Applied Blockchain
Head of People (Temporary 9 month contract)
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Fixed-term contract
This is a fixed-term role, running from early September 2026 until the second week of May 2027. The role exists solely to provide cover during the current post-holder's maternity leave, with a deliberate overlap at each end to allow a thorough handover in and out.
Applied Blockchain | Applied Edge
Applied Blockchain | Applied Edge helps regulated enterprises navigate AI and digital assets. We build and advise on AI systems, digital asset applications and privacy-preserving infrastructure.
About The Role
We are looking for an experienced People leader to cover our HR and recruitment function during a period of maternity leave. Reporting directly to the CEO, you will own the people strategy, lead the function, and manage and oversee in-house recruitment.
You will line-manage two team members — one who run day-to-day HR and one who handles recruitment — so this is primarily a leadership and oversight role, directing how the function operates rather than delivering every task yourself. That said, the role stays close to the detail: you'll shape how onboarding, performance, wellbeing and 1-1s are run, and step in hands-on where needed, such as HR interviews at peak hiring periods. It suits someone comfortable both leading and, when required, rolling up their sleeves.
What You'll Be Doing
People & HR. Own and oversee the employee lifecycle and people experience across the company, including:
- The performance review cycle
- Turnover risk assessment and retention
- Employee relations — grievances, disciplinaries and conflict resolution
- Compensation and benefits administration, and supporting the salary review cycle
- HR policies, the employee handbook and general employment-law compliance across the markets we hire in
- Training, development and coaching
- Team wellbeing resources and support
- People metrics and reporting to leadership
- Oversight of regular 1-1s across the team
- Employee surveys and acting on the findings
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Employment contracts, references and work-eligibility checks
- Absence, leave and family-leave management
- Exit interviews
- Maintaining HR records
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Recruitment. Manage and oversee in-house recruitment end to end:
- Coordinate with hiring managers on roles and requirements
- Own candidate experience and offer management
- Liaise with external recruiters and manage agency relationships
- Manage the applicant tracking system and candidate pipeline
- Track recruitment metrics (e.g. time-to-hire)
- Write and refine job descriptions and role scopes
- Shape and drive recruitment marketing and employer-brand strategy
- Hands-on CV review, interview scheduling and HR interviews at peak times
Team leadership. Line-manage and develop two direct reports — the HR team member and the recruitment team member — and act as the point of escalation for people matters across the business
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Requirements
- Proven experience leading an HR / People function (Head of People, HR Manager or similar)
- Strong grasp of the full employee lifecycle and HR best practice
- Comfortable with employment law across multiple jurisdictions — we hire internationally (single-country expertise not required)
- Familiar with how Employer of Record (EoR) hiring works
- A confident leader who's still happy to be hands-on at busy times
- Solid recruitment experience across hiring managers, external recruiters and interviews
- Experience line-managing others — this role has two direct reports
- Strong interpersonal skills, with the discretion to work directly with the CEO
- A self-starter who gets up to speed fast and works autonomously
- Comfortable adopting new tools, including AI-based ones
- Right to work in the UK (no visa sponsorship)
- The role involves handling situations under stress, and requires ability to deal with stressful situations
- Available for the full term, early September 2026 to mid-May 2027
Nice to have
- Experience managing international / distributed teams and working with Employers of Record
- Experience owning recruitment marketing / employer branding
- Experience in a fast-moving tech, software or startup/scale-up environment
- Experience or interest in the blockchain and/or AI sectors
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