Interim VP of People (12 month contract)

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

About Cleo

Most people come to Cleo to do work that matters. Every day, we empower people to build a life beyond their next paycheck, building a beloved AI that enables you to forge your own path toward financial well-being.

Backed by some of the most well-known investors in tech, we’ve reached millions of people to support them throughout their financial lives, from their first paycheck to their first home and beyond. We're hitting headlines too. This year, Forbes named us as one of their Next Billion Dollar Startups, and we were crowned the 'Hottest Tech Scaleup' at the Europas.

Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.

The opportunity:

We are seeking a fixed-term VP of People to join Cleo for 12 months to lead and grow our People team to cover while our Head of People goes on maternity leave and while we hire for our next CPeO - overseeing Cleo's talent acquisition, people partnering, workplace experience and people ops teams with support from our CEO and Chief of Staff. Your team will soon be 20+ people strong across the U.K with room to grow more in the future. 

It’s a close-knit team with ambitions to build and grow a company making a positive impact on people’s lives and their relationship with their finances. To help them, we’re looking to you to continue to build on our culture - one that employees across not only in the UK, but globally will recognise as not just a great place to work, but as a place to come and make a difference.

This is the chance to join a unique startup and one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs at the early stages of its journey. Reporting to the CEO and founder, whoever comes to this role should be data-driven and have a keen eye for improvement, acting as both coach and consultant across the business to develop and promote a comprehensive People strategy. This is a huge opportunity to step up & scale up. We have exciting plans for the rest of the year and beyond.

What you’ll be working on:

The role

You’ll be based in the U.K - you must be able to travel to our London office at least 2-3 days a week, leading our Talent & People team.

You will: 

• Along with our People Leadership Team, continue to embed our people strategy and vision that supports a high-performance culture for now, whilst ensuring that Cleo is set up for scale in the future
• You’ll be working closely with our Head of Talent on our talent acquisition strategy and guiding them to deliver on our ambitious hiring strategy - from working on our employer brand to talent pipelining and hiring processes
• Leading talent management and development - productivity, engagement, reward & recognition and learning. Engagement is a high priority for us and this will be a focus area for you and our People Partners to ensure our high performers, in particular, are thriving at Cleo, and are empowered to do their best work.
• Overseeing the People Ops agenda, working closely with our People Ops Lead to ensure our leaders have all the people data they need to be effective leaders. You’ll work with the POps team to continuously iterate on our people processes, manage and optimise employee benefits programs, and ensure accurate and timely payroll processing.
• Lead a core team of People leaders, guiding and coaching them on their own journey, driving performance and holding them to account on their plans and objectives
• Drive the use of people centric data to identify areas for development and help drive future people plans
• Ensuring everyone in the organisation continues to love working for Cleo… like love, love
• Communication and change management - this is a very big part of the role, involving crafting and executing effective communication strategies to support organisational changes, fostering an environment of transparency and trust, and ensuring all stakeholders are informed and engaged throughout any transitions

Apply If

• You have experience leading a high-performing People & Talent team; ideally scaling a company from 200-500+ employees with some international experience at a VC-backed business
• You’ve successfully built and improved tech-focused employer brands and the last companies you worked at are known for attracting top talent. You’re passionate about growing teams and cultivating an inclusive culture where the best and brightest can thrive.
• Experience managing ER in the UK and internationally (ideally US)
• Resilience and best in class stakeholder management skills, you’ll be working with everyone on our leadership team so it’s essential that you can work very well with others
• Attention to detail and data literacy + analytical decision making - we’re looking for someone who not only has incredible EQ but also a very strong IQ
• Excellent emotional intelligence and empathy, this role is all about working with people so we expect you to be able build relationships with everyone in the business
• Excellent communication skills
• Truly passionate about the subject matter of People, the tech start-up landscape, and trends.

What do you get for all your hard work?

• A competitive compensation package with reviews every 8 months. You can view our public progression framework and salary bandings here: https://cleo-ai.progressionapp.com/ - This position is a BP6 level, we currently don't have public bandings at Executive level but we can discuss the salary level during the first call with our Talent team. 
• Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms like Sofina, Balderton & EQT Ventures.
• A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things, leading others, challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support.
• Flexibility: We treat you as humans first, employees second. Because we can’t fight for the world’s financial health, if we’re not healthy ourselves. This means all the usual perks but it also means flexibility. We take pride in being a flexible workplace that trusts our Cleople to deliver their best work, giving you the autonomy to structure your day around morning drop-offs to school or daily dog walks.
• Hybrid-first: Join our hybrid-first team, where we blend the best of both remote and in-office work. We expect our team members to be in our London office 1-2 times a week. On Wednesdays, we buy you lunch but you can come to the office on whichever days work best for you!
• Other benefits;
  • 25 days annual leave a year + public holidays
  • Check out our new benefits package here: https://web.meetcleo.com/blog/big-benefits-energy-the-latest-cleo-employee-benefits
  • 6% employer-matched pension in the UK
  • Company-wide performance reviews every 8 months e.g every 2 terms, in line with our termly cycles (Jan-April, May-Aug, Sept-Dec):
  • Private Medical Insurance via Vitality, dental cover, and life assurance
  • Enhanced parental leave
  • Regular socials and activities, online and in-person
  • We'll pay for your OpenAI subscription
  • Online mental health support via Spill
  • And many more!

Recruitment Process: 

• 30-minute video call with Florian Rose from the Talent Team 
• 45-minute video call with Tamara Marsden (Head of People Partnering)
• 45-minute video call with Gio Lotti (VP People) & Hugh (Chief of Staff)
• Interview task focused on employee engagement
• 60-minute interview to present your task to our VP People and VP Tech (Sam Taylor) 
• 45-minute video call or in-person meeting with our CEO and founder, Barney