People & Culture Lead

Emerge Group; Auckland; On-site; NZD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Emerge Group is a fast-growing New Zealand fintech hiring a Senior People & Culture leader to shape the foundations as it scales. You will work closely with founders and managers to build practical people processes that support growth and performance.

You will lead culture initiatives, coach leaders, and contribute to workforce planning and capability development across the business. This is a senior, hands-on role with tangible impact on leadership and employee experience.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in People & Culture or HR leadership.
• Experience shaping P&C in startups or scale-ups.
• Strong business partnering and advisory skills.

Responsibilities

• Build scalable people processes from onboarding to performance.
• Partner with founders and managers to shape culture and leadership.
• Lead employee listening, engagement and leadership development.
• Support workforce planning and hiring priorities as the business scales.
• Coach managers on feedback, accountability and communication.

Skills

P&C leadership

Stakeholder management

Employee relations

Talent management

Job description

Shape the people, culture and leadership foundations for one of New Zealand’s most ambitious fintech scale-ups.

• Join a fast-growing fintech with real momentum
• Step into a newly created senior People & Culture role
• Shape the P&C function in a scaling business from the ground up

Emerge is a fast-growing New Zealand fintech reshaping what modern banking can look like. Built at the intersection of technology, product, engineering and regulated financial services, the business is creating smart, scalable financial products for people, families and businesses.

As Emerge moves from startup to scale-up, the team is ready to strengthen the people, leadership and culture foundations that will support its scale-up journey. This is a rare opportunity to step into a highly influential role where you can build something meaningful from the ground up.

About the role

As the first dedicated Senior People & Culture appointment, you will working closely with the founders and people managers to shape the systems, rhythms, culture and habits that will help Emerge scale well.

This is a senior, hands-on and genuinely influential role. You will contribute at leadership level, act as a trusted partner across the business, and also stay close enough to the detail to build, implement and improve practical people processes that make a real difference.

You will:

• Partner with the senior leadership team, founders and managers to build practical people, culture and leadership foundations.
• Lead culture, engagement and employee listening initiatives that keep the business connected as it grows.
• Coach and support managers around feedback, performance, communication and accountability.
• Design and embed simple, scalable people processes across onboarding, performance, employee relations and people operations.
• Support managers with hiring priorities, workforce planning and talent needs as the business continues to scale.

About you

You’ll bring senior (10+ years) generalist People & Culture experience and the confidence to work closely with founders, executives and managers.

Ideally you will have come from a startup, scale-up, technology business, agency, fintech or another fast-moving environment where you have had to balance pace, sound judgement and good people practice.

You are commercially minded, practical and credible. You know how to build people practices that are clear and useful, rather than overly corporate. You are comfortable moving between strategic conversations and hands-on delivery, and you bring warmth, judgement and backbone to sensitive people matters.

You will bring

• Experience building or improving people processes in a growing business either as a sole contributor or part of a small P&C team.
• Senior, 10+ years experience across people, culture, HR or people operations.
• Strong generalist capability across culture, engagement, leadership support, employee relations, recruitment, onboarding and performance.
• Sound understanding of New Zealand employment obligations.
• Confidence working with technical, product, engineering, finance or highly analytical teams would be helpful.
• Be the first senior People & Culture hire and shape the function from the ground up.
• Work closely with founders and senior leaders in a business where your voice will matter.
• Join a high-growth fintech doing ambitious, product-led work in a complex and exciting market.
• Make a visible impact on leadership capability, employee experience, culture and ways of working.
• Enjoy the pace, ownership and variety of scale-up life, without unnecessary corporate layers.

Whether you’re a startup, growing team or planning global domination, Emerge works to make your business finances more efficient at every stage of your journey.