Head of Talent

Ryft; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Ryft is seeking a Head of Talent to establish a scalable hiring system to support its growth in fintech. This senior role involves defining hiring strategies, executing senior hires, and ensuring each recruitment decision raises the bar. With 6-10+ years of experience in high-growth environments, the candidate will align hiring efforts with business goals and work closely with leadership. Join Ryft for a chance to shape its future and enhance its employer brand.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years in talent, recruiting or people roles within high-growth tech, fintech or regulated environments.
• Experience building hiring processes and systems, not just filling roles.
• Track record of hiring across technical, operational and regulated functions.

Responsibilities

• Partner with founders and leadership to define hiring plans aligned to company goals.
• Design and implement structured, repeatable hiring processes across all teams.
• Own critical and senior hires directly.

Skills

Talent strategy

Hiring processes

Data-driven decision making

Stakeholder management

Job description

Ryft is a regulated payment facilitator and authorised payment institution building the infrastructure layer for modern commerce platforms.

We enable marketplaces, SaaS platforms and multi-party ecosystems to embed and monetise payments natively. Our technology handles onboarding, compliance, orchestration, split payments and revenue sharing allowing our partners to focus on growth while we manage complexity.

The Role

We’re looking for a Head of Talent to build and own the hiring engine that will power Ryft’s next phase of growth.

This role exists to create a high-performance, scalable hiring system.

You will work directly with the founders, COO and leadership team to define how we hire, who we hire and when we hire. You will be responsible not just for filling roles, but for ensuring that every hire raises the bar.

This is not a transactional recruitment role. It is a senior position with ownership of talent strategy, hiring infrastructure and candidate quality across the business.

What You’ll Own

• Partner with founders and leadership to define hiring plans aligned to company goals
• Translate business strategy into clear, prioritised hiring roadmaps
• Challenge hiring decisions where needed to maintain quality and discipline
• Balance speed vs quality in a high-growth environment

2. Hiring Infrastructure

• Design and implement structured, repeatable hiring processes across all teams
• Introduce scorecards, interview frameworks and consistent evaluation standards
• Train hiring managers to interview effectively and make high-quality decisions
• Create a hiring system that scales with the business

3. End-to-End Hiring Execution

• Own critical and senior hires directly
• Build and manage top-of-funnel sourcing across engineering, operations, risk, compliance and commercial roles
• Reduce reliance on agencies while maintaining flexibility for specialist hires

4. Talent Funnel & Performance

• Own and track key hiring metrics including time to hire, conversion rates and quality of hire
• Build visibility into the hiring funnel across all roles
• Identify bottlenecks and continuously optimise performance
• Report on hiring progress at leadership level

5. Employer Brand

• Define and communicate Ryft’s value proposition to candidates
• Position the company effectively within fintech, payments and regulated environments
• Improve inbound candidate quality through brand, messaging and positioning
• Ensure consistency across all candidate touchpoints

6. Team Building

• Hire and develop internal recruiting capability over time
• Act as a player-coach initially, balancing execution with strategy
• Build a lean, high-performing talent function as the company scales

What “Great” Looks Like in 12 Months

• A structured, scalable hiring system is in place across all teams
• Hiring managers are trained, consistent and accountable
• Quality of hire is visibly high across engineering, operations and compliance
• Time to hire is predictable without compromising standards
• Reduced reliance on external agencies
• A strong, credible employer brand within relevant talent markets
• Hiring decisions are data-informed and aligned with company priorities

Who You Are

• 6–10+ years in talent, recruiting or people roles within high-growth tech, fintech or regulated environments
• Experience building hiring processes and systems, not just filling roles
• Track record of hiring across technical, operational and regulated functions
• Comfortable operating at both strategic and execution levels
• Confident working directly with founders and senior stakeholders
• Data-driven, structured and highly organised
• Strong judgement with the ability to push back and challenge when needed

Why Join

• Opportunity to build the hiring engine of a scaling fintech from the ground up
• Direct impact on company trajectory through talent quality
• High ownership and visibility across leadership
• Work closely with founders during a critical growth phase
• Shape how Ryft scales from Series B to the next stage