VP People (Maternity Cover)

Working pattern: 4 days per week Salary: £135,000 – £165,000 pro-rated for a 4-day week(£108,000 - £132,000) + bonus Location: Hybrid, with 2-3 days being our London office

At Attest, we help the world’s most ambitious brands make confident decisions through consumer research. Our People team plays a critical role in enabling that ambition - building a high-performing, welcoming environment where our teams can do their best work.

We’re looking for an experienced VP People to join us on a maternity cover contract. This person will lead our People and Talent function during a key period, ensuring continuity, strategic clarity, and operational excellence across the full employee lifecycle.

You’ll report into the CEO and sit on the Extended Leadership Team, partnering closely with senior leaders to align People strategy with business priorities.

What you’ll be responsible for

Strategic Leadership & Partnership

• Lead and enable increased talent density and organisational design for a high growth organisation in the AI era

• Ensure alignment between business objectives and People strategy.

• Guide leaders through organisational design, workforce planning, and change initiatives.

• Develop and continually evolve our values (Win Together, Outcome Focused, Embrace the future) as the organisation scales

People Lifecycle Ownership

• Oversee all aspects of the employee lifecycle: onboarding, development, engagement, performance, progression, reward, and exits.

• Ensure policies and processes are clear, compliant, and people-centred.

• Maintain and evolve our performance and engagement frameworks.

• Lead complex ER matters with care, fairness, and commercial judgement.

Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning

• Oversee end-to-end talent acquisition strategy and delivery.

• Ensure hiring plans align with business objectives and budget.

• Maintain a high bar for inclusive hiring practices and candidate experience.

• Use data to assess hiring effectiveness and optimise performance.

Team Leadership

• Lead and support a team of three:

  • People Partner

  • Talent Lead

  • Talent Executive (reporting into the Talent Lead)

• Provide clarity of direction, coaching, and prioritisation.

• Ensure operational stability while continuing to elevate capability.

What we’re looking for

We’re open-minded about background, but likely you will:

• Have operated at VP level within a scaling, high-growth environment, often with lean teams.

• Be comfortable stepping into an established function and providing steady, confident leadership.

• Bring strong commercial acumen and experience partnering with senior stakeholders.

• Strong, evidenced influencing skills

• Have led both People and Talent functions.

• Be experienced in managing complex ER matters and organisational change.

• Have managed People strategy through periods of significant business change - including, ideally, M&A activity.

• Be confident managing budgets and prioritising for impact.

• Lead with empathy, clarity, and a bias for action.

Most importantly, you’ll care deeply about building inclusive, high-performing teams and using data to inform People decisions.

Why this role matters

This is a pivotal cover role. You won’t just maintain the status quo - you’ll ensure momentum, clarity, and strong leadership across People and Talent during a key period for the business.

You’ll help ensure our people feel supported, our leaders feel equipped and empowered, and our hiring plans remain on track.

Our benefits

• 25 days holiday per year plus additional festive days (pro-rated for fixed term contracts and part time arrangements)

• £240 yearly L&D budget, plus access to a larger budget for qualifications and courses

• Private Medical Insurance

• 1 day per quarter to do charity or community work

• Enhanced parental leave

• bonus scheme

Unfortunately we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.