People Lead, Series A, AI Scale-up
London, UK Hybrid (3 days per week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday)
Salary: £110,000 – £140,000 + equity + benefits
The Opportunity:
We are partnering confidentially with a high-growth, Series A tech business operating at the cutting edge of AI and software development. Backed by over $100m in funding from leading global investors including Index Ventures, GV, Accel and Boldstart, the business is building foundational infrastructure for the next generation of AI-native development - a space seeing rapid enterprise adoption and significant long-term market potential.
Led by a highly credible founding team with a track record of building category-defining companies, the organisation is now entering a pivotal phase: transitioning from early product and technical validation into structured, scalable growth. With a rapidly expanding team and increasing organisational complexity, there is a clear need to formalise and elevate the people function.
As a result, they are hiring their first dedicated People Lead - a foundational and highly visible role with real ownership from day one.
This is not a traditional HRBP position, nor is it a role that currently sits within the leadership team. It is a broad, end-to-end mandate spanning people operations, infrastructure and strategic partnering. You will build the systems, processes and frameworks that enable the business to scale effectively, while acting as a trusted advisor to managers and leadership on performance, compensation, employee relations and organisational effectiveness.
Reporting to the General Counsel & Head of Operations, you will manage an Employee Experience team member and play a central role in shaping how the people function evolves.
There is meaningful scope for this role to grow in line with the business, including the potential to develop into a leadership-level position over time as the organisation scales.
This opportunity will suit someone who thrives in high-growth, high-ambiguity environments - equally comfortable operating at pace and building from first principles - and motivated by the chance to shape culture and capability in a company at the forefront of AI.
What you'll do:
- Own the end-to-end employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, payroll coordination, benefits administration and employee records
- Maintain accurate, reliable people data across HR systems, ensuring consistency and integrity
- Partner closely with Finance and external providers to ensure payroll and benefits are delivered accurately and on time
- Build, refine and scale HR processes, policies and operating procedures that are compliant, clear and fit for growth
- Manage visa and immigration processes, working with external counsel where required
- Ensure compliance with UK employment legislation, with awareness of US considerations
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency through automation and AI-enabled workflows
- Act as a trusted advisor to managers across technical teams, supporting on performance, team structure, compensation and employee issues
- Coach managers on core people management practices, including feedback, performance management and difficult conversations
- Handle employee relations matters with sound judgement, discretion and empathy
- Partner with senior leadership on complex or sensitive people topics
- Support performance review cycles, compensation benchmarking and calibration processes
- Contribute to the development of pragmatic frameworks for progression, feedback and development
- Use people data and insight to inform decision-making and highlight trends
- Support the development and maintenance of a high-trust, high-performance culture
- Partner with Employee Experience to deliver a thoughtful and consistent employee journey
- Act as a visible, credible and approachable presence across the business
- Collaborate with Talent and hiring managers to ensure alignment between hiring, onboarding and broader people processes
- Contribute to hiring quality and interviewer effectiveness
- Potentially expand into broader talent oversight over time, depending on business needs
You will bring:
- Proven generalist People experience within high-growth VC-backed tech environments
- AI fluent, with hands-on experience leveraging AI tools to enhance people operations and a strong curiosity to continue evolving in this space
- Experience operating in lean, early-stage or scaling organisations, ideally VC-backed
- Strong hands-on expertise across people operations, including payroll, benefits, HR systems and compliance
- Demonstrated experience supporting managers with performance, employee relations, compensation and organisational effectiveness
- Confidence working with technical stakeholder groups (e.g. Engineering, Product, R&D)
- Solid knowledge of UK employment law; exposure to US employment practices is advantageous
- Experience with modern HR tooling (e.g. HRIS, ATS, collaboration platforms)
- High attention to detail and operational rigor, with a focus on accuracy and reliability
- Commercial judgement and pragmatism, with the ability to balance speed and structure
- Credibility and confidence in advising managers and handling sensitive situations
- Comfort operating in ambiguity, with the ability to build as you go
- A hands-on, low-ego approach with a willingness to own both strategy and execution
- Resilience and composure in fast-paced, evolving environments
- A growth mindset, with the ambition to scale in line with the organisation
We recognise how challenging this current job market is for candidates, and Hawkwood are therefore striving to provide the best candidate experience we can. If you are interested in this opportunity, we kindly request that you apply via this LinkedIn advert, as opposed to sending us an email or LinkedIn direct message. We are eager to ensure that each candidate application is considered fairly, and receives a consistent experience. Unfortunately, we cannot ensure this standard if you inquire about a role via email or LinkedIn message, as it falls outside of our established process.