Chief People Officers, VPs of People and Heads of People, placed into venture-backed technology companies. We have been running these searches since 2016, which means we can also tell you whether you are ready for the hire and what level you actually need.
Hawkwood recruits senior People leaders into technology companies. That covers Chief People Officer, VP People, People Director and Head of People appointments, from a company's first People hire through to executive level. We have specialised in this market for ten years, across the UK and the United States.
Most founders come to this decision knowing they need senior People leadership without being certain what to call it. The titles are used loosely across the industry, but the distinctions matter because they change who you should be interviewing.
Takes the day-to-day HR burden off the founder without being a strategic leadership hire. Increasingly common as a first step, particularly for companies that want to operate leanly and are not yet ready to commit to a full People leader.
The most common first senior People hire. Owns hiring, culture, performance, progression and manager capability. In a scale-up this person builds rather than inherits, so they need to be comfortable working without established infrastructure or a team beneath them.
The same remit with more organisational complexity behind it, usually multiple locations, an existing People team, or a leadership bench that needs developing. Often the right level when a company is scaling fast enough that the People function needs to lead rather than support.
An executive appointment with a seat at the leadership table. The remit extends beyond the People function into organisational design, executive team effectiveness and long-term workforce strategy. Typically a later-stage hire, or an earlier one where People is genuinely central to the business model.
One distinction worth being clear about: the Head of People should not also be your internal recruiter. It is a common assumption and it rarely works, because recruiting well in a competitive market means living in that market daily, which is difficult to combine with a full People remit.
Hiring an internal recruiter instead
There is no perfect moment, but there are clear signals. The most common is that the founder is still involved in the detail: every hiring decision, every manager problem, every awkward employee situation, acting as the final escalation point for things that should never reach them.
New leaders are not yet effective in leadership roles, objectives are unclear, and people do not know what good looks like in their role.
Policies are unclear, new joiners generate a steady volume of questions because nothing is written down, progression is vague and manager feedback is inconsistent.
Unresolved issues, weak systems, inconsistent leadership behaviour and unclear expectations that get progressively harder to unwind as headcount grows.
A funding round, a new market, or a headcount plan that needs stronger foundations than the current setup can carry.
Historically investors encouraged founders to hire a Head of People at around 50 employees. Since 2022 that has moved out. Companies have wanted to operate more leanly, and it is now common to see founders pushing the decision closer to 100, or hiring a People Operations Manager first.
Headcount alone is too simplistic. A 45-person company can need a Head of People more urgently than an 85-person one if it is hiring aggressively, operating across several countries, or working with inexperienced managers. What matters is whether your people foundations are strong enough for the next phase, not whether you have crossed an arbitrary number.
We see first People leadership hires fail with a frequency most founders do not anticipate. It is worth being direct about why, because the reasons are predictable and most of them are avoidable.
It is rarely a capability problem. In almost every case the relationship breaks down over chemistry and values alignment between the CEO and the People leader. A founder can genuinely believe they are ready to empower someone and still find, once that person is in the seat, that handing over culture and hiring standards is harder than anticipated. Those things sit close to a founder's identity as well as the company's strategy.
It runs the other way too. Sometimes the People leader cannot build enough credibility with the leadership team, because they do not grasp the commercial engine well enough, or bring recommendations that feel disconnected from what the business is actually dealing with. Either way the outcome is the same: trust erodes, recommendations get diluted, and the hire eventually leaves.
Our view is that a founder should approach this hire the way they would approach choosing an executive coach. It needs trust, candour and enough natural chemistry that both sides can be honest with each other. Where that is missing, the appointment is fragile regardless of how good the candidate looks on paper.
This is a large part of what we assess for, and it is why we spend as much time understanding the founder and the leadership team as we do the role specification.
Discuss your hireThe same six-stage methodology we use across every People and Talent search: vacancy briefing, candidate identification, outreach, assessment, interview management and offer management.
For senior People appointments the assessment stage carries the most weight. We use our People Leadership Candidate Assessment methodology, produced in partnership with JooBee Yeow, a former Chief People Officer. It is built to test judgement rather than presentation, because a polished candidate can speak convincingly about culture and engagement without having the practical judgement to build a People function at your stage.
In practice that means specific examples rather than general answers, practical exercises using real or constructed company data, and references chosen to establish whether someone has genuinely built from scratch before.
See the full methodologyWe recruited the first VP People at Vitesse, an Octopus Ventures-backed fintech, when the business was at around 50 employees with strong commercial traction and very basic HR processes. The hire helped prepare the company for scale and supported its growth beyond 250 people.
More recently we placed the Head of People at Cohere, working in enterprise LLMs at Series D and beyond, filled inside six weeks.
We also delivered the People Director appointment at Oxford Science Enterprises, using the assessment methodology described above.
300+ successful People & Talent hires into growth companies including
“Having worked with Hawkwood both as a candidate and a client I've had a wonderful experience. Peter has a very down to earth and human approach to work, I never feel I'm being "sold" to with Hawkwood and have always appreciated the advice and communication between us even when we're not working on a specific role together.
Natasha Grujic
Chief People Officer, Freetrade
“Hawkwood, specifically Eve Whitehouse, recently supported me in the search for a new People Operations Manager. Eve quickly understood the brief and was able to present profiles which matched our business needs. The whole process from start to finish was efficient and professional.
Eleanor Bird
People Director, GoCardless
Recommended to CEOs by VCs & PEs including
Head of People is usually the first senior People hire, owning hiring, culture and performance in a company without established infrastructure. VP People or People Director covers the same remit with more organisational complexity, often multiple locations or an existing team. Chief People Officer is an executive appointment with a seat at the leadership table and a remit extending into organisational design and workforce strategy.
When the cost of founder-led people management starts holding the business back. Historically investors pushed for this at around 50 employees, though since 2022 many companies have moved it closer to 100, or hired a People Operations Manager first. Growth rate, leadership experience and organisational complexity matter more than headcount alone.
Our recent Head of People search for Cohere completed inside six weeks. Timing depends on how clearly the role is defined at the outset and how quickly the interview process can move.
Usually not. Recruiting well in a competitive market means living in that market every day, which is difficult to combine with a full People remit. Sometimes a strong recruiter joins early, drives hiring, and grows into People leadership over time, but expecting one person to do both from the start rarely works.
Almost always because of chemistry and values alignment between the CEO and the People leader, not capability. The founder may not be ready to hand over enough control, or the People leader may not build enough commercial credibility with the leadership team. Either way trust erodes, and the appointment becomes fragile.
Sometimes. A fractional consultant can audit your existing people infrastructure, identify the biggest gaps, and help define the permanent role more clearly before you commit to it. They can also be more candid with a founder than a newly appointed permanent hire might feel able to be.
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