Head of People

The Focus Group Cape Town, South Africa 09 October 2025 Senior Full Time Cost to Company 8 years - 12 years Skills Human Resources Procedures People Development People Strategy Industries Financial Technology (Fintech) Job Description

The Head of People will lead and evolve the People function, with full ownership of people operations, strategic partnering, employee experience, and people planning. They will be responsible for scaling systems, policies, and programs that support growth while maintaining a strong, values-aligned culture.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Of?cer, this role will manage the People Business Partners and the People Operations Associate, and act as a trusted advisor to the executive team on all people-related matters. The ideal candidate will be equally comfortable operating at a strategic level and rolling up their sleeves to get things done.

Reporting line

Chief Operating Of?cer

Probation Period

6 months

Notice Period

6 months

Key responsibilities

Assume full responsibility for the strategic leadership and operational excellence of People function, including People Operations, Business Partnering, and Employee Experience.

Own and strengthen people operations foundation — including HR systems, onboarding, compliance, and payroll — with a focus on process improvement, data integrity, and scalable automation.

Develop and oversee people strategy, covering workforce planning, organisational design, internal mobility, and performance enablement.

De?ne and embed compensation, progression, and performance philosophy to ensure fairness, transparency, and motivation at scale

Act as a trusted advisor to the executive team — providing people-centric guidance, challenging assumptions when needed, and in?uencing leadership behaviour as company continues to scale.

Lead and develop the People team, providing feedback, support, and career growth for People Business Partners and the People Ops Associate.

Build and maintain people analytics infrastructure, including dashboards, reporting systems, and regular analysis across key metrics (e.g. headcount, attrition, engagement, employment equity).

Assume strategic oversight for of?ce and facilities operations, ensuring workplace experience is aligned with culture and operational needs.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent working experience in Human Resources, Organisational Psychology, Business, or related ?eld.

Minimum of 8 years' experience in progressive People leadership roles, with at least 3–4 years in a fast-scaling startup or growth-stage

Proven experience leading a People team, including direct line management of both operational and strategic HR functions.

Strong background in people operations infrastructure and systems, with hands-on experience improving work?ows and data accuracy.

Demonstrated success in designing and embedding people strategies across performance, development, compensation, and culture.

Comfort operating at both strategic and tactical levels — balancing long-term planning with day-to-day delivery.

Experience working with or in?uencing senior leadership teams and founders on high-stakes people decisions.

Strong values orientation and a leadership style that balances empathy, clarity, and

A track record of success in ?nancial technology or a related high-growth technology sector is advantageous.

What is the business need for opening this role? (new headcount /backfill)

New headcount – function evolution and leadership capacity

How does this role impact the business?

Drives strategic maturity and cohesion across the People

Supports the Executive team with performance, planning, and leadership

Stabilises operations and ensures people infrastructure scales with business

Builds internal trust and capability within the People team through coaching and structured oversight.

Who will this new hire report to?

COO

Who will this new hire work most closely with? Who will they work with cross-departmentally? Please name key individuals.

People Business Partners

People Ops Associate

Work Experience Manager

ExCo

What is the thinking behind the role reporting into the COO and not the CEO?

The COO is responsible for making sure all departments run efficiently — and people operations are foundational to that. The CEO is focused on big-picture strategy, external partnerships, investors, the COO is more hands-on with internal execution — which includes people management. The culture of our client is tightly linked to performance and execution, having People report to the COO emphasizes culture as a core operating system, not just a set of ideals. This signals that talent, engagement, and workforce planning are integral to the company's performance.

The CEO is very involved in the commercial engine (sales, client success, marketing) of the business (to the point where he sits in on customer calls daily). To this end, from a capacity perspective it also wouldn't be feasible for the Head of People to report to the CEO too.

The Team

There are currently two People Business Partners, two People Ops team members and one Work Experience/Office Manager in the People Team. Total headcount is 157.

What is the policy on hybrid/remote work?

We are a hybrid-first and remote friendly company. That said, the Head of People role will be based in Cape Town and ideally we'd like an in-office presence as much as possible (with flexibility being a key principle regarding how we operate).