Senior, HR Business Partnering      

RwandAir Ltd is the flag carrier airline of Rwanda. It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East from its main base at Kigali International Airport.  Our mission is to provide unsurpassed, safe, and reliable services in air transportation, including strategically linking Rwanda with the outside world while ensuring a fair return on investment. As part of the expansion strategy, we are looking for interested, qualified, and competent candidates to fill the following position:

• Job Title:            Senior, HR Business Partnering
• Reports to:        Senior Manager, HR Business Partnering
• Department:     Human Resources
• Location:            Kigali International Airport

Job Purpose

The Senior HR Business Partner is a senior practitioner within the HR Business Partnering function, accountable for delivering high-impact, strategic HR support to an assigned portfolio of business divisions across RwandAir. Operating one level below the Manager, HR Business Partnering and one grade above the HR Business Partner, the role acts as the senior advisor on the ground – translating the people strategy, the HR Operating Model, and the transformation agenda into day-to-day business outcomes.

The incumbent partners directly with Senior Leaders and Heads of Department to drive workforce planning, organisational effectiveness, talent management, performance culture, and people-related governance within their portfolio. The Senior HRBP also coaches and uplifts HRBPs in the team, ensuring quality, consistency, and depth of business partnering capability across the function.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

a) Operational

• Lead the annual and rolling workforce planning cycle for the assigned portfolio, in collaboration with Finance, Business Units, and HR Centres of Excellence.
• Anticipate future skills and capability needs based on route expansion, fleet development, and operational model evolution.
• Advise on structure changes, job evaluation, manpower requests, span-and-layer reviews, and succession planning – escalating complex decisions to the Senior Manager, HRBP.
• Drive the implementation of talent programmes within the portfolio, including identification of high-potential employees, development plans, and succession pipelines.
• Champion the People Performance Management system within the portfolio, including calibration, coaching, performance review compliance, and capability building for line leaders.
• Support culture-building initiatives, including embedding RwandAir’s values, Ways of Working, service culture, and organisational behaviours.
• Partner with Learning & Talent Development to close capability gaps and embed a skills-based view of the workforce.
• Handle and resolve complex employee relations, grievance, and disciplinary cases within the portfolio – ensuring fairness, consistency, and adherence to Rwandan labour laws.
• Advise business leaders on people risks and mitigation strategies, escalating systemic issues to the Senior Manager, HRBP.
• Support HR policy development, compliance monitoring, and governance routines across the assigned portfolio.
• Provide hands-on change support for transformation initiatives, ensuring business areas adopt new processes, systems, structures, and ways of working.
• Coach line leaders on change leadership, organisation readiness, and people communication.
• Champion HR digitisation, workforce analytics, dashboards, and self-service adoption within the portfolio.
• Use workforce data and analytics to generate insights that inform decisions on headcount, performance, retention, and people risk.
• Deliver timely, accurate people reports to divisional leaders and the Senior Manager, HRBP.

b) Functional Coaching & Uplift  

• Act as a senior peer and coach to HR Business Partners – sharing playbooks, reviewing case work, and raising the standard of business partnering across the team.
• Deputise for the Senior Manager, HRBP on assigned matters and represent the function in cross-departmental forums.
• Contribute to building HRBP capability in workforce planning, organisational design, talent management, and analytics.
• Commit to and contribute towards the development of Rwandan National talent, by coaching the Rwandan National developees, preparing them for a career with boundless potential.
• Perform other duties related to the position as directed by the Senior Manager, HRBP.

c) Strategic

• Act as the senior HR advisor to assigned divisional Senior Leaders and Heads of Department, diagnosing workforce challenges and translating business priorities into people plans.
• Cascade and operationalise the HR Transformation Roadmap (Operating Model, processes, systems, and culture shift) within the assigned portfolio.
• Bring an outside-in, commercially-aware perspective to every conversation – grounded in RwandAir’s route expansion, fleet development, and 4-star ambition.
• Lead workstreams within HR Transformation initiatives as assigned by the Senior Manager, HRBP.

d) About You – Minimum Standard Qualifications & Experience;

Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial Psychology, or a related field with a minimum of 6 years of progressive HR experience, including at least 3 years in a senior HRBP or equivalent business partnering capacity. Postgraduate qualification, MBA, or globally recognised HR certification (CIPD, SHRM-SCP, SPHR) is an added advantage.

Essential

• Hands-on partnering experience in a transformation environment or fast-moving operational sector (aviation, hospitality, FMCG, logistics, telecom).
• Proven experience influencing senior stakeholders and managing complex employee relations cases end-to-end.
• Working knowledge of HR operating models, workforce planning, organisational design, and change management.
• Comfortable operating in a function being built – able to manage ambiguity, prioritise, and deliver.

 About You – Other Desired Competencies & Skills;

Previous Experience:

Essential

• Experience supporting the build of a new or evolving HR function.
• Strategic thinking and problem-solving
• Influencing and stakeholder management at senior leader level
• Emotional intelligence and resilience
• Change agility and adaptability
• High integrity and sound judgment
• Results orientation and accountability
• Coaching and peer-leadership mindset

Job Specific Skills

Essential

• Strong business acumen and commercial awareness
• Solid understanding of talent management, performance management, and HR analytics
• Strong knowledge of Rwandan labour legislation
• Project management and change management capability
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and advisory skills
• Ability to build trust and manage complex stakeholder environments
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think strategically
• Strong mentoring and coaching skills.
• Ability to coach and uplift HRBPs and line managers.
• Confident user of HRIS, dashboards, and digital HR tools.

How to Apply:

• An application letter addressed to the Chief HR & Administration Officer;
• Recent Curriculum Vitae;
• Copies of Notarized Degree/Diploma certificates
• Relevant certificates;
• Copies of academic papers;
• A photocopy of the Passport/National ID;
• Three referees

The deadline for submitting application documents (Only PDF Format) is June 11, 2026. Please apply via the link: https://erecruitment.rwandair.com/.