Build a business. Shape a culture. Create a legacy for Wales.
This is a rare opportunity to join a newly established, purpose-led organisation at the very start of its journey and play a defining role in its future success.
Led by an inspiring and values-driven CEO with a genuine passion for people, culture and leadership, this organisation is being built with ambition, purpose and long-term impact at its core. Designed to be modern, agile and highly effective, the business will remain intentionally lean, bringing together a small team of exceptional people with a shared commitment to excellence.
As Director of People and a member of the Executive Team, you will have the unique opportunity to shape the culture, leadership capability and employee experience from the ground up. This is a standalone leadership role, offering genuine ownership and influence across the entire people agenda. There are no layers to navigate and no large HR team to manage; instead, you’ll work directly with leaders across the business to build an exceptional organisation from day one.
You will join an Executive team that values fresh thinking, challenge and innovation, helping to create an environment where talented people can do their very best work. Strategic in outlook but hands-on in approach, you will be equally comfortable contributing around the Executive table and rolling up your sleeves to deliver.
We are seeking an experienced HR generalist with exposure to FCA-regulated and/or financial services environments, strong commercial judgement and a passion for building high-performing cultures.
This opportunity could suit an established Director of People seeking a highly impactful lateral move, or an ambitious Head of People ready to take their first seat at the Executive table.
Based in Cardiff with hybrid working, the role offers a compelling opportunity for Welsh talent currently working elsewhere to return home and help build something truly significant.
For the right person, this is a chance to create lasting impact, shape an organisation from the very beginning and help build one of Wales’ most exciting new organisations.
Read onOur client is a leading PE-backed consumer services group operating at significant scale across the UK and Ireland. With a distributed workforce of over 16,000 colleagues across more than 1,000 locations, this is a role of genuine consequence, sitting on the Senior Leadership Team, reporting to the CPO, and acting as the strategic lead for all people operations across the region.
The function spans the full people operations and shared services remit: HR systems and data, employee relations, payroll, process transformation, contingent and supply workforce compliance, and programme delivery, led through a team of c.40. The agenda reflects the pace of the business: AI and digital transformation, accelerating M&A integration, and building an analytics capability that genuinely informs decisions rather than simply reports on them, all in service of delivering the best possible experience for every colleague, at the best commercial value for the organisation.
The role carries genuine statutory and governance weight. The successful candidate will hold ultimate accountability for employment law compliance across two jurisdictions, with responsibility for ensuring a complex ER caseload is managed with rigour and consistency at the appropriate level. Beyond this, the role demands strategic command of people governance and risk across the full employment lifecycle, setting the standards and frameworks that ensure the organisation meets its obligations to regulatory bodies and upholds the professional standards required of a workforce operating in a regulated environment.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a track record of success as a senior leader within a large, complex, consumer-led, multi-site organisation, ideally PE-backed or high-growth, where infrastructure was being built rather than inherited. Leading HR transformation and M&A integration, with the commercial acumen and executive presence to influence at the highest level and, critically, a proven ability to deploy AI in a people operations context; to have built the case, seen it land, and measured what it delivered. This is a role for a conceptual thinker who can also execute. Healthcare, retail, or FMCG backgrounds are particularly relevant.
Read onOur client is a privately owned, founder-led financial services business headquartered in London seeking to hire a HR leader to join their Senior Management Team. Having scaled to over 100 employees through organic growth and strategic acquisition — with significant further growth targeted — the business has reached an inflection point where people infrastructure, leadership capability, and organisational culture have become defining strategic priorities. The environment is entrepreneurial, commercially focused, and flat in structure, with a young and ambitious workforce and a leadership team deeply invested in building something of lasting quality.
Reporting directly to the Managing Director, this is a standalone senior generalist role with genuine strategic influence. This role offers the full HR Generalist agenda with priorities that include; reviewing HR policy and process infrastructure, increasing organisational capability and leadership development, embedding competency frameworks and performance management culture, and continuous review of compensation and benefits. The successful candidate will be both architect and builder — moving fluidly between shaping strategy and executing it, with full ownership of outcomes.
The ideal candidate will be a seasoned HR generalist from professional services, financial services, management consultancy or similar, with a track record across the full spectrum of HR — from Board-level advisory to hands-on policy, process, and people management. Resilience, credibility, and confidence navigating complex stakeholder relationships, including entrepreneurial founders, are essential. Experience in a regulated or acquisitive, scaling environment would be a distinct advantage. For an HR professional who combines strategic capability with a practical, delivery-focused mindset and thrives on genuine ownership, this is an exceptional opportunity.
Read on
I have worked with jo on a number of appointments into my team. Each time I have been provided with a strong list of potential candidates. Jo really understands the needs of the client and is someone I would recommend to others
Paul Thomas, Reward Director
