People Assistant - 12 month FTC

At Octopus Investments, we’re entrepreneurs and we’re investors, on a mission to back the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. 

We think working here is great, but we’re understandably biased. Click here to explore Life at Octopus.

Job Description

What’s in it for you?

The People Assistant plays a key role in delivering operational excellence across the People function. You’ll provide administration and operational support across HRBP, L&D, Payroll and Talent, maintain accurate HR data, support onboarding/offboarding and own operational tasks that improve employee outcomes. This role offers broad exposure to the full People lifecycle and a clear development path into People Operations, HRBP or Talent specialisms.

The team:

The People Assistant sits within the wider people team and collaborates with key stakeholders such as HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition , Finance (for payroll and benefits coordination), IT (for system and equipment setup), and department managers who rely on HR support.

What will you be doing?

• People Operations & Administration : Manage end-to-end onboarding and offboarding, maintain HRIS records and documents, and provide daily admin support to the HRBP team.
• Employee Experience : Coordinate welcome sessions, inductions, and HR-related events to create a positive employee journey.
• L&D, Talent & Payroll Support : Partner with L&D on training logistics and records, assist Talent with interview scheduling and candidate communications, and payroll related administration.
• Continuous Improvement : Drive efficiency by supporting automation projects, maintaining internal process documentation, conducting audits, managing vendor relationships and suggesting improvements.
• People Leadership Support : Assist People Leadership with project coordination, admin tasks, meeting scheduling, team events, and expense tracking.

Qualifications

Ideally, you’ll have:

✅ Experience in an administrative, operations or HR support role is essential

✅ Comfortable using MS Excel (tables, filters, pivot tables), Word and Outlook/Teams.

✅ Experience with automation tools (Power Automate, Zapier) and AI (ChatGPT, Copilot or similar) preferred

✅ Experience with HRIS / LMS platforms (preferred but not essential)

✅ CIPD study in progress (preferred but not essential)

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box. What’s the worst that can happen?

This role will evolve as we grow and develop. So, if you are looking for a challenge in a fast paced and dynamic business, we can deliver on that.

Additional Information

What we offer

A competitive salary, bonus, pension and share incentive plan
✈️ Untracked holiday
Hybrid working – most of our people spend 3 days a week in the office
⚓ Anchor (our wellness hub) which includes Headspace, one to one coaching through Wellness Cloud, Digital GP & more
Up to 6 months paid parental leave regardless of gender
❤️ Life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection
Private medical insurance for you and your family
Electric vehicle leasing
The option to work overseas up to a month per year

Our Values
At our core, we believe that how a company behaves is just as important as what it does. That’s why we chose to become an accredited B Corp (the equivalent of a Fairtrade coffee stamp but for companies) and to change our Articles of Association so that the interests all our stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, environment and shareholders – are considered in every decision we make.  

We are committed to building a workplace where diversity is valued, and inclusion is a priority. By providing equal opportunities for growth and development, we embrace and celebrate all races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, ages, disabilities, and socio-economic backgrounds. We believe teams achieve their best when every member feels safe, respected and empowered to be their authentic selves.

We're proud to be disability confident and are committed to supporting candidates with a disability, including neurodiversity and mental health conditions, throughout the recruitment process. Applicants are welcome to opt-in to the disability confident scheme as part of our application process. If you require any adjustments to the interview process, we’ll be happy to accommodate where possible.