The posting
Senior Business Partner People & Organization (P&O)
A broad and highly visible P&O role at the heart of Xellia’s global organization
Are you an experienced P&O professional who combines strong business understanding with a pragmatic yet ambitious approach and the ability to get things done?
Xellia Pharmaceuticals is looking for a Senior Business Partner P&O to take on a broad and highly visible role at our Copenhagen headquarters. You will work across both strategic and operational P&O priorities and play an important role in translating Xellia’s strategy into organizational capability, strong leadership practices and pragmatic P&O solutions.
This is a role for someone who enjoys operating in a fast-paced, ambitious and performance-driven international environment. You will interact with senior leaders and executives across the organization and take ownership of several important global P&O processes while remaining close to the day-to-day execution.
In other words, this is not a role where strategy and execution are separated. You will get the opportunity to do both.
Your role
As Senior Business Partner P&O, you will become part of Xellia’s global People & Organization function and work from our headquarters in Copenhagen.
You will act as a trusted sparring partner to senior leaders while taking direct ownership of a broad portfolio of P&O activities. A significant part of your role will be to ensure that processes are not only designed, but implemented, followed through and continuously improved.
Talent Acquisition will be an important part of your role. You will manage selected senior and strategically important recruitments across the organization, covering the process from talent attraction and sourcing through assessment, selection and offer. In addition, you will provide hands-on Talent Acquisition support to the Copenhagen site when needed and contribute to continuously strengthening Xellia’s approach to recruitment and talent attraction.
Your broader responsibilities will include:
- Driving selected global organizational review processes, including succession planning, organizational assessments and input to workforce and capability planning
- Driving the global performance management cycle and supporting leaders on performance-related matters
- Acting as a trusted P&O partner to leaders and providing pragmatic, business-oriented advice
- Driving and developing learning and development initiatives, including implementation of Xellia’s global competency framework
- Supporting leadership development and coordinating relevant leadership training and coaching initiatives
- Contributing to employee engagement activities, including analysis, action planning and follow-up
- Supporting employer branding activities in Copenhagen
- Managing external recruitment, assessment and development partners and ensuring both quality and commercial relevance
- Leading and contributing to global and local P&O projects and new initiatives
You will also play an active role in developing how Xellia uses AI and technology within P&O. This already includes AI-supported tools for job descriptions, job advertisements and structured interview guides, and we expect you to help identify further opportunities where technology can improve quality, speed and the employee and manager experience.
The formal scope spans strategic and operational P&O support, talent acquisition, performance management, organizational development, leadership development and vendor management. We do not expect you to be a unicorn who has mastered every aspect of P&O. We are looking for a passionate and committed professional who sees the opportunity in a broad portfolio of responsibilities and is motivated by taking ownership, creating momentum and successfully juggling the many different priorities the role entails.
Who are you?
We expect you to have a solid background from a senior HR role, ideally from an international and commercially oriented organization where expectations, pace and stakeholder complexity are high.
You probably bring:
- Strong experience within Talent Acquisition, preferably including senior and strategically important recruitments, combined with experience across several broader HR disciplines
- Experience driving organizational processes such as organizational reviews, succession planning, performance management or workforce planning
- Experience working directly with senior leaders and the confidence to challenge constructively when needed
- A strong business mindset and an ability to translate organizational needs into pragmatic solutions
- Experience managing projects and processes across functions and geographies
- An interest in how AI, data and technology can strengthen HR/P&O
- Strong communication skills and professional fluency in English
Experience from pharmaceuticals, life sciences or another highly regulated industry can be an advantage, but is not a prerequisite.
More importantly, you understand what it takes to operate successfully in an international corporate environment with high expectations for quality, responsiveness and execution.
The person we are looking for
Your way of working will be just as important as your HR toolbox.
You are quick-thinking, resourceful and action-oriented, and you naturally create momentum around the activities you own. You are comfortable moving between senior stakeholder discussions and very practical execution – sometimes within the same hour.
You have the maturity and robustness to navigate different perspectives and senior stakeholders in an international organization, and you communicate clearly and confidently.
At the same time, you have a strong hands-on mentality. You take ownership, follow through and do not consider operational tasks beneath your level. You thrive in a role where the breadth is significant, priorities can shift quickly, and delivering high-quality support to the business matters.
A bit about us
Xellia is a 120-year-old company with a refreshingly start-up feel inside. We have spent more than a century at the forefront of anti-infective medicine, making a difference to patients all over the world – and we are just as ambitious today as we were a hundred years ago.
We have recently refreshed our brand around a simple, human idea: We’re Your People. It is built on the strong relationships and trusted partnerships that have always defined Xellia, putting the real Xellians – the warm, expert and dedicated people behind the science – front and center.
Why Xellia?
Because you will be joining at a genuinely exciting moment – with a refreshed brand, real momentum and the rare combination of a 120-year heritage with start-up energy inside. The work matters. The medicines we make help patients in some of the most critical moments of their lives.
For the right person, this role offers a compelling combination of seniority, breadth, international exposure and hands-on responsibility. You will have the opportunity to influence important global P&O processes, work closely with senior stakeholders and help develop how Xellia approaches talent, performance, organizational capability and the use of new technology within P&O.
And because here, you are not just a hire – you are one of us.
We’re Your People. Come and be one of them.
Practical information
The position is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Workplace presence is expected approximately four days per week, and occasional travel may be required.
Contact and application
The recruitment process is handled by European Search Company on behalf of Xellia Pharmaceuticals. All inquiries are treated confidentially.
For additional information about the position, please contact Christoffer Bjørk Petersen on +45 20 80 16 38 or Brian Ranvits on +45 20 48 05 48.
If you see yourself in the position, please send your application by using the Apply button below.
