Head of People, VC-backed European Fintech

Head of People

Permanent, Full-time

London (Liverpool Street) 3-4 days per week in office

Hawkwood is leading a search for a high-growth, venture-backed fintech scale-up as it enters its next phase of expansion.

Backed by leading global investors and founded by an exceptional team, the business is reimagining how small and medium-sized businesses manage money. Having achieved 5x year-on-year growth and recently closed a significant Series B, the company is scaling rapidly across the UK, with international expansion underway.

With just under 100 employees across the UK and Europe and a clear path toward significant revenue milestones over the next 12–18 months, the business is now seeking a Head of People to architect and elevate the people function for its next chapter, in a pivotal leadership level role.

The Opportunity:

Reporting directly to the COO and partnering closely with the CEO and founding leadership team, the Head of People will own and evolve the People function end-to-end. The mandate is clear: create the environment where exceptional individuals can do the best work of their lives.

This is a hands-on leadership role combining strategic organisational design with pragmatic execution. You will build the systems, expectations and leadership capability required to scale toward £100m+ revenues and beyond - without diluting standards. You will act as a trusted advisor to the CEO and COO on sensitive and high-stakes people decisions and help execute on the following:

Build & Evolve a High-Performance Environment

• Define and articulate a clear people philosophy aligned to founder ambition
• Establish a culture of ownership, humility, pace and high standards
• Ensure expectations are explicit and performance is measurable
• Strengthen an in-person, collaborative operating model
• Maintain cultural consistency across international teams

Performance & Leadership Enablement

• Design and embed pragmatic performance frameworks
• Enable leaders to run effective, high-quality performance conversations
• Coach senior leaders on feedback, team dynamics and conflict resolution
• Proactively identify and address organisational friction
• Ensure scale enhances - rather than erodes - performance standards

Hiring & Talent Strategy

• Define and uphold a clear hiring bar
• Refine role scorecards and job design
• Strengthen structured interview processes, including case-based assessment
• Embed thoughtful 30-60-90 evaluation approaches
• Support workforce planning and prioritisation

People Operations & Governance

• Own the full employee lifecycle
• Ensure legal and regulatory compliance across geographies
• Build scalable systems without unnecessary bureaucracy
• Leverage AI tools to drive efficiency and effectiveness
• Oversee compensation frameworks (base, sign-on, equity)

Organisational Design & Scale

• Partner on organisational architecture and capacity planning
• Translate company strategy into effective team structures
• Support headcount planning and capability development
• Contribute to defining a clear long-term location strategy
• Act as a sounding board to leadership on culture and structural decisions

Candidate Profile

We are seeking a commercially sharp, founder-aligned People leader with experience scaling ambitious, VC-backed technology businesses.

You will bring:

• Experience scaling a VC-backed company through multiple funding rounds
• A track record navigating meaningful growth inflection points
• Close partnership experience with founders, CEO or COO-level leaders
• Demonstrated success coaching senior leadership teams
• Strong organisational design and performance management expertise
• A disciplined, high-bar approach to hiring and talent quality
• Operational depth - translating strategy into simple, repeatable systems
• Sound judgement in complex or sensitive people matters
• Experience operating across geographically distributed teams
• Comfort in fast-paced, high-expectation, high-ownership environments

Compensation:

• Competitive base salary
• Sign-on equity bonus
• Meaningful equity participation, including performance-based components

We recognise how competitive the current market is for senior People professionals, and Hawkwood is committed to providing a confidential, fair and positive candidate experience throughout.

If you’re interested in exploring this opportunity, please apply via this LinkedIn advert rather than by email or direct message. This ensures every application is reviewed fairly and consistentl y.