Interim Head of People & Talent

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Our Role

This is a pivotal and high-impact leadership role at The White Company, responsible for owning and delivering the end-to-end People & Talent agenda across the business.

As a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will play a critical role in shaping organisational performance, driving the People agenda, and enabling business growth through best-in-class, commercially focused people practices.

Working in close partnership with the Chief People & Retail Officer and Head of Organisation Development & Culture, you will lead the development and execution of a holistic People Strategy, ensuring alignment across the full employee lifecycle. You will be accountable for Talent Acquisition, People Partnership and Pay & Reward, ensuring these functions operate with excellence, pace, and impact.

Acting as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, you will embed a strong people and commercial lens into business decision-making, while leading a high-performing People & Talent team to attract, retain and develop exceptional talent at all levels.

This role requires a balance of strategic leadership and hands-on delivery, with a strong focus on execution, transformation, and measurable business outcomes.

***To note - this is a maternity cover contract due to begin mid-August
What you'll be doing

Strategy & Leadership

• Partner with the CPO and Head of OD & Culture to shape and deliver the People Agenda, aligned to business priorities
• Act as a trusted advisor to the SLT, influencing commercial and business direction through a people lens
• Lead enterprise-wide people transformation and strategic initiatives, translating the People Agenda into clear, measurable plans
• Lead people analytics, defining and tracking key metrics to inform decision-making and drive performance

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop a high-performing People & Talent team across multiple disciplines
• Create a strong "one team" culture across People functions
• Build capability within the team to deliver both strategic and operational excellence
• Set clear expectations and drive accountability for performance and development

Organisation Design & Transformation

• Partner on organisational design to ensure structures enable performance and scalability, and ensure the organisation is structured and resourced to deliver business objectives
• Lead delivery of organisational change, including restructures and evolution of ways of working
• Continuously optimise operating models and team effectiveness

People Ownership & Commercial Accountability

• Own the people budget, ensuring effective and strategic investment across headcount, reward, and people initiatives
• Balance commercial performance with employee experience, driving engagement, productivity, and retention

Reward, Payroll & People Operations

• Oversee the pay & reward team, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and operational excellence
• Own the reward strategy, including salary benchmarking, renumeration committee, pay reviews, bonus frameworks, people budgeting process and benefits
• Own and govern the annual People calendar, ensuring effective planning and delivery of key cycles (e.g. pay review, performance, year-end processes) alongside clear and timely employee communications
• Ensure people operations processes are efficient, scalable, and deliver a seamless employee experience
• Continuously review and improve systems, processes, and ways of working

Talent, Succession & People Partnering

• Sponsor talent acquisition and succession planning to ensure future capability and leadership pipelines
• Lead the People Partnering function, supporting SLT and Op Board with high-impact insight and coaching
• Ensure consistent, high-quality people practices and a best-in-class employee lifecycle experience

Employee Relations & Governance

• Own and evolve the ER strategy, ensuring a fair, consistent, and legally compliant approach
• Act as escalation point for complex and senior-level ER cases
• Ensure policies and practices reflect best practice and support a positive employee experience

What we'll offer you

At The White Company, we value our employees for always going the extra mile for every one of our customers; we reward this with great benefits and competitive salaries.

• Discount -Up to 50% discount and access to Sample Sales
• Holiday - 25 days
• Holiday Buy - opportunity to buy up to 5 days holiday (dependent on contract)
• Pension Scheme - enrolled in our Group Personal Pension schemes upon joining the business.
• 30% Bonus - In addition to our competitive salaries, all our employees are entitled to join a discretionary bonus scheme (based on policy eligibility)
• White City House (Soho House Group)Tenants Membership at a discounted rate, offering access to facilities in the House
• Wagestream Money Management app - access to Wagestream gives you power over your pay and supports financial wellbeing
• Continued Development - We offer structured support from our own in-house Learning and Development Hub
• Salary Sacrifice scheme for Electric vehicles (dependent on grade and meeting policy eligibility)
• Private Healthcare with additional Babylon Digital Healthcare (based on contract duration)
• Life Assurance

Additional Benefits

• Fruit basket daily
• Tea and coffee provided
• Working from Home - option to work from home on Mondays and Fridays
• Social - Christmas party/social events throughout the year
• Seasonal Sample Sales
• Volunteer Day - with a charity of your choice
• Great Location - Close to transport links - over ground Shepherds Bush station /underground White City & Wood Lane stations. Westfield shopping centre with shops restaurants/bars/cinema and gyms

What skills & experience you'll need

• Significant experience in a senior People leadership role within a fast-paced, multi-channel business
• Proven ability to operate at Senior Leadership Team level and influence business strategy
• Strong commercial acumen, including experience managing budgets and workforce planning
• Expertise across the employee lifecycle
• Extensive OD experience
• Experience leading organisational change and transformation
• Strong leadership capability with a track record of building high-performing teams
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to translate insight into action
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills

Our Equality Diversity and Inclusion statement of commitment

At The White Company we are committed to creating an inclusive culture that welcomes and celebrates a diversity of backgrounds and identities.

We are working together to ensure our environment is one where people can bring their authentic selves to work, where their contribution is valued, ability enhanced, and perspective appreciated. Where difference is respected, encouraged, and celebrated. Where you can feel you belong.

We are committed to an active Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process.

We'd love you to join us on our journey.
Our Sustainability statement of commitment

We are committed to building a sustainable legacy that will enable a brighter future for people and our planet.' We believe this should be reflected in everything we do