Senior People & Culture Manager (6-month FTC)

What’s Yonder?

“It's as if Time Out, Amex and Monzo had a baby”- Will T, Yonder Member

We’re building the financial membership of the future. Starting with a credit card that has fun and experiences at its core, we’re the antithesis to your parents' stuffy, corporate, boring credit card.

Whilst tech is revolutionising the finance industry, credit is still stuck in the stone ages. We want to create a world where financial services are fair and conscious, and the stress of debt is eliminated for everyone.

We raised an additional £23.4M in September 2024 to grow our team, launch even better rewards and fast-track our expansion outside the UK 🎉

Sounds cool. What’s my part in this?

We’ve been operating for more than 4 years, and have grown to a team of 50+. As we gear up for our next phase of growth, our VP of Strategy & Operations MC is looking for someone to help shape how we support, grow, and enable our team to do their best work.

At the same time, our brilliant People Ops & Talent Manager, Smitha , is currently on parental leave, so this is a six-month fixed-term role who’s primary objectives will be reviewing what we already have in place, and keeping our People momentum strong while she’s away.

What you’ll do

This role is a mix of running our BAU People processes and auditing what we already have , to help us prepare for scale. This means you'll:

• Own our core People rhythms: From onboarding new joiners to making sure performance conversations are effective, you’ll own the day-to-day People tasks at Yonder. The goal: everything runs smoothly, feels thoughtful, and reflects our culture at its best.
• Stay close to how people are doing (and why): You’ll run regular engagement checks, spot trends early, and work with managers to make meaningful changes. We want to be a place where people can do their best work — you’ll help make sure we’re actually living up to that.
• Review and challenge our current ways of working: As we grow, what got us here won’t get us there. You’ll bring a critical new perspective to our People processes and structures, identify what needs to change, and execute on your ideas.
• Raise the bar on performance and growth. You’ll help us build a culture where people are both supported to grow and challenged to deliver. That means best-in-class support for our managers, clearer progression paths across the team, and more honest conversations — all in service of doing great work.

The role will require you to zoom in to the details / out to the bigger picture frequently, and you'll be comfortable doing this as needed.

You're a great fit if

✅ You care about people and performance. You know it’s possible to build a culture that’s both caring and high-achieving, and want to help us do this.

✅ You’ve managed people before, and understand what makes a great manager. To unlock great performance, you need great managers. You know how challenging it is to lead a team, and you’re excited to help others do it better.

✅ You spot what’s not working, and do something about it. You’ve got a good gut for what needs to change, and you’re not afraid to challenge the status quo (in a constructive way).

✅ You’re hands-on, and happy to get into the detail. Whether it’s fixing a clunky process or stepping into a tricky conversation, you get stuck in and figure things out.

You won’t be a great fit if

👎 You see People as a support function, not a strategic one. This role sits at the heart of the business, not on the sidelines. If you see this as a back-office function rather than a key part of how the business grows, we’ll probably be misaligned.

👎 You’ve never managed people. Supporting great managers starts with understanding what it’s like to be one. That lived experience is important for this role.

👎 You default to process over impact. We care about structure and process, but only if it’s helping people do great work. If you want a highly structured environment, this might not feel like the right place.

👎 You’re looking for something already built. We’re still figuring things out and make changes quickly. If that doesn’t sound exciting, we’re probably not the right fit.

What’s it like working at Yonder?

🏢 We’re office-first, remote-friendly

We’re based in our Hoxton office, complete with a terrace, breakfast, coffee, dogs and plenty of comfortable space to do your best work. We ask you to come in to the office at least 3 days a week, with everyone coming in on Mondays.

🤍 We take a values-led approach

Our principles are incredibly important to us, so we recommend you check them out here: Our DNA

📚 We take development really seriously

We have a pretty structured process for progression, with fortnightly one-on-ones and quarterly peer perspectives. We also take some time at the end of each week to reflect and celebrate what we’ve learned and achieved.

What’s in it for me?

Depending on your skill set and what you can bring from day one, you’ll be looking at the equivalent of 💰 £74,144-86,909 annual salary (depending on experience) over your 6-month contract.

We are open to flexible or part-time setups (but would ask for a minimum commitment of 3 days per week).

Plus

✈️ 35 holidays (27 days annual leave + 8 days public leave)

⛷ Regular team-building trips and activities

❤️‍🩹 Private healthcare with Vitality, including mental health, dental & vision cover

🐙 Financial coaching with Octopus Money

🧠 Learning & training allowance (£750/year) that you can use on books, courses, etc

🍳 Monthly team breakfast/lunch

⛳️ Monthly team events like Mini-golf, Escape Room, Cocktail making

🚴 Cycle-to-work scheme

☕️ Fresh pour-over coffee made by our very own CEO, Tim

What’s the interview process like?

We take the candidate experience really seriously, so we’ve made the process as transparent as possible. We also promise to be super responsive, and will never leave you wondering where you stand for weeks on end.

Here’s how it works:

Stage 1: Intro call (45 mins):

You will have an initial call with MC to find out more about you and to tell you more about us.

Stage 2: Case interview (60 mins):

You'll work through a real-life scenario you might face to help us see how you think about people and culture. You’ll do this virtually with MC and Margs from our Biz Ops team.

Stage 3: Face-to-face interview (2 hours):

Two 60-minute interviews to learn more about how you work. This will also be a great opportunity for you to meet the rest of the team so we would love it if you can come into the office for it! Interviews will be structured as follows:

• Experience interview: We’ll deep dive into your CV and talk about your past experiences. This stage will be with Tim (our CEO) and Hels (our Head of Partnerships)
• Values interview: We want to learn more about how you work - we’ll ask you questions related to our principles ( Our DNA ). This stage will be with two people from our wider team.

We’ll also ask you to have an informal virtual coffee chat with Smitha during the process (if schedules allow!)

Stage 4: Offer :

If everyone’s happy, we’ll make you an offer to join us - YAY! 🎉 We hope to always give you a decision between each stage within 24 hours (where possible).

Other things to know:

• We love closing the feedback loop at Yonder. You can expect specific feedback on our decision from Stage 2 onwards, and you can always ask for more.
• We must complete the right to work & criminal background checks for every new Yonder-er for compliance purposes because we handle sensitive customer data.
• We also do reference checks, ideally with your most recent manager on the phone.
• We like to move quickly at Yonder, so we will be ready to onboard you once the above checks are complete - the entire process can take between 2 - 6 weeks.

🌈 We know that diverse teams build better products. If you’re from an under-represented community, we’d especially love to hear from you.

👉 Even if you don’t feel 100% qualified, please do apply anyway. Your attitude and desire to grow are just as important as your experience.