Chief People Officer

Chief People Officer

Location: Manchester City Centre, hybrid working c. 2-3 days/week office-based

Package: Executive-level + benefits

Reports to: Chief Executive

Lead with purpose. Deliver with impact.

At The Growth Company (GC), we believe business should be a force for good. We exist to create jobs, build skills and strengthen communities. As an award-winning social enterprise, every pound of profit we make is reinvested to support inclusive, sustainable growth, enabling people and places to thrive. Our work spans helping businesses scale and innovate, supporting individuals to access new skills and meaningful work, and collaborating with partners to drive regeneration across the UK.

We are now seeking a Chief People Officer to join our Executive Team; a strategic, people-centred leader who can combine commercial pace with compassion, and governance with growth.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, the Chief People Officer will lead the full People, Organisational Development, Payroll and Health & Safety agenda, shaping and delivering a strategy that ensures every colleague feels valued, supported and able to perform at their best.

You will design and implement a forward-looking People & OD Strategy aligned to GC’s Corporate Plan, driving measurable improvement in culture, capability and performance. You’ll lead the development of leadership and succession pipelines, embedding a culture of learning, coaching and continuous improvement across the organisation. You will evolve our reward and recognition frameworks to ensure they are equitable, transparent and motivating, while fostering engagement and inclusion so that every voice is heard and every colleague can contribute to our shared success.

Working in close partnership with senior leaders, the CEO, Board and Committees, you will act as a trusted advisor; bringing pragmatic, evidence-based insight and challenge where it matters most. You’ll play a central role in strengthening collaboration across our leadership community, supporting the delivery of our mission through great people practices.

As a visible champion for diversity and belonging, you will ensure our approach reflects our values and the communities we serve. You’ll oversee Payroll and Health & Safety, ensuring excellence, compliance and assurance across all people operations, while leading and developing a capable, high-performing HR and OD team.

About You

You’re an experienced, forward-thinking HR leader with the credibility to operate at Board level and the curiosity to keep learning. You bring experience from both private and public (or not-for-profit) environments, able to balance commercial acumen with social purpose. You understand how to translate strategy into meaningful, measurable action, and how to make change stick.

You’ll have a proven record of delivering strategic people plans that improve culture, capability and performance. You’re confident in influencing across complex stakeholder landscapes and have depth in areas such as reward, talent, leadership development, and engagement. You’ve driven EDI outcomes that go beyond compliance to cultural transformation. Resilient, diplomatic and grounded, you lead with authenticity and bring both pace and empathy to your work.

CIPD-qualified (or equivalent), you combine intellectual rigour with warmth, integrity and a genuine belief in the power of people to drive change.

Why The Growth Company

Joining GC means being part of something bigger. You’ll be at the heart of an organisation that measures success not just in numbers, but in lives changed and futures built. You’ll be working with a senior team that values evidence-based decisions, collaboration and innovation, and that genuinely believes purpose and performance go hand in hand.

If you’re ready to shape the future of a people-first social enterprise, leading transformation that blends commercial strength with social impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now following the online process. Your application will be forwarded to our retained consultant Vanessa Jackson at We are Adam. All third-party applications will be forwarded to the consultant.

We are committed to increasing workforce diversity and offer a guaranteed interview to applicants who meet the essential criteria and either have a disability or are from a diverse ethnic community.

If this applies to you, you can request consideration under this scheme during the application process. Your request will be shared only with the Hiring Manager and Internal Recruitment Team.

We also aim to make our recruitment process inclusive and accessible. If you need reasonable adjustments or have any general enquiries at any stage or the recruitment process, please contact careers@growthco.uk or call us on 0161 237 4447.

Examples include:

• Meeting the hiring manager or touring the venue in advance
• Extra time for tasks
• Interview questions shared beforehand
• Accessibility software or equipment for assessments

We’re proud to support the Ban the Box campaign, which helps people with convictions access job opportunities. As part of this, we’ve removed questions about convictions from the initial application stage.

GC is committed to fostering a culture of flexibility and agile working. Many roles will increasingly support full agile arrangements. If you require more permanent flexibility, we encourage you to discuss this during your interview so your request can be considered early in the process.

All GC colleagues will work in line with the Health & Safety at work act and the GC Health & Safety Policy.