Head of People - Maternity Cover

Our client is an innovative technology company helping regulated organisations navigate artificial intelligence, digital assets and privacy-focused infrastructure.

They are seeking an experienced Head of People to lead their HR and recruitment function during a period of maternity leave. This fixed-term contract includes an overlap at the beginning and end to support a thorough handover.

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will own the people strategy, oversee the full employee lifecycle and manage two team members responsible for day-to-day HR and recruitment.

This is primarily a leadership and oversight role, but you will remain close to operational delivery and provide hands-on support during busy periods.

Key responsibilities

People and HR

• Lead the companys people strategy and employee experience.
• Oversee performance reviews, regular one-to-ones and employee surveys.
• Assess retention risks and support employee engagement.
• Manage employee relations, including grievances, disciplinaries and conflict resolution.
• Oversee compensation, benefits and salary-review processes.
• Maintain HR policies, the employee handbook and employment-law compliance across international markets.
• Support training, development, coaching and employee wellbeing.
• Manage onboarding, offboarding, absence, leave and family-leave processes.
• Oversee employment contracts, references, right-to-work checks and HR records.
• Provide people metrics and reports to senior leadership.
• Conduct exit interviews and ensure appropriate follow-up actions.

Recruitment

• Oversee the complete in-house recruitment lifecycle.
• Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements.
• Manage candidate experience, offers and recruitment pipelines.
• Oversee the applicant tracking system and recruitment reporting.
• Manage relationships with external recruitment agencies.
• Write and refine job descriptions and role scopes.
• Develop recruitment marketing and employer-branding activity.
• Support CV reviews, interview coordination and HR interviews during peak hiring periods.
• Monitor recruitment metrics, including time-to-hire.

Leadership

• Line-manage and develop two HR and recruitment team members.
• Act as the senior escalation point for people-related matters.
• Work closely and confidentially with the CEO.
• Balance strategic leadership with hands-on support when required.

Essential experience

• Proven experience leading an HR or People function as a Head of People, HR Manager or similar.
• Strong knowledge of the full employee lifecycle and HR best practice.
• Experience supporting employment matters across multiple jurisdictions.
• Understanding of Employer of Record arrangements.
• Strong recruitment experience, including hiring-manager engagement, interviewing and agency management.
• Previous line-management experience.
• Confidence handling sensitive employee-relations matters.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to work autonomously and become effective quickly.
• Comfortable adopting new technology, including AI-enabled tools.
• Availability for the full contract from early September 2026 to mid-May 2027.
• Full UK right to work without sponsorship.

Desirable experience

• Managing international or distributed teams.
• Working with Employers of Record.
• Recruitment marketing and employer branding.
• Experience in a fast-paced technology, software, startup or scale-up environment.
• Knowledge of or interest in artificial intelligence, blockchain or digital assets.

• Proven experience leading an HR or People function as a Head of People, HR Manager or similar.
• Strong knowledge of the full employee lifecycle and HR best practice.
• Experience supporting employment matters across multiple jurisdictions.

• 1000 Annual Allowance for Training (up to 50% of this value can be used for you to buy workstation equipment to work from home)
• 5 days/per year for Training
• In-person fun team events/team buildings every 3 months
• Company equipment and Onboarding kit
• Annual Bonus (dependant on company and personal performance)
• Stock Option Plan
• Birthday Off
• Amazing referral programme

Salary Type : Per day

Salary Min : £ 400

Salary Max : £ 450

Currency Type : GBP