Senior People Manager

About Us
We are a mission driven wellness brand with an award winning range of collagen, blends and supplements. We started as all good businesses do, by seeing the opportunity to do things differently in a growing market. To carefully balance people, planet, and profit for the sake of the world around us and our health.

We are now shaping the future of wellness with simple daily rituals, thoughtfully and sustainably designed to support women's health. Our vision is to be the #1 wellness brand in the world, setting new standards for holistic health, sustainability and female empowerment.

As a B-Corp, Ancient + Brave meets the highest standards of social and environmental Impact. In June 2024 we have been named 5th in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies and we have recently been recognised as one of the FT 1000: Europe's Fastest Growing Companies, 2025.

Want to be a part of a team that's shaping the future of health and wellbeing?

We'd love to have you

THE ROLE
We are seeking a proactive and people-focused People Manager to support our rapidly growing team. You will play an important role in running the day-to-day People function, ensuring a positive employee experience, and partnering with teams to foster a thriving workplace culture. This generalist position involves a broad range of responsibilities, including recruitment, employee relations, policy implementation, performance management, and supporting key People initiatives. In addition to supporting Head Office with day-to-day people matters, the role will have primary People responsibility for our Warehouse/Unit.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys working across talent acquisition and people operations, understands the unique challenges of a fulfilment center environment, and thrives in a role that combines strategic input with hands-on delivery.

This role will be based in our Lewes Head Office with one day per week based in our Unit/Warehouse located in Barcombe Mills.

Key Responsibilities
Reporting to the People Director you will be responsible for the following:

Strategic Leadership & Team Management

• Manage the People function, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations and excellent service delivery across the business, with the support of the People Experience Assistant
• Drive continuous improvement across all People processes, systems, and policies, ensuring they are fit for purpose and scalable.
• Be a culture champion, embedding our values through leadership, communication, and best-in-class people practices.

Business Partnering & Employee Relations

• Act as a trusted partner and coach to managers and team leads across departments, offering expert support on performance management, ER issues, development planning, and team dynamics.
• Own complex employee relations cases, ensuring consistent application of policies and adherence to employment law.
• Use people data and insights to guide decision-making and support business planning.

Unit/Warehouse People Management

• Act as the primary People Manager for our Warehouse/Unit operations, ensuring all people processes are tailored appropriately while remaining aligned with wider company policies.
• Work closely with the Unit Manager and Supervisor to resolve people issues, manage performance, and build engagement on the ground.
• Support with recruitment and onboarding for the Unit, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience.

People Operations & Compliance

• Oversee the employee lifecycle, from onboarding through to exit, ensuring a high-quality and consistent experience.
• Ensure all employee records, contracts, and policies are accurate, compliant, and well maintained (with support from the People Experience Assistant).
• Responsible for communicating monthly payroll changes to the Financial Controller.

Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding

• Oversee the recruitment process, liaising with our embedded Talent Partner(s) both and external agency relationships.
• Work with hiring managers to design inclusive job descriptions, structure interview processes, and make data-led hiring decisions.
• Champion DEI best practices throughout the hiring and employee experience journey.

Learning, Development & Engagement

• Support the rollout and evolution of our performance management, feedback, and development frameworks.
• Collaborate on internal surveys and engagement initiatives, analysing results and turning insights into action.
• Contribute to our L&D roadmap, identifying development needs and supporting in delivering training programs where relevant.

Systems & Processes

• Act as a superuser for our HRIS (Humanns) and ATS (TeamTailor), ensuring systems are used effectively to support scale and operational excellence.
• Create and maintain Company Wiki on Notion,, making key information accessible and user-friendly.

Who You Are

• Proven experience in a senior HR or People leadership role, ideally in a high-growth, multi-site environment (e.g., scale-up, FMCG, logistics, or manufacturing).
• Strong understanding of both operational and strategic HR.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and best practices across ER, performance, and engagement.
• Hands-on experience with HRIS and ATS systems (e.g., Humanns, TeamTailor).
• Confident working with senior stakeholders and operational teams, including warehouse/fulfilment functions.
• Strong project management skills and able to balance long-term initiatives with fast-paced delivery.

Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. You will be:

• Hungry: Ambitious, driven with a growth mindset, always seeking ways to learn, develop and be better.
• Humble: No ego, collaborative team player, always acts with integrity and clear sense of accountability, aligned with our B-Corp values
• High Performing: Effective. Efficient, with a solid work ethic. Always operates with self-awareness that enables them to consistently push for exceptional results—while maintaining resilience, balance, and self-care.
• Hustle: Entrepreneurial. Innovative, fast-paced, great communicator. Always adept at solving problems and navigating dynamic, ever-changing situations.

Our Interview Process and What You Can Expect:
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Application Review:
We'll start by reviewing your CV/application to ensure it's a good fit for the role.

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Initial Phone Call (circa 15-20 minutes):
You'll have a brief introductory chat with Luke, our Talent Partner. We'll discuss your experience, your career aspirations and explore how your values align with ours.

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Video Interview (circa 30 minutes):
The next step is a virtual interview with the hiring manager, via Google Meet. This will be an introductory conversation featuring experience-based and competency-based questions. It's also a great time to ask any initial questions you have

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Interview Task:
You'll receive a task via email which you can prepare at home. This will form part of the discussion for the in-person interview. This will allow us to get a better understanding of your experience, skills and ways of working.

• In-Person Interview minutes): The final stage is an in-person interview at our Lewes office. You'll meet with the hiring manager and one other team member and present your interview task and answer competency questions. This is also your opportunity to ask us any remaining questions.

Please Note:

• This role requires full time working at our stunning Lewes offices. Please apply only if you're within a reasonable commute.
• We're not seeking recruitment support for this role at this time.

WHY JOIN US
Ancient + Brave are a community-built brand and embracing innovation and sustainability with social and environmental responsibility is at the heart of everything we do. We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards when it comes to our commitment to balance profit and purpose - working with us means being part of building a truly sustainable product. We are B Corp certified and members of 1% for the Planet, committed to giving back % of all sales towards helping environmental partners, so we can work together towards a better future for our planet.

At Ancient + Brave you'll find an engaging, collaborative and inclusive work environment where your talents will be nurtured, and your contributions valued.

We provide all our team members with suitable laptop computers & headphones and our office is equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and sitting + standing desks. Our kitchen is fully stocked with the usual supplies as well as limitless supply of A+B products (you also get 50% off on any product you wish to purchase).

We pay a discretionary bonus based on a mix of company performance and individual contributions and review our salaries annually. Our pension contributions are ESG invested (so no pharma, weapons or other ethically questionable investments).

Our Private Medical Insurance is designed to support your health and wellbeing, providing swift access to high-quality care whenever you need it most.

Our Medicash plan offers access to specialist consultations, 24/7 Virtual GP and health screenings as well as dental, optical and complementary therapies and access to confidential support via its EAP programme.

Our Mintago platform gives employees access to financial wellbeing advice and support as well as retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes, which cover childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries and mobile/tech purchase.

In addition to our regular annual holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays, we also offer one Wellbeing day to use as needed.

We offer continuous training & professional development opportunities and our team members get to enjoy complimentary nutrition and workout sessions in the office. We support a number of charities, coordinating our fund-raising initiatives for maximum impact. We hold two social events a year to come together and connect in a meaningful way.

An important note on our ways of working…
*As a fast-paced scale-up, we've found that spending time together in person is hugely beneficial to the way we're needing to communicate, collaborate and drive the business forward. We've worked hard to make our new HQ (a beautiful riverside office situated in Lewes, East Sussex) an inviting and friendly environment for all of our team members and we expect any new joiner to be in the office full time.

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace culture. We embrace varied perspectives and encourage creativity that knows no bounds. While most of our roles are advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time setup where appropriate.*