Senior HR Compliance & Escalations Specialist (EMEA Support)

About the Role

Remote People is looking for a Senior HR Compliance & Escalations Specialist to join our EMEA Support team. This is a senior, employee- and client-facing HR Operations role for someone who enjoys solving complex employment challenges, not simply routing questions to other teams.

You will be the escalation point for high-priority cases that require sound judgement, strong compliance knowledge, and calm, clear communication. You will support a broad range of employee lifecycle matters, including contracts, leave, payroll, and benefits queries, employee relations, and offboarding. A key part of the role is being able to assess the situation, understand the local employment risk, and provide a practical answer or recommendation directly. While you will partner closely with Payroll, Legal, Compliance, and local providers when needed, you will take ownership of driving cases through to resolution.

You will also help strengthen the wider Support function by identifying recurring issues, improving processes, and creating clear guidance that enables the team to prevent avoidable escalations.

This role is ideal for a hands-on HR Operations professional with strong multi-country EMEA compliance experience, particularly across Spain, France, and Germany, who can confidently de-escalate sensitive employee or client concerns and deliver an excellent support experience in a fast-paced, remote environment.

Job Responsibilities

• Act as the senior escalation point for complex employee and client HR queries across EMEA, taking ownership from initial assessment through to a clear, compliant resolution.

• Provide practical, accurate guidance on employment compliance, contracts, leave, benefits, payroll-related queries, employee relations, and offboarding.

• Independently assess risk and resolve high-priority cases wherever possible, reducing unnecessary reliance on external providers or internal specialist teams.

• Apply strong working knowledge of employment practices across key EMEA countries—particularly Spain, France, and Germany—to provide timely, actionable answers.

• Lead sensitive employee and client conversations by phone or video when written communication is not sufficient, using empathy and sound judgement to de-escalate concerns and restore trust.

• Work closely with Payroll, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and local providers when specialist input is required; provide clear case context, recommendations, and next steps to drive resolution efficiently.

• Manage a varied case queue through tickets and email, prioritizing urgent issues and ensuring cases are documented accurately and resolved within agreed service levels.

• Identify recurring case themes, investigate root causes, and create practical SOPs, knowledge-base guidance, and process improvements to prevent repeat escalations.

• Support and coach junior support team members on complex cases, compliance principles, and best practices for case ownership and communication.

• Maintain clear, audit-ready case documentation, including risk considerations, decisions taken, stakeholder input, and employee/client communications.

Key Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive HR Operations, Employee Relations, EOR, PEO, HR shared services, or employment-compliance experience in a multi-country EMEA environment.

• Strong hands-on knowledge of employment compliance and employee lifecycle processes, with direct experience supporting Spain, France, and Germany strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated experience independently resolving complex escalations involving contracts, leave, payroll, benefits, terminations, employee relations, or compliance, not simply routing cases to other teams.

• Proven ability to de-escalate sensitive employee or client situations through clear, calm, and empathetic communication.

• Experience working in a ticket-based HR support environment and managing case queues, SLAs, quality standards, and competing priorities.

• Ability to assess employment risk, make sound recommendations, and recognize when Legal, Payroll, or a local provider must be involved.

• Strong stakeholder-management skills and experience coordinating effectively with Payroll, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Benefits, and external partners.

• Track record of improving HR processes through root-cause analysis, SOPs, knowledge management, or workflow automation.

• Excellent written and spoken English; additional European languages are a plus.

• Experience with HRIS and case-management tools such as Zendesk, ServiceNow, Jira, Workday, InterCom, or similar.

• Comfortable working independently in a fast-paced, fully remote environment.