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
1. Partner with the CPO and Head of OD & Culture to shape and deliver the People Agenda, aligned to business priorities
2. Act as a trusted advisor to the SLT, influencing commercial and business direction through a people lens
3. Lead enterprise-wide people transformation and strategic initiatives, translating the People Agenda into clear, measurable plans
4. Lead people analytics, defining and tracking key metrics to inform decision-making and drive performance
Team Leadership
5. Lead and develop a high-performing People & Talent team across multiple disciplines
6. Create a strong “one team” culture across People functions
7. Build capability within the team to deliver both strategic and operational excellence
8. Set clear expectations and drive accountability for performance and development
Organisation Design & Transformation
9. Partner on organisational design to ensure structures enable performance and scalability, and ensure the organisation is structured and resourced to deliver business objectives
10. Lead delivery of organisational change, including restructures and evolution of ways of working
11. Continuously optimise operating models and team effectiveness
People Ownership & Commercial Accountability
12. Own the people budget, ensuring effective and strategic investment across headcount, reward, and people initiatives
13. Balance commercial performance with employee experience, driving engagement, productivity, and retention
Reward, Payroll & People Operations
14. Oversee the pay & reward team, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and operational excellence
15. Own the reward strategy, including salary benchmarking, renumeration committee, pay reviews, bonus frameworks, people budgeting process and benefits
16. 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
17. Ensure people operations processes are efficient, scalable, and deliver a seamless employee experience
18. Continuously review and improve systems, processes, and ways of working
Talent, Succession & People Partnering
19. Sponsor talent acquisition and succession planning to ensure future capability and leadership pipelines
20. Lead the People Partnering function, supporting SLT and Op Board with high-impact insight and coaching
21. Ensure consistent, high-quality people practices and a best-in-class employee lifecycle experience
Employee Relations & Governance
22. Own and evolve the ER strategy, ensuring a fair, consistent, and legally compliant approach
23. Act as escalation point for complex and senior-level ER cases
24. 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.
25. Discount -Up to 50% discount and access to Sample Sales
26. Holiday - 25 days
27. Holiday Buy – opportunity to buy up to 5 days holiday (dependent on contract)
28. Pension Scheme - enrolled in our Group Personal Pension schemes upon joining the business.
29. 30% Bonus - In addition to our competitive salaries, all our employees are entitled to join a discretionary bonus scheme (based on policy eligibility)
30. White City House (Soho House Group)Tenants Membership at a discounted rate, offering access to facilities in the House
31. Wagestream Money Management app - access to Wagestream gives you power over your pay and supports financial wellbeing
32. Continued Development – We offer structured support from our own in-house Learning and Development Hub
33. Salary Sacrifice scheme for Electric vehicles (dependent on grade and meeting policy eligibility)
34. Private Healthcare with additional Babylon Digital Healthcare (based on contract duration)
35. Life Assurance
Additional Benefits
36. Fruit basket daily
37. Tea and coffee provided
38. Working from Home - option to work from home on Mondays and Fridays
39. Social - Christmas party/social events throughout the year
40. Seasonal Sample Sales
41. Volunteer Day - with a charity of your choice
42. 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
43. Significant experience in a senior People leadership role within a fast-paced, multi-channel business
44. Proven ability to operate at Senior Leadership Team level and influence business strategy
45. Strong commercial acumen, including experience managing budgets and workforce planning
46. Expertise across the employee lifecycle
47. Extensive OD experience
48. Experience leading organisational change and transformation
49. Strong leadership capability with a track record of building high-performing teams
50. Data-driven mindset with the ability to translate insight into action
51. 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