The role in one sentence

Be the person managers call when the answer is not obvious: understand the business problem, use imperfect data intelligently, make a recommendation, and help turn it into action.

Why this role exists

We are looking for a sharp, hands-on People Partner who wants to work close to the business. The environment is entrepreneurial and pragmatic. Not every HR process is mature, not every decision comes with perfect data, and we are not looking for someone who needs a large HR infrastructure around them before they can add value. You will primarily partner WMC, our marketing agency, and will also support selected ACTUM teams outside the Delivery Hub. Your key stakeholders will be Partners and senior leaders. You will report to the Chief People Officer and work closely with an experienced HR Operations colleague.

What you will own

• Partner with senior managers on people decisions, team effectiveness, performance, retention, and employee relations.
• Challenge managers constructively. Bring options, trade-offs, and a recommendation rather than simply processing requests.
• Run end-to-end recruitment for your scope, approximately 30% of the role: clarify the real need, shape the profile, source and select candidates, and support the hiring decision.
• Support engagement and retention with practical actions based on business reality, employee feedback, and available data.
• Own the people side of onboarding and offboarding, working with HR Operations on smooth execution and using insights from both to improve the employee experience.
• Use HR and business data to identify issues and support decisions. The data may occasionally require some archaeology.
• Help managers create useful development and career plans, even when budgets and formal programmes are limited.
• Contribute to learning content and keep our training platform relevant, practical, and used.
• Support cross-team resource discussions where people, capability, and business priorities need to be balanced.
• Build simple mechanisms, templates, or processes when something is missing. We value useful over elaborate.

What this role is not

• A happiness-manager role focused on events and perks.
• An HR administration role. We already have strong operational support.
• A purely strategic HRBP role where implementation is delegated elsewhere.
• A job for someone who needs perfect benchmarks, complete performance data, or a finished process before forming a view.

What we are looking for

• Strong judgement and structured thinking. You can separate the real problem from the loudest request.
• Commercial curiosity. You want to understand revenue, utilisation, capability, staffing, and the economics behind a people decision.
• Enough HR breadth to handle manager partnering, recruitment, employee relations, engagement, and employee lifecycle topics confidently.
• Comfort with ambiguity and incomplete data. You know when more evidence is necessary and when waiting for perfect evidence would simply delay a decision.
• The confidence to challenge senior stakeholders without becoming theoretical or combative.
• A builder mindset: you are happy to create the first workable version and improve it rather than waiting for a global framework to arrive.
• Good analytical skills and confidence working with spreadsheets and data.
• Experience from a smaller, scaling, professional-services, agency, consulting, or similarly fast-moving environment is useful, but not mandatory.
• We are open on seniority. You may already be an HRBP / People Partner, or you may be an unusually strong HR generalist ready for a broader business-facing role.

Working model

This is a 0.5 FTE role. We are deliberately flexible about how the time is structured and are open to arrangements that fit the right person's circumstances. The role may suit someone combining several professional commitments, returning to work after a career break, or simply preferring a meaningful part-time role.

What success looks like after six months

Managers involve you early rather than after a problem has exploded. Your recommendations are trusted because they connect people and business logic. Recruitment in your scope moves with discipline. Recurring people problems have simple mechanisms around them. And the CPO has materially fewer operational business-partnering issues on her desk.