Country Human Resources Advisor

About Frontiers

At Frontiers, our purpose is simple yet ambitious: to make science open. We believe open science empowers the global scientific community to accelerate discovery and develop the solutions needed for healthy lives on a healthy planet.

We are one of the world’s largest and most influential open-access research publishers. Every article we publish is peer-reviewed and quality-certified, ensuring research is accessible to everyone, everywhere. To date, Frontiers research has been viewed over 4 billion times, demonstrating the real-world impact of science without barriers.

Joining Frontiers means being part of a global, mission-driven organization at the intersection of science, technology, and innovation — working alongside passionate colleagues who care deeply about advancing knowledge for the benefit of society. To learn more about our impact and culture, please watch this video.

About the role

We're looking for an experienced Country HR Advisor to join our team in Warsaw and support managers and employees across Poland, Germany and Switzerland on a broad range of people related topics.

In this role, you'll provide practical HR guidance across the employee lifecycle, with a particular focus on employee relations, labor law, performance management, compensation, onboarding, and local HR processes. You'll work closely with HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, Compensation, and other HR teams to ensure that global HR practices are effectively implemented in the local context.

You'll also act as a trusted point of contact for employees and managers, helping resolve employee matters, providing guidance on local employment requirements, and representing the company in relevant interactions with local authorities.

If you enjoy working across different areas of HR, combining sound employment-law knowledge with a practical and people-focused approach, and working independently in an international environment, you'll thrive in this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day HR guidance and support to managers and employees across Poland, Germany and Switzerland, ensuring the effective local implementation of HR policies, processes, and initiatives.
• Act as the first point of contact for employee relations matters, including disciplinary cases, grievances, performance concerns, and other sensitive employee situations.
• Maintain strong knowledge of labor law and employment practices, monitor relevant legislative changes, and advise managers and the wider HR team on their implications.
• Represent Frontiers in relevant interactions with local authorities and external HR or employment service providers.
• Partner with HR Business Partners and functional HR teams to ensure performance management processes are implemented consistently and effectively, including supporting managers with underperformance cases.
• Collaborate with HR Business Partners and Talent Acquisition on recruitment initiatives for country-specific positions, including local sourcing solutions where appropriate.
• Partner with the Compensation team on local salary benchmarking and provide accurate, high-quality data on market salary levels and local compensation practices.
• Support onboarding and local integration of new employees, including local requirements, office and equipment setup, and role- or team-specific onboarding activities.
• Development, implementation, and continuous improvement of HR policies and processes, ensuring they are effectively applied in the local context.
• Maintain accurate HR records and handle confidential employee information with appropriate discretion and care.

Requirements

• 5 years of relevant hands-on HR experience, ideally in an HR Generalist, HR Advisor or similar role, with the ability to independently manage a broad range of HR matters.

• A bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, Law, or a related field is preferred, although relevant professional experience will also be considered.

• Strong knowledge of Polish labor law and employment practices, with experience applying legislation to practical employee and business situations.

• Fluency in Polish and English, with the ability to communicate effectively with local and international stakeholders.

• Demonstrated experience managing employee relations matters, including disciplinary processes, grievances, performance issues, and other complex employee cases.

• Experience supporting or coordinating performance management, compensation, onboarding, and other core HR processes. Experience in HR project management or process improvement is an advantage.

• Understanding of Polish visa and work permit processes.

• Experience working in an international or matrix organization and collaborating with stakeholders across different functions and locations.

• Proficiency in HR systems and Microsoft Office, with confidence working with HR data and maintaining accurate records. WorkDay, DocuSign, Jira, SharePoint and AI knowledge is nice to have, but not a requirement.

• On a personal level, we are looking for someone with strong communication and relationship-building skills, ability to advise managers and employees confidently and handle sensitive situations with discretion. To be successful in this role you should have good organizational and problem-solving skills, ability to manage multiple priorities and work independently in a fast-paced environment.

• We kindly ask you to submit your CV in English.

Benefits

• We prioritise office presence and emphasise in-person collaboration, but also offer appropriate adjustments where needed, in line with company policy

• Extra wellbeing days on top of your annual leave allowance

• Up to 3 paid volunteering days each year

• 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Programme (wellbeing, mental health, legal & financial support)

• Learning & development support via the Frontiers Learning Hub

• Equal opportunity statement

• Frontiers actively embraces diversity and is a safe and welcoming workplace. Recruitment is free from discrimination – including based on race, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. With employees from more than 50 different nations, our diversity creates vibrant teams and constantly challenges us to appreciate multiple perspectives.