Chief people and culture officer

Hoxton Wealth is an international wealth management group serving expatriate and globally mobile clients. We manage approximately $4.5bn of client assets across nine jurisdictions, including the UK, UAE, US, Australia, Cyprus and Asia, through a team of over 400 people. Our service lines span financial planning, investment advice, tax and legal, run as one connected business rather than four separate providers sharing a logo. We are a technology-first firm, having built our own tools because the traditional wealth management stack was not designed for how modern clients live, and we have embraced AI across the organisation. Our ambition is $20bn under management by 2030.

What has driven that growth more than anything else is our culture: high energy, hard working, ambitious and genuinely collaborative. Protecting and scaling it as we grow is now one of the most important jobs in the business. This role exists to address this need.

The Role

This is an Executive Committee role with end-to-end ownership of the people agenda: culture, talent, leadership, performance, reward, the people side of M&A, workforce planning, employer brand, and people data and reporting. You will report into the Group COO and work directly with the CEO, Chief Talent and Growth Officer, Chief Revenue Officer and Group CFO.

It is a genuine build. We have a clear view of the outcome we want, but we are not prescribing how you get there. How you use technology, how you structure the frameworks, how you grow the team, what you build internally versus partner on externally, and how you communicate it to the business are yours to shape. What matters is that the end result is a people function high-performance people want to work in, that the business understands, that can be governed properly, and that scales.

You will not be starting from zero. We have a strong HR team who have done a great job, and this role is about building on that foundation, championing and developing them, and scaling the function alongside the business. The role can be based in London or Dubai. Travel is part of the job, because culture cannot be embedded remotely. Our major hubs today are the UK, the Middle East and Asia, with time also expected in the US and Australia.

Key Responsibilities

• Culture: Define, articulate and codify what has made Hoxton successful, so it is understood by everyone rather than carried informally by a few. Embed it consistently from Dubai to London to Sydney to New York, and close silos before they set.
• Career frameworks and progression: Build market-leading career maps and progression frameworks so every person knows where they are going and what is expected of them. Strong group-level structures with the flexibility to reflect local market reality, kept reviewed and maintained rather than left to drift.
• Leadership, performance and feedback: Build a genuine, continuous feedback culture, run 360 feedback for leaders and managers, and coach and equip managers to lead their teams brilliantly. Make sure high performers are recognised and rewarded, and underperformance is addressed directly and respectfully.
• Reward: Own the benchmarking, pay structures and pay philosophy that keep our best people top of market across multiple jurisdictions and currencies.
• M&A integration: Own the people side of acquisitions: retention of key people, cultural onboarding, and building the integration playbook with the deal team so acquired teams feel part of one Hoxton from day one.
• Building the function: Design what the people function needs to look like as we scale, build the investment case for it, and hire, develop and champion the team. Talent acquisition, onboarding, development, reward, employee relations and people data all run properly.
• Technology and AI: Use technology and AI to help us scale efficiently rather than adding headcount by default, and lead the workforce planning that flows from it: redesigning roles, reskilling people, and shaping where future hiring is genuinely needed.
• Employer brand and communication: Build and articulate the Hoxton employee proposition so the best talent in the market actively wants to join us and stay, working with our in-house marketing and creative teams.
• Workforce planning, data and reporting: Run strategic workforce planning with the Group CFO, CTGO and budget holders, and give the ExCo and our investors credible people data: retention, engagement, leadership bench strength, and progress against plan.
• International frameworks and partners: Take responsibility for compliance with local employment frameworks across every market we operate in, and own our relationships across recruitment, benchmarking, benefits, HR technology and training partners.

Person Specification

This is a senior appointment at a stage of growth where we are looking for someone who has done this before. It is not a first-time appointment.

• Depth of experience: A proven Chief People and Culture Officer, Chief People Officer or equivalent senior people leader, who has built and scaled a people function through rapid growth in a fast-growth, entrepreneurial environment.
• Proven track record: Accountability for the people agenda end to end: culture, talent, leadership, performance, reward, and building an organisation that scales globally.
• People side of M&A: Hands-on experience of acquiring businesses, integrating teams and retaining key people through change, across multiple geographies.
• International operating experience: Genuine comfort across different employment frameworks, compensation markets and cultural realities.
• Structure without bureaucracy: Able to build career maps, frameworks, performance management and pay benchmarking that stay coherent, easy to use and scalable, without creating process for its own sake.
• Execution and focus: The discipline to land a few things properly rather than start many. The best ideas are the ones that get executed and maintained.
• Communication: Able to carry a room, write clearly and have hard conversations well, across the ExCo, our people and their managers, and our investors.
• Presence: Comfortable on camera, at company events, and in front of the whole business.
• Technology and AI: Evidence of using technology and AI to modernise a people function and an organisation.
• Willingness to travel: Meaningful time in our offices and regions. This is not a desk-based role.
• Private equity backed experience: Familiarity with institutional investors and the expectations that come with them.
• Sector experience: Financial advice or wealth management exposure is helpful but not required. We are hiring a proven leader first and a sector specialist second.

Who fits here

We hire and retain people who embody three principles, and in this role you will not just live them, you will codify and protect them across every office, team and acquisition.

• Growth mindset: We expect people to get better, continuously.
• Hard working: High effort and high standards, with senior leaders leading by example. This is a build-and-compound firm.
• No ego: Direct, humble and team-first. Strong opinions are welcome, strong evidence is expected. Disagreement is fine, disrespect is not.

If you thrive on turning complexity into something people can understand and scale, there is a lot of room here to have real impact. Passionate about people and culture in a way that goes beyond the job title. A builder rather than a caretaker, who wants to make their own mark. Comfortable getting close to the detail and leading from the front. Positive and energising, and someone who lifts the people around them. Respected rather than feared. Commercial, and comfortable being measured on outcomes. Curious about what good looks like elsewhere, and happy to replicate something that works.

What's in it for you

A rare chance to join the Executive Committee of a high-growth, PE-backed global wealth management firm and own the people agenda end to end, at a stage with real momentum and real headroom. Competitive package reflecting the seniority of the role, in London or Dubai. Dubai includes visa support for you and your family, medical cover and end of service gratuity. Access to our management long-term incentive plan, with the opportunity to discuss buying into the business with equity. Performance bonus against clear KPIs set together and weighted properly. Support toward qualifications, programmes and coaching. We invest in our leaders the same way we expect them to invest in everyone else.