Interim VP of People (12 month contract)

TN United Kingdom; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative fintech startup is seeking a dynamic Interim VP of People to lead their People team for a 12-month contract. This role involves overseeing talent acquisition, workplace experience, and people operations while fostering a high-performance culture. You will play a pivotal role in shaping the company’s people strategy, ensuring it aligns with their ambitious growth plans. The ideal candidate will have experience scaling teams in a fast-paced environment and a passion for building inclusive workplace cultures. Join a forward-thinking company making a positive impact on financial well-being.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

Medical insurance

Pension

Parental leave

Mental health support

OpenAI subscription

Social events

Flexible work arrangements

Qualifications

• Experience leading high-performing People & Talent teams.
• Strong attention to detail and analytical decision-making skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the People team while the Head of People is on maternity leave.
• Implement talent acquisition strategies and manage employee engagement initiatives.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder Management

Data Literacy

Emotional Intelligence

Analytical Decision-Making

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Tools

HR Management Systems

Data Analytics Tools

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

Interim VP of People (12 month contract), London

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Client:

Cleo AI

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

3976d2f55e34

Job Views:

12

Posted:

29.04.2025

Expiry Date:

13.06.2025

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Job Description:

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

About Cleo

Most people come to Cleo to do work that matters. Every day, we empower people to build a life beyond their next paycheck, building a beloved AI that enables you to forge your own path toward financial well-being.

Backed by some of the most well-known investors in tech, we’ve reached millions of people to support them throughout their financial lives, from their first paycheck to their first home and beyond. We're hitting headlines too. This year, Forbes named us as one of their Next Billion Dollar Startups, and we were crowned the 'Hottest Tech Scaleup' at the Europas.

Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.

The opportunity:

We are seeking a fixed-term VP of People to join Cleo for 12 months to lead and grow our People team to cover while our Head of People goes on maternity leave and while we hire for our next CPeO - overseeing Cleo's talent acquisition, people partnering, workplace experience and people ops teams with support from our CEO and Chief of Staff. Your team will soon be 20+ people strong across the U.K with room to grow more in the future.

It’s a close-knit team with ambitions to build and grow a company making a positive impact on people’s lives and their relationship with their finances. To help them, we’re looking to you to continue to build on our culture - one that employees across not only in the UK, but globally will recognise as not just a great place to work, but as a place to come and make a difference.

This is the chance to join a unique startup and one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs at the early stages of its journey. Reporting to the CEO and founder, whoever comes to this role should be data-driven and have a keen eye for improvement, acting as both coach and consultant across the business to develop and promote a comprehensive People strategy. This is a huge opportunity to step up & scale up. We have exciting plans for the rest of the year and beyond.

What you’ll be working on:

You’ll be based in the U.K - you must be able to travel to our London office at least 2-3 days a week, leading our Talent & People team.

You will:

• Continue to embed our people strategy and vision that supports a high-performance culture for now, whilst ensuring that Cleo is set up for scale in the future, in collaboration with our People Leadership Team.
• Work closely with our Head of Talent on our talent acquisition strategy, guiding them to deliver on our ambitious hiring plans, including employer branding, talent pipelining, and hiring processes.
• Lead talent management and development initiatives—covering productivity, engagement, reward & recognition, and learning. Engagement is a high priority, and you'll focus on ensuring our high performers thrive and are empowered.
• Oversee the People Ops agenda, working with our People Ops Lead to ensure effective leadership data, process iteration, employee benefits, and payroll accuracy.
• Lead and coach a team of People leaders, driving performance and accountability.
• Utilize people-centric data to identify development areas and inform future strategies.
• Foster a positive work environment where everyone loves working at Cleo.
• Manage communication and change management strategies, promoting transparency and trust during organizational transitions.

Apply If

• You have experience leading a high-performing People & Talent team, ideally scaling a company from 200-500+ employees with some international experience at a VC-backed business.
• You’ve built and improved tech-focused employer brands and are passionate about attracting top talent and fostering an inclusive culture.
• You have experience managing ER in the UK and internationally (preferably US).
• You possess resilience, stakeholder management skills, and work well with leadership teams.
• You have strong attention to detail, data literacy, and analytical decision-making skills.
• You demonstrate excellent emotional intelligence and relationship-building skills.
• You are passionate about People, startups, and industry trends.

What do you get for all your hard work?

• A competitive compensation package with reviews every 8 months. Details available at https://cleo-ai.progressionapp.com/.
• Opportunity to work at one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs backed by top VC firms.
• Clear career progression plans and growth opportunities.
• Flexibility in work arrangements, including autonomy to manage your day.
• Hybrid work environment with in-office presence 1-2 days a week in London.
• Additional benefits: 25 days annual leave, public holidays, pension, medical insurance, parental leave, socials, OpenAI subscription, mental health support, and more.

Recruitment Process:

• Initial 30-minute video call with Florian Rose (Talent Team)
• 45-minute call with Tamara Marsden (Head of People Partnering)
• 45-minute call with Gio Lotti (VP People) & Hugh (Chief of Staff)
• Employee engagement-focused interview task
• Presentation of your task in a 1-hour interview with VP People and VP Tech
• Final 45-minute interview or in-person meeting with CEO and founder, Barney