People Performance Lead in London

At Beam, you get to do work that matters for the world. We’re solving the world's toughest social problems with an incredible team, tech and AI. And we’re growing fast. It’s not easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. Join a company at the forefront of social impact, driving first-of-its-kind positive change. 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.

We’ve already seen incredible growth from our Beam Notes product, helping frontline workers save over 8 hours of admin per week. From social workers and NHS clinicians to mental health practitioners and safeguarding specialists, nearly 100,000 frontline workers across the UK, US and Australia are now using Beam Notes regularly to deliver faster, more human-centred support.

About the role: This role sits at the heart of Beam's mission. We're looking for a strategic, commercially-minded, and builder-at-heart People Performance Partner to join our People team. You'll be the driving force behind creating the performance infrastructure Beam needs as we scale - designing the frameworks, processes and manager capability that don't yet exist in mature form, and acting as a trusted people partner to department heads across the business.

Partnering directly with the Associate Director of People and senior leaders across Sales, Engineering, CS and beyond, you'll ensure our managers are equipped to lead high-performing, accountable teams - and that the systems supporting them are built to scale as we grow. This is the perfect opportunity for someone who thrives on building from scratch, gets energised by commercial complexity, and sees AI as a natural part of how great People work gets done.

You’ll Be:

• Building performance frameworks from scratch: You will design the standards, processes, and tools that underpin how the company assesses, develops, and holds people accountable, working with the AD of People and department heads to agree on what good looks like and ensure consistency across teams.
• Owning the performance cycle: You will run Beam’s performance review process end-to-end: design, calibration, manager guidance, and outcomes. You will ensure reviews are evidence-based, ratings are consistent across teams, and the process produces decisions that hold up.
• Coaching and developing managers: When managers bring you live situations - underperformance, unclear expectations, feedback quality - your default is to build something reusable, not solve them directly. You will identify patterns across teams and address them by creating resources that sit in our tech stack and work without you in the room.
• Partnering across all business areas: You will build working relationships with department heads across the business - Sales, Engineering, CS, and others - well enough to understand what is happening commercially in each area and what it means for their people.
• Handling complex and formal ER: You will support with employee relations cases where performance or capability is a factor - formal improvement plans, capability processes, and serious disciplinary matters.
• Developing the L&D infrastructure: You will own the manager resource library and identify development needs through the performance cycle.
• Using AI to work at scale: This role is designed to have an outsized impact. You will use AI tools as a standard part of how you work: drafting frameworks, analysing feedback themes, producing manager guides, and turning repeatable tasks into automated ones.

You are:

• A natural relationship builder - quickly establishing trust and rapport with managers and senior leaders to become a credible, sought-after advisor.
• A builder at heart - you enjoy creating solutions to complex people challenges and reach for tooling and frameworks before you reach for a calendar invite.
• Commercially fluent - you understand the language of the business, speak in OKRs and metrics, and partner with department heads as a peer, not just a support function.
• Results-driven - you thrive working towards clear KPIs, such as improving manager effectiveness scores and reducing the time to resolve performance cases.
• Adaptive and resilient - you thrive in the fast-paced environment of a growing startup and remain optimistic when navigating complex human dynamics.
• A strong multi-tasker - incredibly organised and comfortable switching between coaching a manager, resolving an ER case, and analysing team data.

You’ll need:

• Deep experience as an HR business partner - with a track record of building relationships with commercial leaders and fluency in the language of OKRs and business goals.
• Demonstrable experience building or significantly improving performance frameworks - you know what good looks like and can build it from scratch.
• Experience in a high-performance, high-growth environment - ideally a Series B+ start-up or SaaS organisation.
• An instinct for scale - you build things that work without you in the room.
• Confidence advising and challenging senior stakeholders - you form a view and say it clearly, even when it's uncomfortable.
• Excellent communication skills across formats - whether you're writing a framework, presenting to leadership or guiding a manager through a difficult conversation.

Perks:

• Generous EMI-qualifying share options.
• Access to therapy, coaching, classes & content - powered by Oliva.
• Your own financial well-being coach, through Bippit.
• Generous Holiday - 25 days with 3 additional days over the Christmas period + bank holidays.
• Work remotely up to 6 weeks a year.
• Eligible for a 6-week sabbatical after 3 years in service.
• Nursery scheme through Gogeta.
• Healthcare cover through Benenden Health.
• Enhanced parental leave: Primary Caregiver leave 18 weeks and Secondary Caregiver leave 4 weeks.
• £200 WellBeam budget for activities enhancing wellbeing and professional development.
• Annual membership to Shoreditch Exchange gym (London office only).
• Pension scheme where we contribute 3% of your salary and you contribute 5%.
• Free subscription to the Calm meditation app.
• Discounted bike and accessories with Cyclescheme, and tech products with Techscheme.

About Beam: Our team of 200+ embraces a hybrid working approach, enjoying 2-3 days of vibrant collaboration in our beautiful Shoreditch co-working space, fully equipped with rooftop views, an onsite barista and kitted out gym. 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.