Head of People

East Lancashire

£75,000 – £100,000 per Annum + Benefits

Cast UK are partnering with a high-growth, ventured-backed scale-up to find their next Head of People. This is a key leadership role within the organisation that will cover recruitment, People Ops and culture creation.

Key Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of hiring across the organisation- from building candidate pipelines and writing compelling job postings to managing structured interview processes, negotiating offers, and securing top talent in every department.
• Develop scalable, repeatable methods for finding candidates in hard-to-fill roles. Including researching the talent landscape, leveraging employee referrals, reaching out to passive candidates, and maintaining active talent pools ahead of urgent hiring needs.
• Ensure new employees ramp up quickly and effectively by designing and running a strong onboarding experience.
• Establish and maintain essential HR infrastructure- including onboarding/offboarding procedures, contract management, personnel records, payroll liaison, equity tracking, ATS/HRIS data integrity, regulatory compliance, and policy documentation.
• Support managers in retaining top talent, spotting future leaders, and resolving performance issues promptly and fairly.
• Embed a strong culture of accountability, urgency, honesty, and excellence into every hire and team interaction, with zero tolerance for low standards.
• Maintain close alignment with business growth, operational capacity, peak-demand periods, and temporary staffing needs to ensure staffing levels never constrain the business.
• Manage external partnerships with staffing agencies and recruitment vendors, including temporary/contract staffing providers.

About you

• You have built or managed key HR processes, including onboarding, offboarding, contracts, employee records, HRIS/ATS systems, payroll coordination, documentation, and compliance.
• Can evidence building your own candidate pipeline rather than relying solely on inbound applications or agencies, with hands-on experience in direct outreach and headhunting to secure top talent.
• Ability to support managers through performance conversations, identifying retention risks, and addressing underperformance early and constructively.
• You've helped build or maintain a high-performance culture where employees feel both challenged and supported.
• You're detail-oriented and able to put simple, effective systems in place that help the business scale without losing rigour.
• You're comfortable engaging with senior leadership, including offering constructive challenge where appropriate.
• Previous experience of working in a high-growth dynamic organisation would be advantageous.
• You have a solid understanding of UK employment law fundamentals, covering contracts, employee records, right-to-work checks, and compliance processes.

Are you looking to recruit a similar role?

Cast UK is a leading executive consultancy, providing national recruitment solutions to both clients and candidates. Specialising in, HR, Procurement, Buying, Supply Chain, and Logistics, each member of our specialist team has a professional background specific to their recruiting sector. With this unique insight and knowledge, our consultants can place individuals from trainee through to main board. For more information on Cast UK or to discuss how we can find talent for your business then please visit