Head of People & Culture in Newport, Wales

Help build one of the UK's most exciting challenger brands!

Location: HQ is Bristol, BS30 6EE - primarily office based with some hybrid working flexibility

Salary: £60,000 - £75,000 depending on experience, plus performance-related bonus, private healthcare and EMI share options

Reports to: Helena Hills, Co-Founder & CEO (Will be part of management team)

About TrueStart Coffee

TrueStart Coffee is one of the UK's fastest-growing coffee brands. We make delicious, healthy coffee that makes people feel amazing! Our award-winning products are available in over 4,000 retail distribution points across the UK and enjoyed by customers across grocery, out of home, foodservice, wholesale and Ecommerce. We're a small team with big energy: passionate, purpose-driven and focused on building a positive, values-led business and highly ambitious category-leading brand. In 2026, TrueStart was ranked number 13 in the FEBE Growth 100, recognising the UK's fastest-growing founder-led businesses across all sectors.

The Opportunity

TrueStart is growing very quickly. Over the last 12 months, we doubled our team to 13 and have several new roles to post in the next few weeks. We’re looking for a Head of People & Culture to build and lead the people function as we scale, owning recruitment, people operations, performance and development, reward, organisational design and culture. This is a hands-on leadership role in a fast-growing, founder-led business backed by JamJar Investments. You’ll work closely with the founders and department heads to build the structures, rhythms and culture that allow a high-performing team to thrive without losing the energy and entrepreneurial spirit that makes TrueStart special. You’ll be equally comfortable designing next year’s org structure, improving how we develop our people, writing a policy, running a recruitment process or supporting a manager through a difficult conversation.

What You’ll Own

• Recruitment and team growth – own end-to-end recruitment across the business, from role definition and sourcing through to interviews, offers and hiring strategy, working closely with managers to build an exceptional team.
• Onboarding and employee experience – create a brilliant experience from day one, ensuring new joiners are embedded, productive and connected quickly within a fast-moving team.
• Performance and development – build and embed a practical performance framework including PDPs, clear role objectives, KPIs, regular review cycles, career development and manager support.
• People operations and policy – own our Employee Handbook and core HR policies and processes, keeping the business compliant, practical and audit-ready without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Employee relations – be a trusted advisor to founders and managers on employee relations, disciplinary and grievance processes and employment law risk, working with external advisors where needed.
• Reward and benefits – develop and maintain salary benchmarking, bonus and commission structures, benefits and the EMI share option scheme, ensuring they remain competitive, fair and clearly understood.
• Organisational design – work with the management team and department heads on reporting lines, role definition, team structures, workforce planning and how our management team operates as the business scales.
• Culture and engagement – be a visible champion of TrueStart’s values, using employee feedback, team experiences, wellbeing initiatives and regular social events to make TrueStart an exciting and rewarding place to work. You’ll also lead the annual Summer Gathering, team off-site & party.
• Flexible workforce – own contractor, seasonal and ambassador arrangements and ensure the right structures are in place as these teams grow.
• Management team leadership – play an active role within the management team, bringing a people and organisational perspective to commercial and operational decisions.

About You

You bring:

• A love of people and a proven track record of developing high performing teams in high growth environments.
• Experience leading or helping to build the people function within a small, high growth organisation, ideally branded FMCG or another entrepreneurial environment.
• A strong track record of recruiting great people and successfully scaling teams.
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law, HR compliance, employee relations and people operations.
• Experience building effective performance, development and reward frameworks.
• Confidence advising founders and senior leaders directly, including constructively challenging when needed.
• A genuine passion for developing people and building a fantastic team where individuals can thrive.
• Strong judgement, discretion and communication skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across a business.
• A strategic mindset combined with a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get things done.
• You’re a pragmatic generalist: happy thinking about organisational design one day and drafting an offer letter the next. You’re commercially minded, comfortable with ambiguity and good at bringing structure and rigour without adding bureaucracy a fast-paced scaling business doesn’t need.

To Apply

Please email your CV to , along with a short note explaining why this role and TrueStart are perfect for you. We're buzzing to hear from you!