues.
- Data-driven and commercially minded, with experience interpreting workforce metrics such as headcount, attrition, time-to-fill, and cost.
- Excellent judgement, analytical skills, and the ability to recommend actionable HR strategies.
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related discipline; professional HR qualification (CIPD, SHRM, or equivalent) preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to lead HR initiatives, drive culture and engagement, and influence leadership decisions at senior levels.
- Strong communication skills in English; ability to provide credible insights and recommendations to Directors and business leaders.
- Capability to manage multiple priorities and business portfolios effectively while ensuring governance and risk compliance.