Full time | Permanent | UK | £40,000 - £50,000 per annum

Deadline: Wednesday 27 September 2023 at 12pm (noon) GMT+1

Please note that we’re assessing applications as they come in and may close applications earlier than this date. We are keen for someone to join us as soon as possible, so please don’t wait.

About Brink

Brink exists to have impact in the world - we are a team of psychologists, strategists, designers, creative thinkers and technology optimists who use a framework we call behavioural innovation to shape our work and our worldview.

Over the last 5 years, we have been lucky to work on some of the world’s most interesting and important challenges like how might education technology help get every child into school and learning, or how can we fix the global oxygen shortage to stop 700,000 preventable child deaths each year. And we’re fortunate to work with brilliant partners ranging from globally recognised academic institutions like UCL and University of Cambridge, to small grassroots innovators across Africa, S. Asia and the Middle East.

We have grown a high-performing, global and passionate team of 30+ Brinksters based in 8 countries and have ambitious plans for the coming years to scale our reach and impact. We’re looking for a People Manager to help shape our future success as we enter an exciting new chapter in our story.

This next phase of growth will involve scaling our team, refining our remote work strategies, and establishing a fully distributed presence across the UK, Europe, and Africa. We are a certified B Corp and in the ESC top 100 places to work in 2023, so the bar is already set high but we’re ready for someone to help evolve all we have and keep us at the forefront of brilliant people practices. If you're passionate about driving organisational evolution, fostering a high performing collaborative environment, and guiding our diverse talent towards unprecedented achievements, then you could be just who we’ve been looking for to join us on this exciting journey.

About the role

Role overview

The role of People Manager is pivotal. You will be responsible for refining our approach to all things people and talent, collaborating with senior leaders, operations and comms to align these with our overarching growth goals. We are looking for someone who is passionate about supporting teams to flourish, totally adept with HR and talent processes, but knows the importance of developing policies and compliance measures that reinforce our culture. You will be based within our Operations function (which we call the Engine because it powers all we do at Brink) and will be the only person on the team with full People responsibility.

What you’ll be doing in this role

• Helping our team grow:  Ensure the seamless integration of new team members as we increase our global workforce from 30 to over 40 within the year, working closely with Brink’s leadership team and various Growth Managers. You’ll know that individual growth does not have to create a harmfully competitive culture and you’ll create an inclusive and empowering environment, with opportunities for learning and development that supports people to succeed in their jobs and fosters professional growth.
• Overseeing HR and talent: Oversee the end-to-end HR and talent management processes, including recruitment, onboarding, annual feedback  performance reviews, career progression and succession strategies. Ensure our talent strategies align with our evolving business objectives.
• Working closely with Brink’s ‘engine team’: Partner with the operations and comms team to maintain Brink’s collaborative, and supportive work environment, enabling the Brink team to do their very best work.
• Stewarding our rules and policies: Make sure we have fair and progressive policies and processes that adhere to relevant regulations across our global workforce. Refining and developing our policies to make sure they incentivise the behaviour we want to cultivate, and maintain the autonomous, trust-based culture we have built to date.
• Propelling Brink’s growth: You’ll be excited by the limitless possibilities presented by our growth journey and excited to try new, creative ways of supporting people and talent. Solving problems as they arise, challenging the status quo and bringing innovative ideas to the table.
• Making sure we’re lean and effective: As a global remote company we naturally work on collaborative tools and use global employment platforms. You’ll be tech-savvy and able to customise the right tools for the job, building simple workflows for things like hiring processes.

What we’re looking for

• Proven experience in a people management role, preferably within a start-up or other fast-paced, dynamic environments with bonus points if you’re coming from agency or people-based business
• A track record of driving growth and change management within high performing collaborative teams, and ideally within distributed or remote teams
• Deep understanding of HR practices, talent management, and compliance requirements
• Strong problem-solving capabilities, coupled with a strategic mindset
• Passion for cultivating a culture of learning, diversity, and collaboration
• Excitement for exploring uncharted territories and embracing ambiguity by testing and learning what works for Brink’s culture
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information
• Confidence to work within a stand alone role

Desirable:

• Exposure to Global HR hiring scenarios or an eagerness to learn in this area
• CIPD level 5 qualified or equivalent work experience
• A black book of individuals that can either work with us in supercharging Brinksters skillsets or become potential hires

For everyone that joins Brink, we look for these interpersonal skills (being a ‘Brinkster’):

• Growth mindset: keen and eager to experiment and learn, comfortable with not knowing all the answers yet and happy to let stuff go when it doesn’t quite hit the mark
• Is ‘interoperable’: quickly establishes rapport with all kinds of people, able to inspire, engage, and connect with individuals at all levels
• Enjoys ‘making others shine': Brink is a low-ego zone that thrives on making our colleagues, clients and collaborators shine
• Self-starter: proactive, can 'get on with it', has a sense of agency and a point of view

In addition to your annual salary you’ll have access to extra things to support you to be your best self, in and out of the office.

🐙 A role that isn’t available for anyone else and shaped around you and your interests
🏖 ‘Take what you need’ annual leave
🐣 16 weeks full pay parental leave
🧠 Dedicated coaching and therapy sessions from Oliva
🎒 Brink retreats and away days
📚 Kindle with unlimited books
🎓 Generous training budget
🏡 Workspace expense budget for working from home
🚴‍♀️ Access to a cycle to work scheme (if in UK)

How we work:

• A team of around 30 (and growing) that genuinely enjoy spending time together, online and in person where possible
• Remote-first approach
• If based in the UK, you can work outside of the UK for a maximum of 100 days within the tax year. If based elsewhere, local tax laws regarding working abroad apply
• Flexible working hours; you take ownership over how you get your work done
• Dedicated learning time at our ‘Dojo Days’
• Certain set days over the year where we require the team to be together in real life. This is usually for around one week in mid January and for another week in mid July. Depending on your location it may also include travel and overnight stays

How to apply

If you’re interested in joining us, please click on our  ‘apply here’ button. This will take you to an online application form where we will ask you to upload your CV as well as a response to the following questions:

1. Tell us your story and why you believe this is the right role for you. Consider how we work with Behavioural Innovation and what resonates most for you.
2. Please describe to us your main priorities for the first 6 months in this role, using the job spec provided. Consider that we are a global remote team about to grow from 31 to around 45 Brinksters in the coming months

You are encouraged to be as creative as you are comfortable with and choose any structure or layout to present your information, as long as you keep it under 50mb. We don’t want you spending too long on this, life is short. We would suggest spending no more than 1.5 hours of your precious free time on both questions combined.

Please note that once you are in the online application form, there is no option to save and return. So please feel free to pop in just to have a look and come back later when you're ready.

📅  This is a rolling application process and therefore there is no deadline. You will receive an email from the system to confirm your application has been received and we will be in touch (we aim for within 2 weeks) to let you know if we’ll be taking it further.

You can find the (rough) timeline below:

• Application Launch: Friday 8 September 2023
• Closing date: Monday 9 October 2023 9am UK time
• First stage interviews: w/c 23 October 2023
• Second stage interview: w/c 6 November 2023
• Final offer by: 13 November 2023
• Start date: ASAP

If you have any questions please email [email protected] and a real human will get back to you as soon as possible.

🔗 Our commitment as Brink

Diversity is in our DNA at Brink and we’re proud of the broad range of Brinksters we have on board. We also know there is always room for improvement which is why we track diversity in all its guises to see how we’re doing, and make efforts to cast our hiring net as wide as possible. Our latest survey shows we could do better in some areas, so we’re particularly encouraging applications from people of the Global Ethnic Majority, people over 50, parents, neurodiverse people and/or those living with a disability.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability or age. We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments individuals may require in the recruitment process, on commencement, or once in post.

❓Where is this role based?

Brink is a remote team and we work all over the place from London, Paris, Nairobi, Cape Town, Kigali and Amsterdam. For this particular role you’ll be working from home in the UK or our studio based in London should you wish. You must be eligible to work in the UK. At some point in the future, there may be occasional travel.

Please note that we are unable to employ anyone that does not have the right to work in the UK. If you plan to work on an existing visa, there is a section on the application form where you can let us know the type and expiry date.

Brought together innovators to accelerate the development of new and innovative robust oxygen concentrators in low-resource settings

Transformed the behaviour and culture at Oxfam America, leading to radical new ways of working that would ultimately allow Oxfam to make a bigger difference in the world.

Challenged assumptions and introduced new ways of working at Matola Council in Mozambique, leading to ‘bureaucratic innovation’ right across the council and the creation of smart, user-centered services.