Head of People

Role Title: Head of People

Team: People & Culture
Manager: CEO & Co-founder
RACI Role: Responsible for day-to-day People operations, policies, and culture-building initiatives; Accountable for developing and executing the People roadmap in alignment with business goals; Consulted by Leadership Team on organisation design, hiring, and engagement; Informed stakeholders include all employees, managers, and external HR partners.
Delegation Readiness Level: Level 4 - Operates with autonomy on strategic and operational People decisions, with periodic CEO consultation on major priorities

Role Purpose

To build, scale, and nurture Phyron’s people practices during a pivotal stage of growth. This role combines the scrappy, roll-up-your-sleeves execution of an early-stage People generalist with the strategic thinking to lay the foundations for scale.

You’ll own everything across the employee lifecycle - from hiring and onboarding to performance, engagement, and leadership development - while helping shape the kind of culture that makes Phyron a company people love being part of.

Core Responsibilities

1. People Strategy & Execution

• Translate company objectives into a practical People roadmap that scales with the business.

• Partner with the CEO and Leadership Team to build structure, clarity, and alignment across teams.

• Introduce light, scalable frameworks for performance management, feedback, and growth conversations.

• Ensure our compensation, benefits, and recognition practices are fair, competitive, and sustainable.

2. Talent Acquisition & Onboarding

• Lead full-cycle hiring for all roles (with hiring managers) - from sourcing and screening to onboarding.

• Champion diversity and inclusion through equitable hiring and talent development practices.

• Create an exceptional onboarding experience that drives engagement from day one.

3. Culture, Engagement & Development

• Own employee engagement - listening, surveying, and acting on feedback to strengthen belonging and motivation.

• Run regular People touchpoints (e.g. pulse surveys, leadership check-ins, retros).

• Support managers in developing their teams, coaching them through real-world People challenges.

• Help build leadership capability across a growing, distributed team.

4. People Operations

• Manage all HR processes - contracts, HRIS (Hibob), payroll, benefits, compliance.

• Own People data, ensuring accuracy and reporting on key People metrics.

• Partner with Finance and Legal on people-related compliance and budget planning.

• Iterate and automate People processes wherever possible (because smart beats busy).

5. Partner to the Business

• Act as a trusted sounding board to the CEO and LT on organisational health and team dynamics.

• Be the connective tissue between teams - helping identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities for collaboration.

• Keep People aligned with the product and commercial reality of the business.

Skills & Experience Required

• 8+ years of experience in HR/People leadership roles within B2B SaaS or high-growth startups.

• Proven experience operating in a standalone or small People team environment.

• Strong generalist background covering the full employee lifecycle.

• Excellent grasp of People operations - HRIS, payroll, benefits, contracts.

• Comfortable building light but scalable frameworks in fast-moving settings.

• Deep empathy combined with commercial awareness - you care about both people and performance.

• Confident communicator with experience influencing founders and managers.

Behavioural & Leadership Competencies

• Resourceful & Hands-On: Gets things done with limited resources.

• Commercially Savvy: Understands how People decisions impact revenue, margin, and growth.

• Empathetic & Direct: Balances care with clarity; says what needs to be said kindly.

• Builder’s Mindset: Iterates fast, embraces imperfection, and scales what works.

• Collaborative: Works across functions with curiosity and influence.

What We Offer

• A chance to build something meaningful from the ground up - shaping the culture, structure, and systems that power Phyron’s next chapter.

• Direct access to a brilliant CEO and leadership team who value People as a strategic lever, not an admin function.

• Hybrid working from our London-based Waterloo office.

• A culture that’s ambitious, human, and grounded in trust.