HRD (HR Director)

Also known as: HR Director, CHRO, Chief People Officer, VP People, Head of People, Head of HR.

What does an HRD do?

An HRD is the head of the HR function who owns everything about people in the company: org structure, hiring, performance and development, compensation, culture and HR processes. A strong HRD works as the CEO's partner: turns business strategy into decisions about the team and sees early which people and skills will be needed a year from now.

• Designs the org structure and plans headcount with the CEO and leaders.
• Builds the system of performance reviews, grades and compensation.
• Takes the company through change: fast growth, reorganisation, layoffs.
• Grows leaders and decides whom to develop internally and whom to hire.
• Builds the HR team and makes sure its processes work.

When does a company need an HRD?

A company usually needs an HRD when decisions about people start to slow the business down: the team has grown to a size where the CEO no longer knows everyone personally, leaders pull in different directions, and questions about pay, promotions and departures are handled by hand and inconsistently. This often coincides with fast growth after a round, expansion into new countries or a reorganisation. If the company has a few dozen people and the main task is hiring, an HRD will be underused: it first needs a Head of Recruitment or a strong HR Generalist.

Strategic HRD vs operational HRD: what's the difference?

A strategic HRD differs from an operational one in where they work: the strategic HRD takes part in business decisions, while the operational HRD makes sure HR processes run every day. A strategic HRD handles org design, headcount planning, leadership incentives and company-wide change. An operational HRD runs HR records, training, policies and hiring. The experience and the cost differ, so it matters which one you need before the search starts. A Head of Recruitment differs from an HRD in breadth: they own hiring only.

Why is it hard to hire an HRD?

An HRD is hard to hire because companies look for people of very different levels under one title, and the candidate's strength has to match the company's stage.

• HRD experience depends heavily on stage: someone who built HR at a 50-person startup and someone who ran HR at a 5,000-person company solve different problems.
• Every CV talks about "strategy and culture", but it does not show which decisions the person made and which they carried out.
• An HRD has to match the CEO's views on people and management, and that only shows in live meetings.
• Strong HRDs usually leave only after finishing a major change and rarely look for jobs actively.

How much does an HR Director earn in Europe?

According to NEWHR's 2025 hunting analytics on HRDs, the average base salary of an HR Director in Europe is €80–120K a year gross: €110–140K in Germany, £105–130K in the UK and €80–110K in Cyprus. The range is wide because it depends on seniority, the segment of the tech market and the location.

What to decide before hiring an HRD?

• Do you need a strategic partner to the CEO or someone to put processes in order? Get this wrong, and the HRD often leaves within the first year.
• What changes are ahead for the company in the next year and a half? Growth, reorganisation and layoffs need different experience.
• Does the role include hiring, or is there a separate Head of Recruitment? This decides whether the candidate needs strong hiring experience.
• Which decisions about people does the HRD make alone? If the CEO decides everything, a strong candidate will quickly lose interest.

Where to find an HRD?

HRDs most often come from tech companies that have already gone through your stage of growth: HR Directors, HR Business Partners and Heads of People at product and international companies. A strong profile signal is a specific change the person led, such as a new grading system, a reorganisation or entry into a new country, and how it affected the team. NEWHR knows this market from the inside: we are recruiters ourselves and run a professional community for HR and recruiters.

How to assess an HRD in an interview?

An HRD is assessed through a walkthrough of a change the candidate led personally and a meeting with the CEO. In the walkthrough the candidate explains what was there before, what they did, how they measured the result and how teams reacted. References come from leaders the candidate worked with.

Strong signals:

• talks about people through business problems: which company problem the change solved;
• describes a decision that failed and what they changed afterwards;
• asks the CEO uncomfortable questions about leaders and culture.

Red flags:

• describes the work as a set of processes and tools introduced, with no result;
• cannot name a decision where they disagreed with the CEO;
• offers the same programme for any company.

How long does it take to hire an HRD?

We present the first candidates for the HRD role within 5–7 days of the brief. The whole search usually takes one to six months.

Related roles

• Head of Recruitment — owns hiring only, but in more depth, and often reports to the HRD.
• COO — runs the company's operations and decides with the HRD how teams are organised.
• CEO — the HRD's main partner, who handles people decisions personally until there is an HRD.
• AI Transformation Lead — changes company processes with AI, and the HRD helps teams through that change.