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Chief People Officer
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Head of People
Overview
This is a Head of People role at a fast-scaling technology business based in the City of London. The role is four days a week in the office, with one day working from home. The salary is £80,000 to £110,000.
The business has matured to a point where building a formal People function is the logical next step, and this hire is where that starts. You will own the strategy from day one, operating as a peer within the leadership team rather than as a support function. The role calls for someone who can design and build the infrastructure from scratch, earn genuine trust with high-performing managers who have operated without formal people processes, and protect the culture through the next phase of growth. Ideas matter here, but execution matters more.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and own the People strategy, translating business priorities into a clear plan for how the company attracts, develops, and retains the talent it needs
- Take ownership of culture and employer value proposition, making it defensible and real as the business scales
- Advise the leadership team on org design decisions: structure, reporting lines, layers, and team evolution
- Build a learning and development framework that works at scale
- Own the philosophy and cadence for performance and progression, sitting above existing frameworks
- Sit in the leadership team as a peer, contributing to business decisions rather than responding to them
- Lead on talent strategy, shaping how the business attracts high-calibre candidates
Requirements
Must-haves:
- Experience operating at VP or Director of People level in a SaaS or technology business
- Hands-on experience with real org design decisions, not just advisory involvement
- A track record of building People functions or infrastructure from scratch
- The ability to introduce process to stakeholders who have worked without it, bringing them along rather than alienating them
- Comfort operating in a room of opinionated, high-performing leaders, with the confidence to push back when it matters
- A genuine understanding of startup culture as a competitive asset
- Familiarity with AI and its implications for org design, workforce planning, and how people and technology work alongside each other
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What Success Looks Like
- The People function is fully built and operational within the first year, with clear ownership, processes, and credibility across the business
- The leadership team and department leads are freed up to focus on delivery, rather than managing people issues themselves
- A clear-eyed, honest diagnosis of the culture has been completed: where it is strong, where it needs work, and a plan to address the gaps
- The business is attracting and retaining better talent as a direct result of the function being in place
- Key stakeholders across the leadership team are aligned with the People strategy and actively working within it
Team and Culture
- This is a business that moves fast and expects the same from its people
- The culture is built on getting things done: ideas are valued, but execution is what earns credibility
- You will be joining a leadership team of high performers who are used to operating with autonomy and will expect the same standard from you
- The People function is new, which means you have genuine ownership and the space to build it the right way
Challenges
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- You will be introducing structure and process to managers who have operated without it, and doing that without creating the feeling of bureaucracy is the core difficulty of this role
- Resistance to change is evenly spread across the leadership team, so you will need to earn trust and bring people along across the board, not just win over one or two key individuals
- The function does not yet exist, so you are building from scratch while also managing day-to-day people needs in a live, fast-moving business
- The role requires both strategic thinking and hands-on delivery at the same time, often simultaneously
Practicals
- Role type: Permanent, full-time
- Location: City of London, four days a week in the office
- Salary: £80,000 to £110,000
- Interview process: Three stages, two of which are face to face
- Target start: Early September
Ideal Candidate Profile
You have built People functions from scratch before, not inherited and improved them, and you know the difference. You have navigated resistance across a whole leadership team, not just won over one or two key allies, and your instinct is to earn trust before introducing change. You are equally comfortable thinking at a strategic level and rolling up your sleeves to handle what the business needs today, and you do not treat those as separate modes. You understand startup culture as something worth protecting, not something to be replaced by process, and you are genuinely curious about how AI is changing the way organisations are structured and how work gets done. If you thrive in environments where autonomy is the norm and credibility is earned through delivery, this role is built for you.
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