Chief People Officer

New York or London Based

illuma is a British AI company pioneering contextual solutions for enterprise since 2014. Its real-time scaling technology is used by brands and agencies to boost the results of digital advertising campaigns. Meanwhile, broadcasters, publishers and online platforms use illuma to organise, classify and categorise their inventory for commercial activation.

illuma is committed to sustaining the open web ecosystem through equitable collaborations between adtech providers and media owners. The company is proudly building industry-first agreements that recognise publishers’ intellectual property rights, and in turn, deliver better outcomes for brands and audiences.

illuma is a leading voice in contextual adtech, and our news, commentary and success stories are reported in titles such as The Guardian, Digiday and ExchangeWire.

illuma was founded in 2014 by publishing experts and computer scientists from Imperial College, UCL and Cambridge University. The company is based in London with additional offices in New York.

At illuma we are curious, innovative, and progressive, committed to seeking new, intelligent solutions to business problems. You will be working with and learning from some of the brightest minds in AI, tech and data science, and you won’t be just a cog in a wheel, you will have an active voice with the opportunity to make real impact and grow your career with us as we scale.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

We are looking for a highly motivated and energetic Chief People Officer, who will hit the ground running and drive positive change at illuma. As Chief People Officer, you will partner with the CEO and broader leadership team to offer objective insights and recommendations to build a high-performing, results-oriented team with an organisational structure, and employee experience that drives the achievement of the company’s overall business goals.

Optimising Organisational Design:

• Collaborating with executive leadership to define the organisation’s long-term mission, goals and critical success factors.
• Analysing the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses in each of the core functions in the company ecosystem (for example: strategy; value propositions; marketing; sales; implementation etc) and developing & delivering talent strategies to optimise these functions.
• Determining and implementing the best organisational structures to support efficient workflows and effective communication channels.
• Ensuring that the company’s structure is adaptable and agile as illuma scales.
• Developing, promoting and embedding illuma’s values and culture throughout the business, managing organisational design initiatives to enhance business performance and employee experience.

Talent Acquisition:

• Developing a talent acquisition strategy that enables illuma to identify and hire the best talent.
• Holding a high bar for talent to maintain productivity and quality as illuma grows and scales.
• Contributing to the organisation’s sustainable growth plans by instilling discipline in the recruitment process and ensuring high-quality hires that align with illuma’s needs and culture.

Talent Management:

• Developing a talent management strategy which ensures that the whole team is focused on the right things and work is aligned to supporting and furthering illuma’s growth plans and focus areas.

• Defining management metrics and review processes which ensure that talent is assessed and compensated on the right behaviours and outcomes.
• Designing a compensation strategy which rewards the right outcomes.
• Coaching leaders to make quick and effective decisions when talent is not meeting expectations.
• Ensuring that individual and team goals align with illuma’s strategic objectives and areas of focus, creating effective reward and recognition programs which encourage the right behaviours and instilling a culture of high-performing teams.

Talent Development:

• Implementing onboarding plans to enable effective integration of new hires into the team.
• Developing and coaching leaders to be confident and capable of delivering feedback, developing their people, and making tough decisions.
• Fostering a culture where employee voice, engagement, and values are prioritised and aligned with the company’s mission.
• Regarded as a trusted partner by the leadership team (and the broader organisation), build the capability and capacity of the employee group with company growth and cultivate a pipeline of future leaders through targeted development programs.

Building the Fundamentals:

• Building robust systems, compliance protocols, and ensuring benefits structures are in place to manage risk and support the employee experience.
• Ensuring compliance with all labour laws regulations and industry standards, identifying and managing people-related risks, and improving people processes to enable optimal productivity.

Requirements

• Experience in a HR leadership role, preferably in a mission-driven environment.
• A collaborative, innovative and visionary leader with outstanding people, communication and management skills.
• The ability to motivate and inspire an experienced team, with a commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
• A track record of identifiable and measurable successes in managing and advising on complex projects, implementing operational change and ensuring high-quality deliverables.
• A high level of professionalism and ability to work with sensitive and confidential matters.
• Excellent knowledge of HR policies and procedures, as well as employment law and regulations.
• Experience of managing the recruitment and selection process.
• Experience with forging strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Excellent working knowledge of MS Office including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook.

Benefits

US: Our total rewards packages include 20 vacation days plus US public holidays and medical insurance allowance. Compensation for this role is expected to be between $150,000 and $280,000. Actual base pay may be higher or lower depending on geographic locations, skills, experience, and other factors permitted by law.

London: 25 days vacation excluding bank holidays, private medical insurance.