People Partner Lead

We’re looking for a People Partner Lead who thrives in scaling environments and knows how to help high-performing teams succeed. Reporting to the Head of People & Talent, this is an individual contributor role spanning strategic business partnering, employee relations, leadership development, and organisational effectiveness.

You’ll work closely with leaders across the business - coaching through challenges, strengthening manager capability, and helping teams stay effective as the organisation grows and evolves. This role suits someone who combines strong judgment with hands-on execution and is comfortable operating with pace, ambiguity, and autonomy.

You’ll join the People & Talent team - a mix of data-driven operators and empathetic problem solvers. You’ll partner closely with colleagues across People, including the People Operations Lead and People Product Specialist, to ensure our people practices are clear, consistent, and effective across the business.

What you'll do:

• Strategic Partnering: Partner with leaders to translate commercial priorities into practical people strategies that support growth and performance. Act as a trusted advisor to managers and leadership teams, bringing sound judgment and a pragmatic approach to decision-making. Support organisational design and scaling decisions, helping teams remain effective, agile, and aligned to evolving business needs. Navigate complex people challenges by balancing commercial priorities, employee experience, and risk. Coach and challenge leaders to strengthen accountability, decision-making, and team performance.
• Employee Relations: Lead complex employee relations matters end-to-end, acting as a senior escalation point for the business. Provide practical, commercially balanced guidance aligned with UK employment law and internal principles. Support managers through sensitive situations, building their confidence to handle people matters fairly and effectively. Coach leaders through difficult conversations, performance concerns, and workplace challenges with empathy and clarity. Identify recurring themes and use insight to strengthen manager capability, reduce risk, and improve employee experience.
• Leadership & Capability: Own and evolve manager and leadership development across the business, building approaches that scale with growth. Translate recurring challenges into clear frameworks, tools, and guidance that leaders genuinely use. Design and deliver practical learning initiatives across areas such as feedback, coaching, performance, and leadership effectiveness. Partner with leaders to identify capability gaps early and implement focused solutions that drive measurable improvement. Continuously refine development approaches based on business needs, feedback, and organisational priorities.
• Performance & Culture: Help shape and embed practical performance approaches that drive accountability, clarity, and development without unnecessary process. Partner with leaders on performance, engagement, retention, and team effectiveness challenges in real time. Use data and business insight to identify trends, inform decisions, and focus action where it will have the greatest impact. Act as a steward of company culture, ensuring values are reflected in leadership behaviours and day-to-day ways of working. Support leaders through periods of growth and change, helping teams stay aligned, motivated, and effective. Proactively identify organisational risks and emerging people challenges before they escalate.

What you'll bring:

• Significant experience in HR Business Partnering or People Partnering roles within high-growth or scaling environments.
• Deep employee relations expertise and strong working knowledge of UK employment law, with confidence handling complex and sensitive matters end-to-end.
• Proven experience building leadership capability through practical coaching, manager development, and learning initiatives.
• Strong judgment and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility and trust quickly with senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, creating clarity and structure as priorities evolve.
• A pragmatic, action-oriented approach with the ability to balance strategic thinking and hands-on delivery.
• High emotional intelligence, discretion, and sound decision-making in sensitive situations.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining pace and quality.

Our Hiring Journey:

We value your time as much as our own. We’ve designed a streamlined, 4-step process to get us from "Hello" to "Welcome to the team" as quickly as possible.

• Step 1: Intro chat with Talent Team - A high-energy intro to see if our missions align. We’ll chat about your journey, what makes ZOE tick, and make sure the basics (role, impact, and expectations) are a match.
• Step 2: Hiring Manager Interview - A tactical conversation focused on your craft. We skip the generic scripts and dive straight into how you solve problems, your past wins, and the specific challenges this role is here to tackle.
• Step 3: The Remote Loop - This is where we get into the details. Depending on the role and level, this stage consists of 2 to 4 focused interviews designed to assess different areas (e.g., technical skills, cross-team collaboration, or strategic thinking).
• Step 4: The Finish Line (Offer & Onboarding) - If there’s a match, we don’t hang around. We’ll extend an offer, talk through equity and benefits, and get you ready for your ZOE onboarding journey. Let’s change the world’s health together.

Ready to thrive? We want to hear from you. The experience, skills, and attributes we’ve outlined are what we believe will help someone truly thrive in this role. However, we understand that talent comes in many forms. If you are genuinely excited about ZOE's mission and this opportunity, please don't hesitate to apply—even if you don't meet every single requirement listed. We fundamentally value potential and commitment above all else. We are dedicated to fostering growth and providing opportunities for you to learn and develop alongside us.