People Operations Lead

Octopus Money; London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in financial advice is seeking a People Operations Lead to enhance team dynamics and ensure compliance with UK employment law. This role involves strategic planning and hands-on delivery across people operations, partnering, and growth initiatives. The ideal candidate will have extensive HR experience, a collaborative spirit, and a strong analytical mindset. Join us to help make money advice accessible to all while building a thriving workplace culture.

Benefits

Bonus

Benefits

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a generalist HR role.
• Strong knowledge of employee relations best practices.
• Solid understanding of UK employment law.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day delivery of people operations.
• Support managers with performance management and employee relations.
• Lead the people workstream for business acquisitions.

Skills

Problem solving

Analytical mindset

Collaboration

Education

CIPD qualified

Tools

HR systems

Data analysis tools

Job description

We’re looking for a People Operations Lead to help us build brilliant teams and a thriving culture as we scale.

This is a critical role in our People function, responsible for both strategic planning and hands-on delivery. You’ll work closely with managers across the business, acting as a trusted advisor and coach on all things people: from supporting tricky team dynamics to ensuring effective people processes, navigating employment law, and driving leadership capability.

You’ll also take the lead on people risk, by helping us to spot issues before they become problems, and play a key role in shaping and executing people plans when we acquire new businesses. When it comes to the operational nuts and bolts (like year-end reviews, policies, and process improvements), you’ll make sure we’re not just compliant, but also consistent, fair, and effective.

We’re a scale-up, so this is a hands-on, end-to-end role. The right person will bring a broad HR background, confidence navigating UK employment law, and the ability to move comfortably between high-level strategy and practical, everyday delivery.

About Octopus Money

At Octopus Money, we’re on a mission to make money advice accessible to all – because the right advice can turn your life dreams into reality.

The facts are alarming: half of Brits reach retirement age without enough money to live the life they want, financial stress is a leading cause of poor mental health and only 8% of us have access to 1-to-1 advice.

There’s plenty of information out there, but most of us just wish that someone we trust would tell us what to do with our money!

With Octopus, you get a personalised plan and a friendly expert to help you make it happen. We combine advisers, coaches and technology to understand your situation and recommend the right steps for your savings, investments, pensions and more. Then, we make it easy to invest in a custom portfolio, managed by experts.

We believe everyone deserves personal, 1-to-1 advice with their money.

Day to day you will work across 3 core pillars:

• People operations
• Oversee day-to-day delivery of people operations across the people lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, benefit and system administration, payroll, policy design, and people risk management.
• Improve and re-design the employee experience, identify opportunities for automation, and streamline workflows to enhance efficiency and the employee experience.
• Work with data to help us understand how we can continue to build phenomenal teams motivated to deliver our mission..
• Ensure compliance with UK employment law, maintaining strong governance and clear, accessible policies.
• People partnering
• Be a trusted advisor to managers and leaders: providing hands-on support and coaching through team challenges, change, and key people decisions.
• Support managers with performance management, employee relations, and sensitive or complex people issues.
• Own and continuously improve our bi-annual performance development cycle, ensuring it supports growth, feedback, and clarity.
• Growth
• Lead the people workstream for any business acquisitions including due diligence, cultural assessment, and people integration.
• Build scalable people plans to support business growth, ensuring we retain key talent, align teams to our mission, and maintain strong operational foundations.
• Collaborate with leadership to plan and manage organisational design, team structures, and headcount planning as we scale.

About You

A genuine desire to help people
You are motivated by our mission to make money advice accessible and understand the crucial role our internal team plays in achieving this.

Collaborative and a great team player
You thrive in a team environment and can build strong relationships across the business to achieve common goals.

Problem solver at heart with an analytical mindset
You enjoy tackling complex challenges and using data to identify solutions and drive improvements in people operations.

Goal-driven and not afraid to get stuck in
You have a bias for action and are willing to roll up your sleeves to get things done, especially in a fast-growing environment.

Sound technical and employment law knowledge
Familiarity with employment law and HR systems is essential. Experience with data manipulation and analysis tools is a big plus.

Knowledge Required

• 5+ years of experience in a generalist HR role with proven experience working across: people partnering, M&A/integration, and people operations
• Strong knowledge of employee relations best practices, including performance management, disciplinary procedures, and grievance handling
• Demonstrable experience in managing people-related aspects of organisational change
• Solid understanding of UK employment law and HR compliance requirements
• Experience in people due diligence and integration planning in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) would be an advantage
• Experience with HR systems and proficiency in using data to analyse people trends, inform decision-making, and create reports
• Some financial services knowledge, including FCA and other regulatory requirements such as SMCR is preferred

Nice to have (but not necessary)

• CIPD qualified or proven experience with employee relations
• Familiarity with project management methodologies

In return for your contribution we offer a salary of £65,000 - £80,000 + bonus + benefits