Head of People Experience (FTC)

Role Info

12-month FTC

3-4 days per week

Role purpose

This role holds BrightLocal's people and culture agenda for a year while the Head of People Experience is on maternity leave. There is a plan already in motion and a team already doing good work. The job is to take both further, not to keep them ticking over.

You will own the things that make good work possible: people knowing what they are aiming at, being well managed, honest feedback about how they are doing, and working somewhere that makes the job easier rather than harder.

Two things sit at the centre of the year. The first is building high-performing teams. BrightLocal wants great performance to come from how the company works, not from individuals quietly carrying things, and this role is the one that makes that true. The second is leading the people side of change as AI agents become part of how our work gets done and uphold our people-first, AI-driven purpose.

That means helping leaders and managers rethink roles and teams around a mix of human and agent effort, giving managers the confidence to lead in that world, and being clear and unembarrassed about where human judgment has to stay human.

The role covers employees and contractors across the UK and Europe, reports to the Chief of Staff and Culture, and line manages the UK People Experience team. It suits someone who likes being both in the strategy and in the detail.

Owns the people and culture plan for the year, with high-performing teams and AI-driven change as the two headline priorities. Owns it end to end: the thinking, the doing and the results. Everything below sits underneath that.

Leading the change

• Change leadership. Leads the people side of change as AI agents are adopted across the business. Brings team members with them rather than leaving them to work it out, and is straight with people about what is changing and why.
• Organisational design. Owns the people input into how BrightLocal is structured. Works with leaders to redesign roles, teams, spans and reporting lines around a mix of human and agent contributions, and makes sure the shape of the organisation follows the work rather than the other way round.

Building high-performing teams

• The performance standard. Sets the standard for how performance is managed, then holds the business to it. Goal setting, personal development plans, regular 1-2-1s, feedback, team meetings and formal reviews, all done properly rather than just done.
• Manager capability. Accountable for the standard of line management across BrightLocal. Equips every manager to have the difficult conversation early rather than late, to develop their people deliberately, and to lead work that is now shared between people and agents.
• Skills for a changing world. Owns how BrightLocal builds the skills its people will need next, not just the ones they need today. Keeps learning and development honest about what is changing, so team members can see a future for themselves here as the work evolves.

Looking after people

• Engagement. Owns how it feels to work at BrightLocal and the evidence behind it. Runs the survey cycle, reads the result without flinching, and closes the feedback to action loop so people can see what changed because of what they said.
• Culture, wellbeing and inclusion. Looks after the things that make BrightLocal a great place to work: wellbeing, EDI, the social side of work, and the physical spaces people work in.
• Employee relations and compliance. Advises leaders and managers on employee relations across the UK and Europe, for employees and contractors alike. Accountable for keeping BrightLocal on the right side of the law in each country, and for people being treated with care while it happens. Both matter, and they are rarely in conflict.

Leading the People team

• Team leadership. Leads the People Experience team: supported, clear on their goals, and genuinely developing.
• A People team powered by AI. Puts AI to work inside the People function itself, so the team spends its time on judgement and on people rather than on admin. Sets the example the rest of the business is being asked to follow, and keeps a human decision-maker on anything that affects someone's job, pay or wellbeing.
• Advice people can act on: What this role tells leaders and managers is accurate, legal in the country it applies to, and useful in practice. Where a decision needs a paper trail, the paper trail is there and it stands up.
• Things land when they said they would: Performance cycles, employee relations cases, change programmes and agreed work all finish inside the timeframes set, and anything at risk of slipping gets flagged before it slips.
• The numbers move: Measurable improvement against the performance and engagement indicators.
• Change done well: Role and structure changes are delivered lawfully, on time, and with the people affected informed and supported the whole way through. How it felt matters as much as whether it happened.
• Good judgement, early: Risk gets spotted and raised early rather than explained afterwards. The line between agent-supported work and human-only work is held consistently. Decisions balance what the business needs with fair treatment of the people in it.
• Trusted across the business: Works well with the C-suite, the management team and the People Experience team, and gets on with the day to day without needing to be steered.

We’re looking for:

• Aligned with our beliefs. You live, breathe and champion them every day, in every interaction, and you set the standard for everyone else.
• A change leader. You bring people with you through uncertainty, and you are straight with them about what is changing and why.
• A deep love of organisational culture. You know how great cultures get built and how to develop them into working experiences people actually value.
• A true player-coach. You are comfortable working strategically and looking at the big picture, while also being hands-on and close to the detail.
• An excellent communicator. You engage and influence people at every level, in writing and in person, across cultures and locations.
• A global and local mindset. You hold one BrightLocal standard, and you are flexible about how each location gets there.
• Sound judgement and discretion. You handle confidential and sensitive matters properly, and you know which decisions should never be handed to a tool.
• A delivery focus. You are comfortable with ambiguity, creative about getting past it, and quick to move things forward.
• Accountability. You own outcomes and follow through without being chased.
• Big ambitions. You lead by example and energise the team to take big swings that move us forward faster.
• An inspiring leader and a supportive manager. You know what it takes to build a high-performing team, and you develop people through direct, constructive feedback rather than by hoping they get there.

• Senior People or Culture leadership. You have operated at senior level with accountability for the whole employee experience, not one slice of it.
• Breadth across the employee lifecycle, with depth where it counts. You know the full lifecycle, and you have real form in building strong cultures and developing talent into high performance.
• Change leadership. You have led change people did not ask for: restructures, role changes, new ways of working. You know the difference between announcing a change and landing one, and you have the consultation and communication experience to do the second.
• Organisational design. You have reshaped teams, roles, spans and reporting lines, not just advised on them.
• A considered view on AI at work. You understand how AI and agents are changing knowledge work, you have formed your own position on what that means for people, and you can hold that position with leaders who are moving fast. You do not need to have led an AI transformation. You do need to have thought about it properly.
• UK employment law you can actually apply. Live cases, without supervision. Knowing the limits of your own knowledge matters as much as knowing the law.
• Coaching leaders at every level. Including people more senior than you.
• Team leadership. You have led a team and developed the people in it.
• Multi-country people work. You have supported people in more than one country and you understand the practical difference between an employee and a contractor. You know when UK rules travel and when they do not.
• Scale-up or start-up experience. You are comfortable with the hands-on approach that comes with it.
• Evidence over instinct. BrightLocal is a data business and the People function is held to the same standard. You use data to understand what is happening and to show what changed.
• Working across distance. Much of the business is not in the room with you. You know how to build relationships

• Salary: Dependent on experience (pro-rata)
• Performance-based bonus: Up to 20% of base salary (10% company performance + 10% team performance) (pro-rata).
• Hybrid Working: 2 days a week in our Brighton office
• Holiday: 25 days holiday + bank holidays + your birthday off (pro-rata)
• Duvet days: 3 duvet days per year
• Healthcare: Vitality Healthcare
• Learning & Development: £1,000 annual personal learning budget
• Environment: A friendly, supportive team with a strong, people-first culture

Our commitment to inclusion

At BrightLocal, we believe the best ideas come from diverse perspectives.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to building a team where everyone feels welcome, supported, and able to do their best work. When people feel they belong, great things happen.

We strongly encourage applications from women and underrepresented groups in our industry. If this role excites you, but you don't meet every single requirement, we'd still love to hear from you. Research shows that some people are less likely to apply unless they meet 100% of the criteria. Your experience, perspective, and potential matter more than ticking every box.

We are open to flexible working arrangements and are happy to make reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. If you need anything to feel comfortable and confident applying, just let us know. We are here to help.