Head of People Operations

Horsham (3 days per week onsite)

Part-Time or Full-Time Hours

Fixed Term: 15 months

Salary: Up to £60,000

Are you an experienced People Operations leader ready to step into a high‑impact role where you'll shape, optimise, and elevate HR service delivery?

LHH is supporting a highly respected professional services organisation in their search for a Head of People Operations to provide maternity cover. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a well-established People Operations function during a period of continued growth and transformation.

The Opportunity

In this role, you will take ownership of the end‑to‑end People Operations remit, ensuring the delivery of efficient, compliant and employee‑centred HR services across the full employee lifecycle. You'll lead on HR systems optimisation, people data integrity, process design, policy development, reward operations, and the leadership of a high-performing operations team.

This is a hands-on leadership role ideal for someone who loves improving systems, solving operational problems, and enabling a seamless employee experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, refine and continuously improve People Operations strategy and processes
• Oversee the HRIS, ensuring robust governance, accurate data and effective workflows
• Provide expert oversight of onboarding, offboarding, benefits, absences, payroll administration, compliance and other core People processes
• Lead on annual People cycles including salary reviews, reward changes, benefit renewals, audits and statutory reporting
• Ensure compliance across employment law, GDPR and internal governance
• Produce, analyse and interpret people metrics to support data‑driven decision making
• Own and maintain policies, procedures and process documentation
• Act as an escalation point for operational queries and coach managers on policy and process
• Manage key external HR partners, suppliers and systems providers
• Champion change initiatives across systems, processes and people practices
• Provide leadership, support and development to the People Operations team

What You'll Bring

• CIPD‑qualified People professional with proven senior-level HR operations experience
• Strong stakeholder management with the ability to influence confidently
• Excellent problem‑solving ability and a pragmatic, solutions‑focused mindset
• Demonstrable project management skills, comfortable leading complex initiatives
• Experience coaching and developing others
• High attention to detail and strong analytical capability
• Highly IT literate with advanced Excel skills
• Proven ability to manage people risk and maintain robust compliance standards

Please apply now as interviews will be taking place in the next few weeks.