Senior People Partner

Beam; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Beam is seeking a Senior People Partner to maintain a high performance bar as we scale. You will lead complex employee relations, advise managers on tough decisions, and collaborate with external advisers where specialist input is needed.

You’ll shape performance practices, probation, and capability processes while building manager capability across the organisation. You will work hands-on, challenge managers when necessary, and align people decisions with commercial priorities and risk

Qualifications

• UK employment law knowledge
• Experience raising performance standards
• Sound judgement and commercial awareness
• Credibility with managers and leaders
• Experience in a scaling organisation
• Practical, hands-on approach
• Mindset for continuous improvement
• Confidence using AI tools

Responsibilities

• Own complex employee relations cases and investigations from start to resolution
• Advise managers on difficult decisions, ensuring fairness and proportionality
• Collaborate with external legal advisers when specialist input is required
• Escalate high-risk matters with the Associate Director of People
• Identify recurring issues and improve performance and ER processes
• Support managers with probation, feedback and formal capability processes
• Develop practical guidance, tools and resources for managers
• Work with the People team to simplify processes and scale efforts

Skills

Employee relations

Performance management

Risk assessment

Stakeholder management

Scaling organisations

Hands-on approach

Continuous improvement

AI fluency

Job description

At Beam, we’re building AI that serves society.

We're a global team of ambitious, hardworking problem solvers, applying fast-moving startup energy to work that makes the world a better place. If you want to apply your talent to the biggest problems society faces, Beam is the place for you.

You’ll be part of a high-performance culture where you'll make a huge impact, rapidly progress your career, and truly enjoy your work.

Over 120,000 frontline workers across 400+ customers already use Beam to take notes, provide live interpretation and handle phone calls, so they can focus on the people who need them most. This is just the beginning.

About the role

We're looking for a Senior People Partner to help Beam maintain a high bar for performance as we grow.

You’ll work closely with managers and leaders to set clear expectations, address underperformance early and navigate complex people matters with confidence. You’ll take ownership of employee relations across Beam, bringing sound judgement, strong employment law knowledge and a practical approach to resolving difficult situations.

This is a hands-on role with real responsibility. You’ll be comfortable leading complex investigations and employee processes independently, challenging managers when needed and making decisions that balance fairness, commercial priorities and risk.

You’ll also help us improve how we manage people as we scale, building manager capability, strengthening probation and performance practices, and finding simpler, more consistent ways of working.

What you'll do

Own complex employee relations and performance matters

• Lead complex employee relations cases, including investigations, grievances, disciplinaries, capability, absence and sensitive exits.

• Advise managers on difficult employee decisions, helping them act promptly, fairly and proportionately.

• Take ownership of cases from initial assessment through to resolution, working with external legal advisers where specialist advice is required.

• Exercise independent judgement on risk and escalation, involving the Associate Director of People on the most sensitive or high-risk matters.

• Identify recurring issues and use these insights to improve how we manage performance and employee relations.

Raise the standard of performance management

• Help managers set clear expectations, provide effective feedback and address underperformance early.

• Strengthen how we manage probation, ensuring managers make timely, evidence-based decisions.

• Support managers through informal performance interventions and formal capability processes.

• Embed consistent performance standards across teams, helping managers apply our levelling and progression frameworks.

• Help build a culture where strong performance is recognised and difficult conversations happen early.

Build confident, effective managers

• Act as a trusted adviser to managers and leaders on everyday people challenges.

• Coach managers through difficult conversations and decisions, building their confidence to handle similar situations independently.

• Challenge poor management practices constructively and help leaders take accountability for their teams.

• Develop practical guidance, tools and resources that make it easier for managers to manage people well.

• Work with the wider People team to identify and address recurring management challenges.

Improve how we work as we scale

• Support organisational changes, including restructures, consultations and changes to roles or responsibilities.

• Help implement improvements to People policies, processes and performance practices.

• Use insights from employee feedback, performance, attrition and employee relations to identify emerging issues and help managers take action.

• Work closely with People Operations and Systems to simplify processes, reduce manual work and improve the support available to managers.

• Contribute to People initiatives where your expertise and experience can have the greatest impact.

What you'll bring

• Strong employee relations expertise. You've independently managed complex grievances, disciplinaries, investigations, capability and absence cases, with excellent knowledge of UK employment law.

• Experience raising performance standards. You know how to help managers address underperformance, make difficult decisions and maintain high expectations.

• Sound judgement and commercial awareness. You can assess risk, make pragmatic recommendations and balance the needs of employees with those of the business.

• Credibility with managers and leaders. You're confident challenging senior stakeholders, giving clear advice and holding your ground when necessary.

• Experience in a scaling organisation. You're comfortable with ambiguity, changing priorities and building processes that are proportionate to the size of the business.

• A practical, hands-on approach. You're happy moving between complex casework, manager coaching and improving the underlying processes. You take ownership and follow through.

• A mindset for continuous improvement. You look for ways to simplify work, use data and technology effectively, and help managers become more self-sufficient.

• Confidence using AI. You use AI tools to improve the speed and quality of your work, while applying appropriate judgement and confidentiality safeguards.

Experience supporting employees across multiple countries, particularly the US or Australia, would be an advantage.

About Beam

We've picked up an armful of awards for our work, including one from our former Queen. We've also been named by WIRED as one of London's 10 hottest startups and by LinkedIn as a Top 15 UK Startup. Meanwhile, we've been covered in the media literally thousands of times, including the likes of The FT, BBC, TechCrunch, Forbes and The Guardian.

We’re also proud to be backed by some of the world's leading tech investors and entrepreneurs, including the founders of Booking.com, Calm, Shazam and Dropbox.

Start your journey to a more impactful career today. We're excited to hear from you.

Reasonable adjustments:

Beam is committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and supportive work environment for all employees. This policy extends to our hiring practices.

We recognise that some candidates may need additional support during their hiring process to give them the best chance of being a success. To ensure that all candidates have an equitable opportunity during their process, we are committed to providing reasonable adjustments where required.

If you require a reasonable adjustment to be made during your process, please let your Talent Partner know. We encourage you to share this information, but there is no obligation to do so.

Please be reassured that any reasonable adjustment requests will not be taken into account when making a decision about your candidacy.