Principal Head of HR

The Role The Principal, Head of HR is accountable for Bridge Capital's people strategy, HR operating model and organizational capability across the private equity platform. The role acts as the senior people adviser to executive leadership and functional heads, ensuring workforce planning, executive talent, organization design, performance, rewards, succession, employee relations and culture support the platform's investment mandate and growth agenda. Working with Group and portfolio stakeholders, the position converts business priorities into practical people plans, establishes fit-for-purpose governance and provides decision-ready insight on organizational capacity, talent risk and leadership effectiveness. The Principal also builds the HR team, systems, policies, data disciplines and external-provider network required to support a high-performance, cross-border investment organization. Key Responsibilities Define and lead Bridge Capital's people strategy, HR operating model and annual workforce agenda in alignment with the private equity mandate, platform growth and organizational priorities. Advise executive leadership and functional heads on organization design, workforce planning, executive talent, succession, leadership effectiveness, performance and material people risks. Evaluate the CEO and CXO teams to identify succession gaps, critical key-person dependencies and potential retention risks, and prepare a consolidated heat map highlighting the findings. Evaluate the equity pool, vesting schedules, performance hurdles and leaver provisions to determine whether the incentive structure supports the behaviors and outcomes required to achieve the planned exit timeline. Review employment classifications, pension and employee benefit obligations, and compliance exposure across jurisdictions and platforms. Identify and address potential liabilities early to minimize unexpected findings and remediation costs during due diligence. Monitor key workforce indicators, including regretted attrition, time-to-fill for critical roles, talent bench strength and employee engagement, ensuring progress is aligned with the value-creation plan. Build disciplined talent-acquisition and workforce-planning processes for investment, finance, legal, compliance, investor-relations, corporate-development and portfolio-operations capabilities. Lead executive and critical-role succession planning, talent reviews, development actions and retention strategies, maintaining clear visibility of capability gaps and bench strength. Establish performance-management, goal-setting, feedback and calibration processes that reinforce accountability, differentiated contribution and alignment with enterprise priorities. Develop competitive and sustainable compensation, incentive and benefits frameworks, partnering with Finance and governance stakeholders on affordability, market positioning and control. Lead organization-design and operating-model work for new functions, geographic expansion, restructurings, integrations and other changes, with clear roles, decision rights and implementation plans. Provide senior oversight of employee relations, investigations, grievances, disciplinary matters, policy interpretation and sensitive workplace issues, ensuring fairness, confidentiality and appropriate escalation. Establish HR policies, delegated authorities, governance routines, records and compliance controls appropriate to the jurisdictions in which Bridge Capital operates. Build HR analytics and management information covering headcount, vacancies, hiring, performance, succession, retention, compensation and organizational risk to support executive decisions. Partner with Portfolio Operations and portfolio-company leadership, where assigned, on leadership assessment, organization design, senior hiring, incentives, succession and people-related value-creation priorities. Build and lead a high-performing HR function and external-provider network, using appropriate technology, responsible AI-enabled tools, service standards and disciplined cost management. Candidate Profile (Experience and Skills) Typically 15 or more years of progressive HR leadership experience within private equity, alternative asset management, investment banking, financial services, professional services or another high-performance international environment. Demonstrated experience advising executive teams on organization design, workforce planning, executive recruitment, succession, performance, rewards, employee relations and culture. Strong understanding of the talent and operating requirements of investment, finance, legal, compliance, investor-relations, corporate-development and portfolio-operations functions. Experience designing or improving HR operating models, policies, governance, systems, analytics and service-delivery arrangements in growing or rapidly changing organizations. Proven ability to handle executive and employee matters with discretion, independence, sound judgment and appropriate legal or governance escalation. Commercially grounded knowledge of executive compensation, incentives, market benchmarking, performance differentiation and retention in competitive talent markets. Experience supporting cross-border teams, geographic expansion, organizational change, integrations or portfolio-company people initiatives is strongly preferred. High integrity, executive presence, resilience, service orientation, analytical rigor and the ability to influence demanding senior stakeholders constructively. Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills, including confidence with investment committees, boards, management teams and sophisticated external counterparties. Demonstrated ability to lead small teams, manage multiple workstreams and develop junior professionals in a high-performance environment. Cross-border experience and cultural fluency are strongly preferred. Professional fluency in Arabic, Spanish, French or another relevant language is a plus, but not a requirement. Bachelor's degree required; an advanced degree is welcome but not required. Willingness to travel internationally and relocate where appropriate. Show more Show less