Head of People - (Remote, UK, Ireland, Canada)

This is a remote permanent employment role for people based in UK, Ireland or Canada 

About Nearform

At Nearform we build digital products that provide users with fantastic digital experiences and allow enterprises to go to market faster, improve customer experience, while transforming their workflows and advancing our clients’ digital agendas. With a recent significant investment into the business, Nearform is poised to scale its impact to more enterprises. 

Are you the right person to fuel this growth and add to a wonderfully collaborative culture?  

The Opportunity

We are seeking an exceptional Head of People to help us elevate our People Partnerships and Operations to the next level. Reporting to the Global People & Talent Director, you will lead a team of HR professionals, aligning and owning the People strategy with our ambitious growth trajectory. This role is pivotal in shaping Nearform’s people experience across our global team, focusing on delivering impactful services, building a world-class People & Talent Ops team, and ensuring scalable processes and policies that can grow with us. 

This role is perfect for a driven and strategic operator who thrives in fast-paced, high-growth environments. As part of a dynamic, supportive, and high-performing People & Talent Team, you’ll contribute to a collaborative, energetic, and fun work environment.

Key Responsibilities

• People Leadership: Lead and inspire a team of People professionals across multiple regions and timezones to support the business in delivering exceptional service to our clients and colleagues.
• People & Talent Operations: Oversee People & Talent Operations, ensuring a best-in-class employment lifecycle experience with scalable frameworks for processes, policies, and compliance.
• Shared Services: Building the capability of the Global People & Talent Ops Team as a shared service for all service delivery areas.
• Business Partnering: Develop our strategic business partnering capability, setting a clear vision and delivering HR services that align with business objectives.
• Change Leadership: Coach and influence stakeholders at all levels, guiding them through transformation and change while becoming a trusted advisor.
• Talent Collaboration: Work closely with Talent Leads to ensure seamless processes from recruitment to onboarding.
• Transformation Collaboration: Partner with the Head of People & Talent Transformation to transition change projects into business-as-usual operations.
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure robust governance and compliance across all HR activities, maintaining our high standards in external audits such as ISO certifications and any external due diligence.
• People Strategy: Use data and people metrics to inform strategic decisions and prioritize key deliverables, always aligning with the company's commercial goals. Owning OKRs and cultural initiatives through from ideation to execution.

Who You Are

• People Leadership: You lead by example with a growth mindset and hands-on approach, driving both individual and team success, alongside loyalty
• Proven Expertise: You have a strong track record of leading and managing People Teams (including Advisors and Partners) across multiple regions, particularly in tech or engineering environments.
• Operational Excellence: You bring extensive experience in leading People & Talent Operations, creating end-to-end services that are scalable, efficient, and aligned with best practices.
• Full Accountability: Full accountability for governance, compliance and strategic service delivery across Partnering and Operations - either as a no.1 in a c300 business or embedded leader within a 300-500 tech/engineering population
• Change Agent: You’re experienced in managing large-scale and fast growth HR change and have a strong track record in influencing and engaging stakeholders at all levels, from team members to Board-level executives.
• Business Model: Your background includes working in professional services or consulting companies, with a deep understanding of the commercial dynamics and people strategies that drive success in these industries.
• Global Perspective: You have experience scaling HR operations, setting up entities in new regions and countries, ensuring both local compliance and global consistency are met.

Commercial Experience: You’re comfortable working with Finance and other P&L stakeholders, aligning people strategy to growth and scale needs, alongside experience in preparing organisations for investment, buyers, acquisitions or IPO.Benefits 

Benefits

• Work remotely; we have a genuine dedication to work/life balance. 
• Work flexibly; we appreciate there are more important things in life than work so our flexible working culture allows you to work around what matters - school run, no problem!
• The Wellness Hub: We have a genuine commitment to fostering/improving NearFormers’ wellbeing; we offer resources and support, including a NearForm advice line which offers confidential support for anything from relationship issues to staying healthy.

Although we are widely dispersed, NearFormers are a tightly-knit team. We trust one another and care about our colleagues. We all get together in person at our annual company retreat, of course when we’re not faced with a global pandemic!