Head of People

Head of People

Notting Hill - London

About Us

At Simmer, we're on a mission to make healthy eating effortless.

We create chef-made, high-protein meals inspired by flavours from around the world, making it easier for busy people to eat well every day.

What started with £10 worth of ingredients and a handful of family recipes has grown into one of the UK's fastest-growing businesses. In both 2025 and 2026, Simmer was recognised by The Sunday Times as the UK's 5th fastest-growing private company.

We're proud of that recognition, but we're much more interested in what comes next.

Simmer was founded by brothers Simmy and Jhai, who built the business alongside university, full-time jobs and countless late nights in the kitchen before taking the leap and committing to it full time. That mindset still shapes the business today.

We're a deliberately lean team, which means people here get unusually close to the work, the customers and the decisions that shape the business. We care far more about potential and trajectory than titles and look for people who are curious, commercially minded and willing to take ownership.

There's still a huge amount to build, and we think we're only at the beginning.

This is a fully founder-led business with no private equity and no corporate layers. The founders still run the company, set the standard and stay close to the work.

For the people who join Simmer, that means real ownership, real responsibility and the chance to work on problems that genuinely move the business.

Now we're looking for a Head of People to help build the team behind the next stage of growth.

About the role

We're looking for a Head of People to help build the next version of Simmer. This isn't a traditional HR role.You won't inherit a large People team, mature systems or layers of structure. You'll join a business that has scaled quickly through a small number of highly capable people operating with high ownership, strong judgement and a bias towards action.

That approach has created enormous strengths.

• Speed.
• Ambition.
• Commercial sharpness.
• Low bureaucracy.
• Exceptional execution.

The next challenge is different.

How do we scale those standards across a much bigger organisation without slowing the business down?

How do we increase management capability without adding unnecessary layers?

How do we create accountability without creating politics?

How do we build a stronger organisation without becoming more corporate?

This role sits at the centre of those questions.

You'll work closely with founders and senior leaders to help build the operating foundations behind the next stage of Simmer's growth.

What you'll own

A significant part of this role is raising the quality bar across Simmer.

Success won't be measured by the number of policies or processes you introduce.

It'll be measured by whether the organisation gets stronger as it grows.

You'll help improve:

• who we hire
• how we assess people
• how managers identify potential
• how performance is managed
• how accountability works
• how strong people grow and stay
• how organisational decisions get made

You'll help build:

• stronger onboarding
• clearer progression
• better management capability
• more effective feedback
• organisational planning
• compensation reviews
• leadership development
• performance frameworks

We want to build an organisation that scales without losing what made it successful.

The best systems are often the simplest ones. We want someone who understands the difference between structure that creates leverage and bureaucracy that creates drag.

Every change should make the business:

• clearer
• faster
• more accountable
• easier to scale

Building stronger leaders

As Simmer has grown, more people have stepped into leadership positions.

Some are excellent.

Some are still developing.

All of them have the opportunity to improve.

A major part of this role is helping managers and founders build stronger teams.

That includes:

• improving delegation and accountability
• helping leaders scale teams
• improving prioritisation and decision-making
• improving feedback quality
• supporting difficult conversations
• helping founders create stronger organisational leverage

You'll need to be comfortable being direct, operating with ambiguity and balancing empathy with high standards.

Some days you'll help solve strategic organisational challenges.

Some days you'll help a manager navigate a difficult conversation.

Both matter.

You'll probably enjoy this role if...

• You enjoy solving difficult organisational problems.
• You like building from scratch.
• You enjoy working closely with founders.
• You naturally balance empathy with accountability.
• You stay calm under pressure.
• You prefer creating clarity over creating process.
• You enjoy helping ambitious people operate at a higher level.
• You're commercially minded, low ego and happy rolling your sleeves up to solve whatever problem is in front of you.

You might be a great fit if...

You've helped scale teams in high-growth businesses.

You've built people systems from scratch.

You've partnered closely with founders or senior leaders.

You've improved management capability.

You've navigated ambiguity and rapid growth.

You've handled performance issues directly and thoughtfully.

You don't necessarily need to come from a traditional HR background.

We're much more interested in judgement, commercial instinct and execution than a particular career path.

Why this role?

This is a chance to help shape one of the UK's fastest-growing consumer businesses at a defining stage of its journey. You'll influence who joins Simmer, how people grow, how leaders develop and ultimately how the business scales. A year from now, success won't look like having introduced lots of new policies or processes.

It'll look like:

• stronger managers
• better hiring decisions
• clearer accountability
• higher talent density
• better leadership capability
• a business that has grown without losing its edge

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• 25 days holiday
• Free Simmer meals (worth up to £2,000/year)
• Pension
• Perks & discounts platform
• Regular team socials

If you're excited by difficult organisational problems, enjoy working closely with founders and believe great organisations are built through strong people rather than unnecessary process, we'd love to hear from you.