Flexa
Discover companiesFind a jobResourcesSign in/up
For employers
Flex spring

Join the mailing list

Get the latest insights and expert guidance on job hunting, career progression, and creating thriving workplaces.

Enter your email
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Info for employers
  • Join Flexa
  • Legal
  • Live feed
  • Resources
  • Sign in/up
  • The Flexa awards
Flexa
< Back to search
Mars

P&O Director (West Europe)

Location:  BEL-Brussels Region-Brussels | NLD-North Brabant-Veghel | Belgium
Location flexibility:  1 office day / week, 2 office days / week, 3 office days / week, 4 office days / week
View company profile
Apply

Job Description

Job Description:

What will be your key responsibilities?

Business Unit leadership and thought partnership

  • Serve as strategic thought partner to the GM and Cluster Leadership Team on the people implications of WE business choices, including growth, effectiveness, affordability, capability build and leadership readiness.
  • Act as Go-to Person on selected European people priority or lead a project on those.
  • Bring resilience and a growth mindset to lead through ambiguity, competing business priorities and transformation pressure, while maintaining energy, focus and confidence across the WE organization.

Shape business strategy:

  • Shape the development of the European P&O Strategy providing unit and local insights. Translate these Strategy into clear WE people priorities and roadmap that reflects the cluster’s country complexity, different market maturities, local legal and works council environments, and the need to deliver consistent business outcomes across the region.
  • Act as the voice of Associates and bring external and data-led insights.
  • Shape and support the transformation agenda for the West Europe cluster, ensuring the people strategy enables growth, simplification, organization effectiveness and stronger leadership ownership across all five markets.
  • Leverage and build effective partnerships across the P&O Operating model. Ensure the recent transition to MyP&O in Austria and Switzerland is fully adopted and delivering a simpler, consistent Associate and leader experience in every country. Provide local insights to influence priorities and collaborate to ensure high quality solutions are delivered to the business

Organizational Design & Change Management

  • Identify specific unit capability and skills requirements to deliver the business strategy
  • Collaborate with GM and Leadership Team to govern headcount investments
  • Ensure fit for purpose organizational design, in alignment with regional/global principles
  • Identify productivity efficiencies opportunities to fuel growth and enhance the Associate Experience.
  • Co-pilot the transformations with people implications that the unit is going through at a certain moment
  • Guide leaders on key change management requirements
  • Drives leadership activation on themes of Mars Associate experience
  • Partner constructively with the Works Council in the Netherlands, ensuring engagement is respectful, timely and solution-oriented while enabling required business and organizational transformation.

Shape Culture

  • Role Model and guardian of the Five Principles, the desired behaviors and Associate Concept; coach leaders to role model
  • Act as ambassador of our culture specific behaviours and embed signature programs locally
  • Provide data-led insights to influence positive outcomes in engagement, health and I&D
  • Deploy and embed the winning behaviors as a business-performance lever, coaching the WE Leadership Team to make them visible in priorities, routines, decision-making and performance conversations.

Talent Enablement

  • Coach and support Line Managers to most effectively support Associates; build a culture of development and learning
  • Champion and embed signature talent processes to enable a diverse associate population
  • Drive Succession Planning, Talent Development/Reviews, Workforce Planning and Leadership Development within the unit
  • Support leaders with understanding current and future workforce requirements
  • Partner with the GM in the development of the Leadership Team members

People Leadership

  • Lead and develop the WE P&O team, consisting of one P&O Business Partner and one P&O Operations team, creating clear priorities, strong collaboration and a growth-minded, resilient team culture

What are we looking for?

  • Extensive experience of progressive P&O and/or leadership experience
  • Line Management experience
  • Demonstrated capability in deploying all dimensions of people and organisation strategies, policies and legal requirements
  • Experience of driving change at scale
  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making skills; able to influence and establish credibility with a broad range of stakeholders
  • Experience of shaping and deploying strategies, fully embedding them locally so they sustain
  • Strong communicator, articulate and to the point whilst also able to inspire large groups behind a compelling vision.
  • Able to work with diverse teams in diverse locations, engaging their input and commitment to success.
  • Proven experience leading people strategy across a multi-country cluster or similarly complex matrix environment, with the ability to balance European consistency and local market relevance.
  • Demonstrated ability to work constructively with employee representative bodies, including works councils, while progressing transformation and change agendas.
  • Strong resilience and growth mindset, with the ability to learn fast, adapt, stay effective under pressure and help others navigate change.

Preferred experience:

  • Cross-functional experience
  • Experience working at local, regional and global level

What can you expect from Mars?

  • Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles
  • Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today
  • A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University
  • An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus

#TBdigital

Apply

Other jobs you might like

Mars

P&O Director (West Europe)

Cologne, DE | Brussels, BE | Germany

#1 MOST FAMILY FRIENDLY COMPANY

Working at Mars

Hybrid

Core hours 11–3

Company benefits

Open to part-time employees
Open to job sharing
Open to compressed hours
Sabbaticals
Enhanced maternity leave – 26 weeks at 90% pay
Enhanced paternity leave – 26 weeks at 90% pay
24 days annual leave + bank holidays
“Pawternity” leave
Pregnancy loss leave
Bank holiday swaps
Shared parental leave
Adoption leave
Family health insurance
Pregnancy support
Neonatal leave
Faith rooms
Meditation space
Dog friendly office
Dog friendly co-working space
Annual bonus
Employee discounts
Cinema discounts
Referral bonus
Joining bonus
Cycle to work scheme
Electric Car Salary Sacrifice
Enhanced pension match/contribution
Theme park discounts
Lunch and learns
In house training
Learning license
Studying sabbaticals
Open to part time work for some roles
Menopause support
On-site gym
On-site barista
Secure on-site parking
On-site catering
Private booths
On-site wellness room
Collaboration spaces

Awards & Accreditations

1st - Most Family Friendly Company

1st - Most Family Friendly Company

Flexa awards 2026
3rd - Best Workplace Benefits

3rd - Best Workplace Benefits

Flexa awards 2026
Most loved - Large companies

Top 5 - Most loved - Large companies

Flexa awards 2026
Best Work-Life Balance

Top 10 - Best Work-Life Balance

Flexa awards 2026
1st - Most Family Friendly Company

1st - Most Family Friendly Company

Flexa awards 2025
2nd – Pet Friendly

2nd – Pet Friendly

Flexa awards 2025
Most Flexible Company

Top 5 - Most Flexible Company

Flexa awards 2025
Most Inclusive Company

Top 5 - Most Inclusive Company

Flexa awards 2025
Best Work-Life Balance

Top 10 - Best Work-Life Balance

Flexa awards 2025
Best Career Progression

Top 10 - Best Career Progression

Flexa awards 2025
Best Workplace Culture

Best Workplace Culture

Flexa awards 2025
Best Workplace Benefits

Best Workplace Benefits

Flexa awards 2025
1st – Large companies

1st – Large companies

Flexa100 2024
Consumer Goods

Consumer Goods

Industry awards 2023
3rd – Large companies

3rd – Large companies

Flexa100 2023
Retail & Ecommerce

Retail & Ecommerce

Industry awards 2022
Apply

Mars

Talent Development & Culture Director

Guangzhou, CN

#1 MOST FAMILY FRIENDLY COMPANY

Maersk

Employee Relations Manager Netherlands & Belgium

Rotterdam, NL | Netherlands

#3 BEST WORKPLACE CULTURE

Mars

Global Head of Enterprise Leadership Development Programs and Leader Expectations

London, UK

#1 MOST FAMILY FRIENDLY COMPANY

Merlin

People Business Partner

From $90,000 per annum

North Richland Hills, US

Company employees:

4,000 In the UK

Gender diversity (m:f):

57:43

Hiring in countries

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Chile

China

Czechia

Denmark

Egypt

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

India

Japan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Lithuania

Malaysia

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Poland

Romania

Russia

Slovakia

South Korea

Spain

Switzerland

Thailand

Türkiye

Ukraine

United Kingdom

United States

Office Locations