Lead HR Specialist

Job Summary
As the Lead HR Operations Analyst, you will be the driving force behind our regional employee experience and the integrity of our global people data. Operating at the intersection of strategic problem-solving and operational excellence, you will lead first-tier support, own complex data workflows in Workday, and mentor junior team members. This is a high-impact role within a performance-oriented culture, where your expertise in system optimization and UK statutory governance will directly shape the modern workplace experience for all CME workers.
What You'll Get

• A supportive environment fostering career progression, continuous learning, and an inclusive culture.
• Broad exposure to CME's diverse products, asset classes, and cross-functional teams.
• A competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Explore our full range of benefits

What You'll Do

• Drive Operational Effectiveness: Serve as the primary escalation point for advanced AskHR tickets, managing sensitive, high-stakes employee inquiries while consistently exceeding global SLAs.
• Champion Data Integrity: Act as the Workday HCM subject matter expert, executing complex EIB mass loads, auditing organizational updates, and safeguarding our central data repository.
• Elevate Team Capabilities: Mentor, guide, and provide constructive feedback to junior team members, fostering a collaborative, high-performance environment.
• Optimize the Employee Journey: Own key processes across the entire employee lifecyclefrom seamless onboarding to empathetic offboardingwhile identifying opportunities to automate and enhance the experience.
• Govern Compliance & Releases: Lead comprehensive testing and audits for biannual Workday releases, ensuring strict adherence to global labor laws and managing essential regulatory reporting.
• Deliver Actionable Insights: Partner closely with the HR Tech team to build advanced dashboards and deliver key people metrics that empower leadership decision-making.

What You'll Bring

• Analytical Mindset: Exceptional attention to detail with experience leveraging AI tools and automated solutions to drive operational efficiencies.
• HRIS Expertise: Strong proficiency in enterprise HCM, specifically business process configuration, EIB management, reporting, and automated auditing.
• Service Center Leadership: Proven track record in an HR Shared Services or service center environment, expertly managing high-volume ticketing workflows (ideally Jira) under global SLAs.
• Generalist HR knowledge: Understanding of UK legislation, statutory leaves (family leave, sickness), and compliance, paired with impeccable judgment in handling confidential Employee Relations matters.
• Qualifications: A CIPD qualification is highly desirable. Financial or professional services background is a distinct advantage.

CME Group: Where Futures are Made
CME Group is the world's leading derivatives marketplace. But who we are goes deeper than that. Here, you can impact markets worldwide. Transform industries. And build a career by shaping tomorrow. We invest in your success and you own it - all while working alongside a team of leading experts who inspire you in ways big and small. Problem solvers, difference makers, trailblazers. Those are our people. And we're looking for more.
At CME Group, we embrace our employees' unique experiences and skills to ensure that everyone's perspectives are acknowledged and valued. As an equal-opportunity employer, we consider all potential employees without regard to any protected characteristic.
Important Notice: Recruitment fraud is on the rise, with scammers using misleading promises of job offers and interviews to solicit money and personal information from job seekers. CME Group adheres to established procedures designed to maintain trust, confidence and security throughout our recruitment process. Learn more here.
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