Head of People

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Hybrid - London (Head Office), Farthingstone (Hotel), WFH

Contract: Permanent, full-time

Start Date: March 2027

About Fifty Five Hospitality

Fifty Five Hospitality is creating a new brand of ultra-luxury hotels and resorts rooted in nature and wellness within easy reach of global gateway cities.

Our first hotel, Farthingstone, is a new-build ultra-luxury countryside hotel in Northamptonshire, less than two hours north of London, in an outstanding natural environment with an exceptional wellness offering. Future hotels will follow in prime international locations.

We are a small, private equity-backed team of experienced hotel executives, a two-Michelin-starred chef, and specialists from corporate, interior design and global creative backgrounds. As owner, developer, brand and operator, we are building a hospitality company from the ground up, so every hire is fundamental in shaping how we build and how we operate.

This role provides a rare opportunity to create a workplace as exceptional as the resort itself, where you define the culture, grow the talent and set the standard for how people are cared for at Farthingstone and the company.

Role Purpose

The Head of People is the senior HR leader for the group, based at Head Office rather than on-property. The role's initial and primary focus is Farthingstone, the group's first hotel, a 61-key ultra-luxury countryside wellness resort, with a projected team of 150+. This is fundamentally a pre-opening build role: the Head of People will design and mobilise the entire people function - recruitment, culture, brand, and L&D - from the ground up, ahead of a single, high-stakes opening date.

A core part of this remit is defining the group's People Brand Pillars - the articulated set of values, behaviours and promises that describe what it means to work for the group - and ensuring they are genuinely embedded into culture at Farthingstone, not just written down as a Head Office document. The role also carries a strong Learning & Development focus: the Head of People is expected to build a genuine learning culture from the ground up, recognising that L&D is one of the strongest levers for both service quality and retention in a rural, talent-challenged location.

This is a hands-on, commercially-minded HR leadership role spanning the full employee lifecycle - from talent acquisition and retention through to culture, wellbeing, employee relations, and organisational development - within a 5-star/ultra-luxury hospitality and wellness environment.

Although based at Head Office in steady state, the role will need to be property-based at Farthingstone for a defined period covering pre-opening mobilisation and post-opening stabilisation phase, to ensure the people function is embedded and operating effectively on the ground before reverting to a Head Office footprint.

Key Responsibilities

Pre-Opening Mobilisation

• Own the end-to-end people mobilisation plan for Farthingstone, working backwards from the opening date across recruitment, training, systems, and culture-building milestones
• Build the recruitment strategy and hiring plan to resource the full 150+ team, phased appropriately
• Stand up all HR infrastructure - HRIS, payroll, policies, contracts, right-to-work processes - ahead of recruitment beginning in earnest
• Design and deliver an intensive pre-opening training programme, so a brand-new team hits 5-star standards from opening day
• Partner closely with each Head of Department as they are appointed, translating departmental plans into workforce and training plans

People Brand & Culture

• Define and articulate the company’s People Brand Pillars - the core promises, values, and behaviours that describe the employee experience, rooted in the brand’s wellness positioning
• Translate the pillars into lived practice - onboarding, leadership behaviours, recognition, communications - and embed them into every people process (recruitment, induction, performance, reward, L&D)

Learning & Development (strong focus area)

• Design Farthingstone's L&D strategy from scratch, positioning learning as a core pillar of the people offer rather than a compliance afterthought
• Build induction, technical/service training, and a leadership development pathway, creating an internal pipeline for future Heads of Department
• Partner with hospitality colleges and training bodies to supplement in-house training, and track impact through clear L&D metrics

Talent Acquisition & Retention

• Own end-to-end recruitment for the full 150+ team, from housekeeping and front-of-house through to Head of Department and executive hires
• Build a strong employer brand - grounded in the People Brand Pillars and a genuine L&D offer - to attract talent in a competitive, rural luxury hospitality market
• Design and oversee retention strategies, with L&D as one of the primary levers in a 5-star, service-intensive environment

Culture, Engagement & Wellbeing

• Define and nurture Farthingstone's service culture, lead employee engagement initiatives and action planning
• Own staff wellbeing programmes, particularly meaningful in a wellness-positioned resort, and oversee recognition, reward, and long-service programmes

Employee Relations & Compliance

• Ensure full compliance with UK employment law, right-to-work checks, and sector-specific regulations
• Manage ER casework directly, maintain up-to-date policies, the employee handbook, and contracts, and oversee Health & Safety compliance with the H&S lead

Reward & Recognition

• Design competitive, benchmarked pay and benefits structures appropriate to the luxury hospitality sector, and manage tronc/service charge distribution
• Oversee live-in accommodation policy - a significant recruitment and retention lever given the rural setting - and benchmark pay against comparable luxury countryside resorts

HR Operations

• Own the HRIS, payroll interface, and reporting (headcount, turnover, absence, diversity, and L&D/training metrics)
• Manage the HR budget, including a dedicated L&D budget, and lead and develop a small on-site HR team

Candidate Profile

Experience

• Proven senior HR leadership experience in luxury hospitality, resorts, spa/wellness, or comparable high-end service environments (essential)
• Experience leading HR through a hotel or resort pre-opening / mobilisation phase, ideally at a comparable scale (150+ headcount), is a strong advantage
• Demonstrable experience designing and delivering L&D strategy and programmes from the ground up
• Experience recruiting and retaining talent in a rural location, and managing ER casework independently and confidently

Skills & Attributes

• A genuine passion for developing people - able to design engaging, practical training and spot and nurture potential across the team
• Genuine flair for articulating culture and brand in a way that resonates emotionally, not just administratively
• Strong commercial acumen; excellent judgement and discretion in handling sensitive matters
• Genuine alignment with a wellness ethos and a builder's mindset - energised by creating something from scratch, with the resilience to match the pace of a pre-opening environment

Qualifications

• CIPD Level 5 or above (or equivalent experience)
• L&D-specific qualification or strong demonstrable track record in training design and delivery is a strong advantage
• Working knowledge of current UK employment legislation

Practical Requirements

• Right to work in the UK
• Based on-site at Farthingstone as required, with flexibility to work evenings/weekends around business needs, particularly in the run-up to opening
• Full UK driving licence would be useful due to Farthingstone's rural location with limited public transport

What We Offer

• Competitive salary with discretionary annual bonus
• Enhanced pension scheme
• Salary sacrifice schemes (EV, cycle-to-work) available after probation
• Private medical and dental insurance
• 33 days’ annual leave (including bank holidays)