Head Of People

About us

Seccl is the Octopus-owned embedded investment platform that’s helping more people to invest – and invest well. 

Our sector is being held back by old tech, dismal processes and misaligned interests. Together they create pointless complexity for financial planning and investment professionals, and provide outdated, overpriced experiences for customers. We’re on a mission to fix it. 

We help forward-thinking financial planners, wealth managers and investment platforms to reimagine their business and client experience – empowering them to build better, more sustainable and more valuable operations, and meet the digital demands of the future, not the baseline expectations of the past. 

And we do it by reimagining their technology – with a low-cost, hyper-efficient and (genuinely) API-first technology infrastructure that handles millions of requests every day, and powers the portfolios of more than 160,000 investors. 

A regulated custodian and ISA/SIPP provider, we combine the disruptive mindset and ambitious mission to shake things up, with the commitment and substance to not screw them up. 

We’ve doubled the size of our business over the last six months and expect to do that a few more times over the next few years. 

We’re proud to be part of Octopus, the £12.8 billion group that's on a mission to breathe new life into broken industries, through companies like Octopus Energy, Octopus Investments and Octopus Money. 

TLDR 

We’re a business with insane product-market fit, impressive early traction and an offering that has the potential to transform an outdated industry for the better.

The role

This newly created role is a fantastic opportunity to build and scale our people proposition. As the head of people at Seccl, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and maintaining our culture, fostering market-leading people engagement and driving talent management initiatives. You will be responsible for developing and implementing people and ways of working strategies that align with our business objectives and support our rapid growth trajectory.

Reporting to the chief operating officer and with a dotted line to our portfolio chief people officer, your detailed objectives will change as we grow, but your high-level accountabilities will be:

Develop and deliver people strategy and plans:

• Execute and continue to evolve our people strategy aligned with Seccl's long-term goals and operating principles.

• Collaborate with senior leadership to drive organisational development initiatives in line with the outcomes we expect from our leaders.

• Provide guidance and support to executives and senior leaders on people-related matters – ensure alignment with overall company objectives.

Talent acquisition and retention:

• Design and oversee brilliant end-to-end recruitment processes to help us attract the best talent and ensure we’ve got the right people in the right roles at the right time.

• Work with our leaders and teams to design structures that drive the delivery of our business plan while achieving the right blend between internal progression opportunities and external hires whilst managing our people cost base to budget.

• Develop and lead employer branding strategies to position Seccl as an employer of choice.

• Implement retention strategies to foster market-leading people engagement and minimise turnover.

• Work with our content and communications team to ensure our internal communications, all company meetings and offsites are culturally aligned and impactful. You’ll be comfortable to playback (and respond to questions on) the people strategy and progress at all company meetings and events.

Performance management and development:

• Design and implement performance management frameworks to drive team productivity and development – this includes role profiles, career pathways and relevant tools to support performance conversations.

• Ensure alignment on goals and objectives for individual and team performance.

• Provide coaching and mentorship to people leaders to support their leadership and performance development skills.

People partnering and advice:

• Develop and execute people plans aligned to our people strategy and business plan. Act as a strategic partner providing advice, guidance, and support to people leaders on the entire people lifecycle at Seccl.

• Serve as a trusted adviser and mediator for people relations issues, ensuring fair and consistent resolution.

• Ensure Seccl's compliance with relevant employment legislation.

• Foster a positive and inclusive work environment by designing and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Learning and development:

• Develop and embed our learning and development strategy including alignment to regulatory requirements and future skills requirement.

• Identify training and development needs across the organisation and design tailored learning programmes. This includes onboarding and our regulatory programme as well as personal development programmes.

• Partner with external vendors and internal stakeholders to deliver high-quality and impactful training initiatives.

• Monitor the effectiveness of training programmes and make continuous improvements based on feedback and outcomes.

People systems and data:

• Design and implement efficient people processes, policies and systems to streamline workflows and enhance people experience.

• Analyse people metrics and data to inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement.

• Ensure we have robust processes in place for managing any people related regulatory change, specifically around the senior manager certification regime.

Reward and benefits:

• Develop and implement our reward framework – ensuring our approach is market relevant and supports attraction and retention of key roles. This includes salary benchmarking, salary review process, payroll and benefits management.

• In collaboration with our Remco, design and implement short- and long-term incentives such as bonus schemes and equity implementation.

Manage hybrid workplace operations:

• Oversee the building management in all locations and health and safety.

• Ensure our physical working environment reflects our culture and ways of working.

• Lead embedding of our hybrid playbook and location strategy.

This role isn’t for you if:

• You rely on a lot of top-down direction.Here, you’ll have a lot of freedom and ownership of your role, and you’ll be expected to shape your own progression

• You’re not comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. Our speed and scalability is what set us apart; you need to be able to act quickly and think on your feet

• You struggle to follow through on your ideas. We value people who do what they say they will. If you care about something, you have the freedom here to make it happen

• You don’t like change. You’ll get on great here if you relish the ambiguity of rapid growth and are willing to embrace uncertainty

Our culture

We are proud to cultivate a culture first, human environment and genuinely listen to our people about what matters to them most. As a result, we’re proud we’ve cultivated a transparent and inclusive environment that encourages diversity of thought, challenge and experimentation.

Our purpose is supported by a series of non-negotiable operating principles that define how we work to deliver value for each other and for our clients:  

Never settle 

We think of ourselves as ‘embedded hero-makers’ for our customers. We put them first, and if we say we’ll do something, we’ll move heaven earth to do it. We think boldly and embrace change.  

 

Take ownership 

We think rigorously and deeply about a problem, but then charge at it, acting with and urgency and speed that sets us apart. But we never lose sight on quality or long-term scalability.  

 

Be generous and candid 

We encourage our people – and our customers – to challenge us and never shy away from tough conversations. We have a flat and inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves – and speak up.  

We have offices in central Bath and Edinburgh, and London. We’re working as a hybrid team supporting each of our people to choose how they work best. We’ve always been supportive of flexible working that focuses on delivery and impact, rather than hours worked. Don’t just take our word for it, check out our Glassdoor page for the latest reviews or our Instagram, and LinkedIn for company updates and insights from the team.

What’s in it for you…

We offer a generous blend of benefits for the things that really matter to our people, including:

• 27 days holiday + bank holidays (some can be flexible) + day off on your birthday.

• 3 days (full time) per year for Dependant leave

• 2 days off per year to volunteer for a registered charity of your choice, including our charity partners Aid Box Community and Edinburgh Food Project

• Length of service award – 1 month paid sabbatical at 8 years.

• 6% employer pension contribution, and life assurance

• Private medical insurance with AXA Health

• Enhanced Parental leave and flexibility to integrate your home and work life in a trusted environment.

• Will writing offering via Octopus Legacy

• MacBook and up to £500 home office set up budget.

• £500 per person learning budget.

• Option to work abroad for up to 6 weeks in the year.

• Health and wellbeing initiatives including free therapy via Wellness Cloud, mental health support via Headspace.

• Strong financial wellbeing focus including access to Octopus Money, Octopus Share Incentive Plan and Seccl invest (our own platform for you to manage your investments)

• Octopus Electric Vehicle scheme after 12 months of employment

• Perkbox – Flexi-points giving you a range of discounts and perks including free weekly coffee, gym and retail discounts.

• Cycle to work scheme - saving money on a range of bikes and accessories.

Our aim is to build a diverse and inclusive company of awesome people, with unique skills, passions and experiences.  We encourage everyone to join us, whatever your gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or background.

Please note that we do not provide sponsorship for candidates residing outside the UK. However, we welcome applications from individuals who possess valid work permits that allow them to work in the UK. If you already have the right to work in the UK or hold an eligible work permit, we encourage you to apply for this position.

Heads up - we'll be sourcing for a few weeks and plan to short list around 20-24 May, with first stage interviews planned w/c 27 May. 

If you think you have most of what we are looking for, then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and apply. We’d love to hear from you!