5783 Head Of People Maternity Cover jobs near me

Description

When people hear "maternity cover", they often assume they're stepping into a role that's simply keeping the seat warm.

This isn't about standing still.

At Sensat, we are continuing to evolve how we build our organisation, develop our leaders and enable our people.

We're looking for someone who can build on the strong foundations already in place, keep the momentum going, and help the business navigate the next stage with confidence.

You'll inherit a People function that's in a good place. The challenge isn't to start again. It's to build on what's already working, assess the gaps, support the business through a significant year of growth, and leave the function even stronger than you found it.

Over the next year, you'll support our business growth, partner with leaders across the business and continue developing the people practices that will help Sensat scale well, with a particular focus on strengthening manager capability, feedback and accountability across the organisation.

️ What you'll be doing

People at Sensat is a team of one.

You'll own the function end to end, partnering directly with Harry (our Co-Founder) and the leadership team on everything from organisational design and performance to culture, compensation and talent development.

One day you might be discussing team structure with leadership. The next you could be coaching a manager through a difficult conversation, building a hiring plan or preparing for the next performance cycle.

You'll be responsible for:

• Helping build capable managers and talent capability overall.
• Strengthening a culture of high performance, clear expectations, regular feedback and accountability across the business.
• Making thoughtful decisions around performance, compensation and organisational design.
• Ensuring our culture evolves as the business grows.
• Supporting our US expansion and helping the business navigate the People considerations that come with it.
• Partnering with leaders across the business to continue developing the people practices that will help Sensat scale well.
• Coaching managers through difficult conversations and supporting them to become more capable and effective leaders.
• Owning complex and sensitive People matters when they arise, using sound judgement to navigate difficult situations and advise leaders confidently.
• Supporting recruitment and building hiring plans as the organisation grows.
• Leading and preparing key People processes, including our performance cycles.
• Bringing the People perspective into leadership conversations, and being confident enough to use it.
• Knowing where the People function can have the greatest impact, prioritising effectively when multiple things need attention at once.

You might be the kind of person we’re looking for if...

You enjoy switching between strategy and execution and you're happiest in a broad, hands-on role where no two days look the same.

You like partnering with senior leaders and aren't afraid to challenge constructively. You believe good People work helps businesses perform better, not just run smoothly.

You enjoy bringing structure and clarity to growing organisations without creating unnecessary process.

You're comfortable operating in an environment where priorities can shift quickly, and you have the judgement to work out what needs attention now, what can wait and where your involvement will have the greatest impact.

This isn't a "write policies and organise socials" kind of People role. You'll be just as comfortable getting into the detail and doing the work as you are contributing to bigger organisational decisions.

Above all, we're looking for someone with sound judgement, commercial awareness and the ability to build trusted relationships across the business. You'll be approachable and human, but equally comfortable having the difficult conversation, holding the line or challenging someone when it's needed.

We're less interested in whether your previous title was exactly Head of People and more interested in the scope and level you've already been operating at.

You'll already have experience owning a broad People remit with significant autonomy, making difficult People decisions and independently partnering with senior leadership.

Whatever your previous title, you'll have already demonstrated the breadth, judgement and experience needed to lead a People function.

You'll likely have:

• Significant experience operating across a broad People remit, with clear examples of independently advising, influencing and challenging senior leaders.
• Experience in a technology startup or scale-up, so you understand the pace, ambiguity and trade-offs that come with growing businesses.
• Enjoyed being hands-on. This is a team of one, so you'll be just as comfortable coaching a manager as you are updating a policy, supporting recruitment or bringing new ideas to improve cross-team collaboration.
• A strong point of view on people topics, with the confidence to challenge, advise and influence senior stakeholders when it matters.
• Experience helping build a high-performance culture through better feedback, clearer expectations, manager capability and accountability.
• Experience navigating complex or sensitive People situations and being trusted to make sound decisions when there isn't always an obvious answer.
• A commercial lens on people decisions. You can think about headcount in terms of output and capacity, not just cost. You can connect hiring quality, team structure and manager effectiveness to what a 40-person company can actually build and deliver.
• The ability to frame People work in business terms. Whether you're making the case for a new hire, a structural change or an investment in manager development, you tie it back to productivity and growth, not just employee experience.

It would also be great if you've:

• Supported a US expansion or worked across UK and US employment practices, including hiring, compensation or partnering with EOR/PEO providers.
• Built or improved performance frameworks and can link these to compensation and career trajectory
• Partnered across multiple business functions, rather than supporting just one area of the organisation.
• Worked on organisational design, restructuring or leadership coaching during periods of growth.

This isn't a People role that sits on the sidelines.

As we grow, the challenge isn't simply hiring more people. It's helping the organisation scale well.

You'll be the person in the room bringing the People perspective, with the autonomy to make decisions, the confidence to challenge when it matters and direct access to the people shaping the business.

Because this isn't a placeholder role.

You'll join at a point where the business is evolving quickly, with genuine ownership, direct access to leadership and the opportunity to influence how Sensat grows over the next year.

You'll have a seat at the table, the autonomy to make an impact, and the chance to leave the People function stronger than you found it.

We’re building technology that helps infrastructure organisations make smarter decisions across some of the world’s most important projects.

We’ve proven where we create real value. Now, we’re focused on turning that success into a repeatable enterprise growth engine across the UK and US.

Sensat builds digital twin technology that's transforming how infrastructure projects are planned and delivered.

Behind that is a team of 40 people building technology that solves genuinely difficult problems.

As Sensat grows, how we build the organisation around that technology matters. This role will play a central part in developing our leaders, strengthening our high-performance culture and making thoughtful decisions around performance, compensation, organisational design and talent.

You'll join during a significant year of growth, with the opportunity to influence how we expand into the US, how our culture evolves and how we build the organisational capability needed for the next stage.

If you're looking for a role where you can genuinely influence how a growing company scales, we'd love to hear from you.

You don't need to tick every box to start a conversation. If this feels close to your experience and you're excited by the opportunity to shape the next chapter of Sensat's growth, we'd love to meet you.

Benefits

️Take a break using your 30 days of annual leave (in addition to bank holidays).

A flexible working environment.

Continue learning every day through your £500 personal development fund.

Regular social events! We’ve been to the theatre, racing around the tracks go-karting, had movie nights, watched the London Symphony Orchestra, line dancing lessons and murder mystery...

We’ve got your back, be it immediate access to mental health support through Spill.

We care about our people and want to make essential healthcare accessible and affordable. That’s why we have an Opt-in Corporate health and wellbeing cash plan (offering up to £1700 in cash back annually) provided through BHSF.

We want to enable you to do your best work without having to think about whether your tech will work, so we'll set you up with a MacBook, mouse & keyboard and £250 towards setting up your WFH environment.

Pension: with Penfold. Employer contribution of 3%, employee contribution set at 5% but can be increased (relief at source or salary sacrifice).

Access to the benefits of our Fora office membership, including access to their gyms and fitness classes, events and dog friendly office.

Other benefits including cycle to work scheme, season ticket loans, eye-care vouchers, payroll giving.

London | Hybrid | 2–3 days per week in our office

Start:September 2026

• 12 Month maternity cover contract

Reporting to:Harry, Founder

At this time, we are only able to accept applications from those who have a right to work in the United Kingdom. Our office is in Old Street, London.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need, and our recruitment processes are conducted in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

About Sensat

Sensat is a geospatial AI business that powers advanced and highly functional digital twins for the world's most critical infrastructure projects. We partner with the world's largest construction, engineering and critical infrastructure companies, including National Grid, Network Rail, Heathrow and Severn Trent Water. We enable our customers to fight the costly and high-risk "Status Quo" of siloed data, people and processes. Sensat builds an infrastructure intelligence platform that's transforming how projects are planned and delivered.

We are a high trust, high impact team, who offer purpose driven work. We operate with autonomy and flexibility in an agile, flat structure. We look for highly talented, adaptable and curious individuals who love solving meaningful problems and who share our resilient team spirit when facing challenges!

We more than doubled ARR in 2025 and are on track for another year of 100%+ ARR growth. We've built strong momentum with enterprise customers, secured further strategic investment from Mercia Ventures alongside existing investors including National Grid Partners, and are continuing to expand our presence in the US. It's an exciting time to join Sensat as we enter the next stage of our growth.