Closing date: 10:00 on Tuesday 14 April 2026
Interview date: w/c 27 April 2026
Start date: As soon as possible
Location: Office based, central Edinburgh
The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.
It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.
The HR Manager contributes to the development and leads on the delivery of the Society’s People strategy and is the operational lead for the development of HR frameworks and systems that promote best practice in the recruitment, retention and performance management of staff while managing the associated risks to the organisation. Day to day you will be responsible for providing a collaborative and forward-thinking human resource service to employees and managers across the full range of HR activities ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and organisational policies and procedures.
We are looking for an experienced, proactive and principles-led HR Manager who understands what a positive working culture looks and feels like, with excellent project management skills to deliver an array of HR projects. You will be an approachable and supportive HR generalist who is able to establish trust and credibility with your colleagues, working together to find solutions to challenges and ensuring compliance with Society policies and current legislation.
The HR Manager reports to the Head of Business Services and is supported with recruitment and other HR projects by the HR and Operations Officer on a part-time basis.
Role and responsibilities
Your duties include but are not limited to:
- supporting and coaching managers and the Senior Management team by providing information and advice on a broad range of human resources matters
- supporting employees by providing information and assistance throughout the employment life cycle
- leading on the development and implementation and review of HR related organisational policies and procedures
- assisting managers with handling all aspects of absence including recording and monitoring absence, sickness, maternity and paternity leave, annual leave, and unpaid leave
- assisting managers with handling disciplinary, grievance, performance and any other similar employee issues
- maintaining accurate employee paper and electronic records and ensuring confidentiality in accordance with GDPR legislation
- keeping up to date with relevant employment legislation and ensuring Society policies, procedures and training are up to date and communicated to employees
- managing the learning and development, HR and recruitment budgets
- acting as the first point of contact for all HR enquiries
- leading the organisational strategy on employee engagement, enabling employee voice, and using existing software to regularly survey staff and provide insight to Senior Managers on themes and provide people-focused solutions
- leading the development of the culture transformation of the Society, including shaping the ongoing structure and delivery of this work
- line managing the Executive Assistant, providing day-to-day support, guidance and development
- design and delivery of the learning and development strategy and collaborating with managers to develop training and development plans to meet future business needs
- managing all aspects of the Society’s recruitment, including the onboarding and training of the additional 100-120 staff members in preparation for the festival
- working closely with the Finance team to ensure all information is processed for weekly and monthly payroll
- any other duties as reasonably requested by the Head of Business Services.
Person specification
Essential
- Demonstrable experience in a HR generalist role.
- Experience of developing and implementing HR policies and developing and installing efficient and effective HR systems and procedures.
- Demonstrable experience of offering high quality advice and support to a Senior Management team.
- Experience of managing recruitment campaigns.
- Approachable with effective interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills and can effectively promote good working relationships at all levels.
- Up to date knowledge of employment law and its practical application.
- Proven ability to be flexible and adaptable in a continuously evolving environment.
- Proven ability to work to tight deadlines responding to challenging priorities.
- Experience in delivering HR projects to time and specification.
- An ability to identify and resolve problems.
- Confidence in handling confidential and sensitive information with discretion and maintaining absolute confidentiality.
- Knowledge of GDPR legislation.
- Knowledge and competency with Microsoft Office suite including Word, Outlook, Excel and databases.
Desirable
- CIPD qualified to Level 5 or equivalent qualification.
- Current CIPD member.
- Experience of employee engagement.
- Knowledge of the Disability Confident Scheme.
- Experience of HR management in charitable organisations.
- Experience of HR Management in arts festivals.
Salary and benefits
The salary for this post is circa £38,000 per annum, plus contribution towards a personal pension. 28 days holiday per year plus six public holidays.
Normal working hours 35 hours a week, worked from 10:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. In the run up to and during the festival you may be required to work additional days and hours.
We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. Due to the nature of this role and the festival, we are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them, alongside the option of ad hoc remote working when suitable within the needs of the organisation.
We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.
The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.
We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.