Head of People Experience

At Bavarian Nordic, we are committed to saving and improving lives by unlocking the power of the immune system. Our commercial product portfolio includes market-leading vaccines against smallpox, mpox, rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid fever, and cholera. We excel in R&D innovation, manufacturing, and commercialization, striving to improve people's health and quality of life worldwide, protecting our tomorrow.

The role

We are seeking a Head of People Experience (PX) to drive the next phase of our transformation journey at Bavarian Nordic. Over the past 18 months, we have evolved the People & Organization function, and after a reorganization we are now putting an even stronger focus on employee experience.

As we continue to scale, this role will be pivotal in shaping and delivering exceptional employee experiences across the entire lifecycle—driving harmonized processes, fostering collaboration, and ensuring strong adoption of HR practices and digitalization As one of the senior leaders in People & Organization (P&O), you will play a key role in realizing our future operating model, leading the transformation and guiding the PX team through change with clarity and purpose. In addition to this, you will serve as a vital link between the global people strategy and local execution—safeguarding compliance while championing innovation and continuous improvement.

You will lead a team of approx. 12 people located in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and US, and collaborate closely with other areas ofP&O. The role oversees workflow allocation across sites and countries and assures local deployment of global HR processes while serving as the first point of contact for managers and employees. The team consists of HR Business Partners, HR managers at production sites as well as HR generalists and administrators.

The position is located in Hellerup, Denmark at our HQ and you will report to VP of People & Organization.

Key responsibilities:

Lead and develop the PX team, fostering accountability and service excellence

Deliver seamless and engaging people experience across the employee journey

Ensure consistent, high-quality HR service delivery across sites and geographies

Oversee workflow allocation and timely resolution of operational HR cases

Coach HR Business Partners at sites and in regions to support the employee lifecycle and local compliance

Enable workload sharing across geographical and professional boundaries by actively using Workday to visualize capacity, coordinate tasks, and strengthen cross-team collaboration

Drive process improvement and automation through digital tools (e.g., Workday)

Manage payroll input, mobility, contracts, legal compliance, benefits, and external consultant administration

Ensure adherence to GDPR, collective agreements, and Labor laws

Represent PX in cross-functional initiatives and change management efforts

Support onboarding, offboarding, engagement, and annual P&O cycle activities

What you bring:

To succeed in this role, it is important that you bring experience from smaller-/midsized companies spiced with hands-on experience from functions as rewards, payroll, HR legal, HR Business partnering from regions (maybe even from abroad) and that you bring a strong mindset of and experience with development of employee experience.

You will start with process alignment and soon build the roadmap to ensure the levelling of a uniformed PX. This role is, of course, also about leading cross-functional programs and balancing short-term delivery with long-term perspective. This requries that you bring strong leadership and team management capabilities.

You understand how our P&O operating model increasingly embraces the potential of digital user experiences, and you are ready to guide our PX team in leveraging Workday to deliver on that ambition.

To support our growth journey, your communication and interpersonal skills are exceptional, complemented by a strong ability to collaborate effectively across functions and geographies.

Knowledge of employment law, GDPR, and collective agreements is key.

Why this role

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape employee experience across multiple countries while leading a high-performing team. You will drive operational excellence, champion innovation through digital tools, and ensure compliance with local and global standards. As a key partner to HR and business leaders, you will influence strategic initiatives, improve processes, and create a culture of accountability and service. It’s a chance to make a tangible impact on people and organization effectiveness while advancing your leadership career.

Application

If you are ready to take on a pivotal role in a growing organization and drive meaningful change in healthcare, apply now and join Bavarian Nordic in our mission to improve health outcomes and foster sustainable growth.

Please note that for this position, we do not support any relocation packages.

We aim to unpost the ad within 14 days, conduct interviews the first weeks of December and close the recruitment process before Christmas.

We kindly request that headhunters or recruitment agencies refrain from contacting us regarding this position.

Founded in 1994, we have +30 years of experience developing life-saving vaccines. We are a global leader in smallpox and mpox vaccines. Our commercial product portfolio contains market-leading vaccines against rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, cholera, typhoid, and Ebola. We are headquartered in Denmark and have manufacturing, research, and sales offices across Europe and North America. Our values – our Bavarian Nordic DNA, as we like to call it – are what guide our actions every day. We act as persistent pioneers, embrace change, value being boosted by the team, and believe in protecting lives every day. If that is also a part of your DNA, we invite you to join us at Bavarian Nordic! Bavarian Nordic is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applications will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

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