HR Lead

Our client, a financial services institution, is looking to hire an HR Lead to build the people function around the business, not simply manage HR processes. This role will work closely with leadership to ensure the company has the right people, structure, culture, and capabilities to support its growth.

The ideal candidate will be commercially minded, comfortable working with senior stakeholders, and able to balance the strategic side of people management with the practical realities of running a growing business.

Responsibilities

People Strategy & Business Partnership

• Develop and drive the people strategy in line with the company’s business and growth objectives.
• Partner with leadership on workforce planning, organisational structure, talent needs, and key people decisions.
• Identify people and capability gaps that could affect business performance and work with leadership to address them.
• Provide practical advice on people matters, helping managers make sound and consistent decisions.

Talent & Organisational Development

• Build a strong approach to attracting, developing, and retaining high-performing talent.
• Lead recruitment and talent planning for critical roles across the business.
• Develop succession and career development plans for key positions and high-potential employees.
• Identify future capability requirements and put appropriate development initiatives in place.
• Strengthen the company’s approach to performance management and employee development.

Culture & Employee Experience

• Shape a high-performance culture that reflects the company’s values and ambitions.
• Build an employee experience that attracts strong talent and keeps people engaged.
• Work with leadership to ensure expectations around performance, accountability, collaboration, and conduct are clear.
• Lead initiatives that strengthen engagement, communication, and employee development.

Performance, Reward & Retention

• Develop and manage performance management processes that encourage accountability and meaningful performance conversations.
• Support leadership on compensation, benefits, incentives, and other reward decisions.
• Monitor retention, engagement, and other people indicators and translate them into practical actions.
• Ensure reward and recognition approaches remain competitive and aligned with business priorities.

HR Operations & Governance

• Oversee core HR operations, policies, documentation, and employee lifecycle processes.
• Ensure HR practices are consistent, well documented, and compliant with applicable employment requirements.
• Review and improve HR systems and processes as the organisation evolves.
• Maintain reliable people data and reporting to support management decision-making.

Change & Organisational Effectiveness

• Support the business through organisational growth, restructuring, and other periods of change.
• Review how teams are structured and how work gets done, identifying opportunities to improve effectiveness.
• Help leadership build an organisation that can scale without losing its culture, standards, or agility.

Must have skills

• Good organisational skills
• Good administrative skills with strong attention to detail.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressive HR/People experience, with experience in a leadership or senior business partnering capacity.
• Experience working in financial services, asset management, investment management, professional services, or another high-performance environment is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of talent management, organisational development, performance, reward, employee relations, and HR operations.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with senior leadership and influencing people-related business decisions.
• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to connect people decisions to business outcomes.
• Experience building or strengthening HR/People functions within a growing organisation.
• Strong judgement, discretion, and the ability to handle sensitive and complex people matters.
• Ability to operate strategically while remaining close enough to the business to understand and address day-to-day people needs.