People Business Partner

Hippo; Leeds; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contributory Pension Scheme (Hippo 6%)

25 Days Holiday plus UK Public Holiday

Perkbox access

Private health cover

Life assurance and death in service

Cycle-to-work scheme

Season ticket loans

Wellbeing sessions

Job summary

Hippo, headquartered in Leeds, is seeking a People Business Partner to join our growing People function. You will partner with senior leaders to translate business strategy into practical people plans, balancing strategic judgment withhands-on coaching and risk management.

Using AI-powered analytics and targeted culture initiatives, you will drive engagement, enablement and retention while leading complex, high-risk casework.

Qualifications

• Fully CIPD-qualified HR professional with a strong track record operating at a senior level in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Extensive generalist HR experience with influencing and stakeholder-management across the employee lifecycle.
• Highly data-literate with experience using AI-driven analytics to inform executive decisions.
• Proven track record of introducing tech-enabled processes and workflows in HR operations.
• Experience coaching senior leaders and collaborating across functions.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted coach and strategic advisor to senior managers on complex people issues.
• Shape culture strategies using engagement analytics to drive measurable impact.
• Design and drive strategic capability frameworks including leadership development programs.
• Lead data-driven decision-making with AI-powered analytics to surface trends.
• Build strategic partnerships with senior leadership to enable business outcomes.
• Support day-to-day management and development of People team members.

Skills

Senior stakeholder management

Leadership

Data-driven

Coaching executives

Strategic thinking

Education

CIPD qualification

Tools

AI analytics tools

Job description

About The Role

Hippo is seeking a People Business Partner to join our Hippo Herd. This role sits within an expanding People function that plays a pivotal part in supporting our existing Hippos during a period of exciting growth.

This role covers a broad strategic and operational scope across the business. How that splits day-to-day by business unit, strategic pillar, or initiative will be agreed and will evolve alongside the team and business needs. This description sets out the broad scope of the role rather than a fixed set of individual responsibilities.

Our People function is going through its own transformation and AI and automation sit right at the centre of it. We're building a People function where technology handles the repetitive, transactional work so our People Business Partners can focus their time and expertise on culture, coaching, complex problem-solving and the moments that need a human touch. This role is for someone who is excited by that shift, someone who wants to actively use AI tools and automated workflows to work smarter, generate sharper insight, and free up capacity for higher-value people work.

You'll support the ongoing development of a progressive and positive culture, with the overall goal of increasing levels of engagement, enablement, and retention, through the delivery of a high-quality, responsive and increasingly automated people partnering model.

What You’ll Do

Across all of these areas, ownership at business partner level is about strategic judgement, mentoring advisors, and managing complex, high-risk casework with autonomy.

• Employee Relations & Manager Support: Act as a trusted coach and strategic advisor to senior managers and leaders on complex or sensitive people issues, high-level performance management, and organisational change. Build management capability at scale and personally lead complex casework requiring high-level risk assessment.
• Culture, Engagement & Wellbeing: Interrogate deep engagement analytics to shape targeted culture strategies; provide executive-level coaching that ensures wellbeing initiatives drive measurable organisational impact.
• Development & Capability Building: Design and drive strategic capability frameworks including leadership 360 processes, executive psychometrics and targeted mentoring programs to level up management performance across departments.
• Data & Insights: Lead data-driven decision-making across assigned business areas leveraging AI-powered analytics and predictive reporting to surface trends, inform senior stakeholders and continuously optimise service delivery.
• Business Partnering: Build strong strategic partnerships with senior leadership teams, deeply understanding their business strategies and ensuring People plans directly enable business outcomes.
• Team Leadership: Share responsibility for the day-to-day management, coaching, and professional development of People team members, driving an operational culture of continuous improvement and rapid technology adoption.

About the Candidate

This role is about enabling others rather than doing everything yourself. You will take the time to thoroughly diagnose a problem before jumping to a solution, remaining comfortable making timely strategic calls with incomplete information while being explicit about your assumptions. You will be transparent about trade-offs and actively invite challenge to your own thinking.

You will take full ownership for the outcomes of your own work and the team members you direct. You will plan and manage complex workloads and interdependencies, protecting your team’s focus from unnecessary work and interruption. You will provide clear strategic direction and address difficult conversations or performance friction early. When things change or go wrong, you will adapt and recover quickly, leveraging those experiences as actionable drivers of systemic change.

What Skills & Experience You Need

• Professional HR Experience: Fully CIPD-qualified HR professional with a strong track record operating at a senior level in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Deep Generalist Expertise: Extensive generalist experience with proven influencing and stakeholder-management skills across the entire employee lifecycle.
• Advanced Data & Tech Skills: Highly data-literate, with proven experience using AI-driven analytics tools to translate complex workforce data into compelling executive recommendations.
• Change Champion: Track record of challenging traditional HR operations to introduce streamlined, technology-enabled processes and workflows.
• Coaching & Collaboration: Significant experience coaching senior leaders, alongside a highly collaborative working style suited to shared accountabilities and team mentorship.

About The Company

Alongside working with some of the most talented people out there and on-top of a competitive salary, which we’re transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory Pension Scheme (Hippo 6% & Employee 2%)
• 25 Days Holiday plus UK Public Holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of:
• Private health cover
• Private dental cover
• Additional company pension contributions
• Additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
• Wellbeing contribution
• Charity contributions
• Tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, we’re Hippo

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We're a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society.

Have a look through our Website at Our Story & Purpose, Our Culture & Values, Case Studies and Our Solutions & Services to find out some more!

Hippo Locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on-site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel and working on one of those sites at least 2 days per week. We offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8,000 (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.