Talent Lead

At Lenkie, we're on a mission to help small businesses turn their bold ambitions into reality. Our lending products make access to capital faster, fairer, and more flexible, enabling SMEs to grow with confidence. We’ve provided millions in funding to hundreds of UK businesses with our loan book growing 4x 2025 and we’re just getting started.

We are a friendly and collaborative team with a fast-paced and high-performing culture. We are headquartered in London but with team members across Nigeria, South Africa and London. We’re backed by top-tier investors and have recently closed a £49M equity and debt Series A investment round to significantly scale the business across the UK in 2026.

We are looking for an experienced and hands‑on People & Talent Lead to own and build Lenkie’s people function as we scale. We believe our people are the most important asset of the business and, this is a key role, as our first senior hire dedicated to People & Talent.

You will be responsible for the full employee lifecycle—from talent acquisition and hiring, through onboarding, performance management, and long-term development—while building the people processes, systems, and culture needed to support a high-performance organisation.

This role is ideal for someone who is comfortable operating at both a strategic and executional level, enjoys building from first principles, and thrives in a fast-moving startup environment.

• Own end-to-end hiring across the business, including role scoping, sourcing, interviewing, offer management, and onboarding.
• Partner closely with senior management to anticipate hiring needs and build scalable recruitment processes
• Design and continuously improve hiring frameworks that assess both performance potential and cultural alignment.
• Build and maintain a strong talent pipeline across technical, commercial, and operational roles.

• Design and run a structured onboarding experience to help new hires ramp quickly and effectively.
• Implement clear performance management frameworks, including goal-setting, reviews, feedback cycles, and progression paths.
• Support managers in building high-performing teams through coaching, feedback, and people development practices.

• Own and improve core HR systems and tools (HRIS, payroll coordination, benefits administration, documentation).
• Develop and maintain people policies that are compliant, pragmatic, and aligned with Lenkie’s values.
• Ensure smooth people operations across a distributed, international team.

• Act as a steward of Lenkie’s culture, values, and ways of working.
• Design initiatives that reinforce accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with leadership to build a performance-driven, inclusive, and engaging work environment.
• Support employee engagement, retention, and wellbeing as the company scales.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior management on people-related topics, including performance, structure, and team dynamics.
• Use data and insight to inform decisions on hiring, retention, and organisational design.

• 5+ years of experience in People & Talent, HR, or People Operations roles, ideally within startups or high-growth businesses.
• Proven experience owning the full recruitment lifecycle across multiple roles and functions.
• Strong understanding of performance management, employee development, and organisational design.
• Experience implementing and managing HR systems and people processes from the ground up.
• Practical knowledge of UK employment law and best practices (international exposure is a plus).
• Excellent interpersonal and…