Director of People Operations
About the Opportunity
Our client is a high-growth technology business with a strong market position and ambitious expansion plans. With a sizeable international workforce and a people-first culture, they are investing heavily in operational excellence, automation and AI-driven ways of working across the People function.
This is a senior leadership opportunity for an experienced People Operations professional who is passionate about using technology, automation and AI to transform employee experience and operational delivery.
The successful candidate will own the end-to-end People Operations function, lead core people systems and processes, and play a pivotal role in building a modern, scalable, AI-enabled People team.
The Role
Reporting into the senior People leadership team, the Director of People Operations will lead the operational backbone of the People function, ensuring efficient delivery across the employee lifecycle, people technology, compliance, reward administration and employee services.
This role combines strategic thinking with hands-on operational leadership and is ideally suited to someone who enjoys driving continuous improvement, leveraging AI tools, and building scalable people processes within a fast-paced, growing organisation.
Key Responsibilities
People Operations & Process Excellence
- Own the end-to-end employee lifecycle including onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, probation management, contracts and references.
- Design and continuously improve People Operations processes with automation and scalability at the forefront.
- Identify opportunities to remove manual administrative activities through AI-enabled solutions and workflow automation.
- Ensure compliance with all relevant regulatory and employment-related requirements.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date People policies, processes and documentation.
- Partner closely with Payroll and Finance teams to ensure effective controls and accurate data management.
People Systems & Technology
- Act as the operational owner of the HR technology landscape, including HRIS, performance management and wider People platforms.
- Drive system optimisation, automation, integrations and adoption across the People function.
- Develop and execute an operational roadmap for AI within People Operations.
- Ensure strong governance, compliance, data integrity and system controls.
- Manage relationships with external technology and service providers.
- Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to improve data quality and reporting across systems.
Employee Experience & Service Delivery
- Lead People Operations service delivery and employee support channels.
- Ensure timely, accurate and high-quality responses to employee and manager requests.
- Identify service delivery bottlenecks and implement improvements.
- Partner with key internal teams to deliver a seamless employee experience.
Reward & Benefits Administration
- Support payroll processes and cyclical compensation activities.
- Coordinate implementation of compensation and benefits changes across systems and documentation.
- Monitor benefits utilisation and market developments.
- Ensure organisational and compensation changes are accurately documented and maintained.
Leadership & Collaboration
- Lead, coach and develop junior members of the People Operations team.
- Build capability around the use of AI and automation tools.
- Partner closely with HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition and wider business stakeholders.
- Contribute to broader people initiatives, employee engagement programmes and strategic projects.
Candidate Profile
We are keen to speak with candidates who possess:
- Extensive People Operations experience, ideally gained in a scale-up, technology or high-growth environment.
- Demonstrable experience using AI and automation tools to improve people processes and operational effectiveness.
- Strong HRIS expertise, including workflow design, automation and systems optimisation.
- Experience operating within a regulated environment would be advantageous.
- Advanced Excel and/or Google Sheets capability.
- Strong understanding of UK employment law and People Operations best practice.
- Previous people management or coaching experience.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience improving and scaling people processes within a growing organisation.