Process Lead: AI- Automation & Workday Hybrid

At McLaren, our mission is to set the standard for high performance in sport. And everyone, in every part of the team, has a role to play. So if you want to test your ideas with the world watching... And measure your progress in milliseconds... And play your part in racing history... You belong here. High performance starts with you.

At McLaren Racing, performance is engineered into every detail. We’re looking for a People Process Lead to design, standardise, and improve our major People processes across the employee lifecycle; ensuring they are Workday‑optimised, automation‑ready, and capable of scaling with AI. This role will help shape leaner, more agile People journeys and deliver a step‑change improvement in employee, manager, and People experience through self‑service, faster resolution, and fewer manual interventions.

This is a 12-month Fixed Term Contract role, ideal for someone who thrives in a high pace environment and can quickly diagnose what’s slowing things down, redesign processes for performance, and embed sustainable ways of working.

• Map, diagnose and redesign end-to-end People processes across the employee lifecycle, removing waste and reducing friction (e.g., recruitment/onboarding, contract lifecycle changes, reward administration, performance processes, leavers/offboarding).
• Define future‑state processes with clear rules, data requirements, controls, and exception paths to enable workflow automation and scalable self‑service.
• Remove duplication and unnecessary handoffs; streamline approvals while maintaining appropriate governance.
• Translate process design into clear requirements and support adoption through change impact and stakeholder engagement.

• Establish clear process ownership, decision rights, SOPs, and controls (including exception handling and escalation routes).
• Ensure processes remain compliant with employment legislation, data standards, and internal governance expectations in a high‑visibility environment.
• Maintain documentation that stands up to audit and supports consistent execution.
• Support the design and implementation of our Target Operating Model (TOM) based on future-state processes.

• Use data (cycle time, error rates, volumes, rework) to identify bottlenecks and prioritise improvement work that has the biggest operational impact.
• Lead root‑cause analysis and drive corrective actions; embed “right first time” ways of working.
• Create simple performance dashboards / KPIs for process health and service outcomes.

• Build AI readiness into People processes (standardised taxonomy, knowledge quality, safe augmentations like routing/assistants), supporting responsible adoption and governance.
• Partner with our Workday Product Owner to translate process designs into implementable requirements (workflows, forms, integrations, case management, knowledge).
• Partner with IT and Finance to ensure systems and workflows reflect the intended processes.
• Identify opportunities for automation (workflows/self‑service), reducing manual processing and improving employee/manager experience.

• Work closely with People Partners, CoEs and functional leaders to convert business needs into workable, consistent processes.
• Build credibility quickly and influence stakeholders to adopt standardised ways of working.
• Drive change adoption through stakeholder engagement, training, documentation and communications.

• Strong HR operations/process expertise with proven process improvement delivery e.g., experience in Lean / Lean Six Sigma/Agile methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to design automation-ready workflows and work effectively with Workday HCM and service delivery tools (case management, portals, knowledge bases).
• Data‑driven problem solver with strong stakeholder management and change capability.
• AI literacy in HR service contexts.

• Highly analytical and naturally curious – not afraid to challenge the status quo.
• Collaboration is a core tenant.
• Change‑orientated and…