Careers

Locations

London, GB, England, GB

Job Term

Full-Time

Company Website

Mission

Put simply, your mission will be to lead, develop and evolve a high-performance talent team that will meet and exceed our ambitious growth plans.

Great! But what are our growth plans...?

This year has seen us grow from a 12-person startup in Peckham to a 40-person, post-Series A scaleup with HQ at The Ministry, Borough. We've been busily establishing our 'foundations to scale' and have built the framework required to take us to the next level.

Over the next 12 months we will grow from 40 to 100 employees across multiple territories, and it is (y)our talent team that will get us there. About half of this growth will be in Product Engineering so this person must understand deeply the nuances of scaling both technical and non-technical teams, and understand the importance of never compromising on quality or values alignment.

We've put a tremendous amount of work into establishing and shaping our talent team and designing hiring processes across the business, so you would be assuming leadership of a well-oiled machine, with all the resource of a profitable, post-Series A scaleup.

This is an explicit succession opportunity and you should go into this with the goal of performing to the level where you will be fast-tracked to Head of Talent when our existing Head of Talent & Community transitions into a broader People role.

Talent @ hx

Once you've found your feet, you will eventually be gifted responsibility of managing the hx talent team. This is a gift because this is no ordinary talent team.

This is a team of true talent professionals who go above and beyond at every opportunity. We task ourselves with being the standard setters to each other and the wider business, and we forge partnerships with hiring teams and consult them on best hiring practices.

We are the guardians of hx culture and we challenge our colleagues if we are at risk of making a hire that could negatively impact this or fail to meet our quality of standards.

We have scrapped, we have dug deep and we've pushed the limits of what should be achievable by such a small team. In doing so, we've laid the foundations for hx to become one of the very best technology companies globally.

These foundations include:

  • Hiring our Head of Frontend, Head of Backend, Head of Excellence, VP Sales, VP Customer & Consultancy, Head of Ops and People Ops & Performance Lead
  • Tripling our engineering team and quadrupling our modelling team, while also scaling out sales, marketing & ops
  • Designing and rolling out V1 of the hx Hiring Playbook, with V2 in development
  • and we'll have a CFO, Head of Marketing & Head of Product landing soon...

As we move into our next phase of growth, we are realigning our team to be even more effective. Where we have so far operated as a team of generalists we will soon be formalising our team structure and splitting into the following disciplines:

  • Product Engineering
  • Revenue
  • Insurance

Reporting into Head of Talent & Community, the Deputy Head of Talent will ultimately be responsible for the successful management and delivery of this team against the hiring strategy that you will help to define.

 

Key Responsibilities

Leadership

  • Maintain impeccable standards - raise the bar in candidate experience, interview technique, hiring processes, sourcing and strength of candidate
  • Day to day running of the Talent team (leading of ceremonies, group sourcing sessions (lots of these are autonomous, but often require on-the-fly demos/training))
  • Ongoing team training (sourcing, briefings, candidate management, closing, quality reviews, stakeholder management, project planning)

Delivery & Reporting

  • Ensure that our hiring targets are consistently achieved
  • Regular syncs, reporting and consulting for and with stakeholders
  • Produce weekly and monthly hiring reports that capture progress and hiring data - with operational support from Talent Ops

Management

*you'll need these skills, but will have time to phase them in once you are rooted in/earned the respect/trust of the team

  • Personal development - you will be expected to level the team up!
  • Goal and objective setting - team and individual
  • Weekly team 1:1s
  • Quarterly, half yearly and annual performance reviews
  • Learning & Development within the team
  • Hiring more amazing Talent Partners & Technical Recruiters!

 

Initial deliverables

  • Learn the talent team's ways of working through our standups and ceremonies
  • Work with the Head of Talent & Community to design and roll out a best-in-class referral scheme
  • Meet with stakeholders and hiring teams across the business; learn their teams, understand their principles and discuss their futures
  • Host 1:1s with each talent team member to understand their journey so far - we are currently four, and growing quickly!
  • Assume responsibility for the day to day running of the talent team
  • Assist the Head of Talent & Community with the design of the hx Hiring Playbook V2 and take the lead in rolling it out across the business

 

Persona

If you're the right fit for this role, you will be able to show clear evidence that you:

Hold yourself and those around you to the highest standards - you don't settle for 'good enough', and you challenge others to expect higher standards of themselves even when it is easy to overlook

Are a leader - you are committed to driving a team forward when others might stop, and your determination energises your peers. You are the one who never loses sight of the objective and keeps the ship on course

Can balance intuition with data - hx is data-driven by nature and this role requires a deeply data-led approach with sophisticated and insightful reporting, but you will know how to balance this with your people-led approach and deep understanding of the challenges that come with a high-growth technology company

Are dependable - this is a pivotal role and you will be depended upon as much as (or more than) anyone in the business, so it is vital that everyone can count on you to deliver what you promise

 

Experience and skills

hx is far less interested in counting years over evidence of delivery, and our requirements reflect this.

To be a good fit for this role, you will have:

  • Successfully managed a talent team(s) in a high-growth startup/scaleup with responsibility for 1:1s, performance reviews and the personal development of your team
  • Several years' experience hiring for companies with the highest standards across all departments, and with employees who could work anywhere they choose
  • Created and implemented talent acquisition strategies across all roles and levels
  • Managed end-to-end recruitment lifecycles for roles of all levels
  • Experience growing talent teams and forecasting your team's hiring needs against those of the wider business
  • Deep knowledge of your markets and their trends, and a great network within the tech community
  • The ability to break down long-term hiring strategies into shorter-term projects and work with your team to successfully execute against these
  • A positive attitude! We are an immensely positive team - dare we say with a good sense of humour - so as a leader within this team you must also be! We usually finish our standups with a joke, riddle or fact, as chosen by the chairperson - so come armed...

 

Interview process

  • Initial phone call to see if we fit
  • 1:1 with Head of Talent & Community
  • Meet the talent team
  • Presentation to Head of Talent & Community and CTO
  • 1:1 with CEO

What do we offer?

  • Competitive salary + very staff-friendly EMI share options
  • £5,000 annual learning & development allowance
  • 33 days annual leave (inc. public holidays)
  • £250 gadget-for-the-office budget (on hiatus due to Covid)
  • Top-spec equipment (laptop, wireless keyboards, screens, etc)
  • Huge opportunity for personal development and mastery as we grow together
  • Regular remote hackathons, lunch & learns, socials and games nights
  • Team breakfasts and lunches, snacks, drinks fridge, fun office @ The Ministry
  • Annual team trip somewhere warm (sadly on hold due to COVID19)
  • Monthly talent team night out!
Apply now