Head of People
Light
Location
London
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
Hybrid
Department
Operations
About Light
Light is the AI-native finance platform built for hypergrowth. Founded in 2022, we've reimagined finance software from the ground up—processing hundreds of million records in under a second and automating multi-entity accounting across global jurisdictions.
We're trusted by companies like Lovable or Legora and backed by world-class investors including Balderton Capital, Atomico, Cherry Ventures, and Seedcamp. In summer 2025, we raised $30 million in Series A funding, bringing our total funding to $43 million.
While traditional ERPs bolt AI onto decades-old systems, Light was built AI-first—from database design to user experience. The result: our customers reduce finance operations time by 84% and can expand into new countries instantly, not in 5 months.
We're expanding globally with offices in Copenhagen, London, and soon in New York. Join us as we build the finance platform that hypergrowth companies have been waiting for.
What you will be doing
Lead the People team: Hire and lead a commercially minded, analytical People team with exceptional emotional intelligence.
Performance Reviews: Design and run a transparent, impactful process that helps high-performers thrive and keeps expectations clear.
Compensation Strategy: Build and execute a compensation strategy designed to help Light win: competitive, fair [and transparent]
Talent Strategy: Lead Talent Acquisition team (potential to grow) on an ambitious hiring plan to add ~60 people to the team across both departments and geographies (Europe and US) in the next 12 months. We’ve in the process of implementing Ashby.
People Operations: You'll build a scalable people processes including onboarding, employee support, and off-boarding, assisted by technology and with heart
Leadership Partnering: Support Light’s leadership team with org design, people development, and building best practices.
Culture and Starsite: you'll help shape our culture, holding up a mirror to our leadership team, and ensuring we keep what we need as we scale and evolve what must evolve.
Employment Compliance: Ensure Light operates compliantly across multiple jurisdictions, keeping contracts, policies, and practices consistent and fit-for-purpose as we scale (with external legal support). We’re a mix of FTEs, contractors and EORs.
Office management: Oversee our office operations across Copenhagen, London, and New York, ensuring smooth day-to-day functioning and creating spaces where our hybrid teams can thrive.
Company offsite ownership: Plan and execute company offsites and team events that strengthen culture and build connections across our global team.
Your qualifications should be
Proven experience in a People or Talent role in high-growth tech, ideally as Head of People or in another strategic People role. We're open to exceptional candidates from Chief of Staff, management consulting, strategy, or other business functions who want to build organizations through people.
Strong business acumen and first principles thinking - You're a company builder first. You understand context deeply, prioritize by ROI, and build People strategy that drives business outcomes rather than recycling playbooks.
High agency and bias for action - You can autonomously prioritize, execute, and deliver without hand-holding. You're outcome-oriented, data-minded, and know when to decide independently vs. escalate.
Proven ability to build and scale people systems - performance management, compensation, hiring operations, and onboarding. You've designed things from scratch or dramatically improved what existed.
Exceptional EQ and influence skills - You're a trusted advisor to leadership who coaches managers, builds coalitions, and drives change through buy-in.
Working knowledge of UK and European employment compliance - You manage real risks intelligently without letting compliance slow down velocity.
Bonus points
Highly pragmatic: you know when to add structure and when to keep it lean.
Experience working in multinational and distributed teams.
Background of scaling culture across geographies.
Experience organising company offsites or large-scale team events.
Built People functions from 0 to 1 in a startup.