People & Talent Partner, Zen Educate
£35-45k
+ Share options
Mid and Senior level
London
4-5 days a week in office
Education recruitment platform
Posted today
Education recruitment platform
201-500 employees
B2BMarketplaceEducationRecruitment
Posted today
£35-45k
+ Share options
Mid and Senior level
London
4-5 days a week in office
201-500 employees
B2BMarketplaceEducationRecruitment
Company mission
To make a positive impact and bring about meaningful change within the education recruitment sector.
Role
Who you are
- Experience in a People Partner, HR Business Partner, or hybrid HR/Talent role where you've been responsible for a wide range of HR-related tasks including onboardings, exit interviews, benefits, grievances, flexible working requests etc
- You have experience coordinating and running performance review cycles end-to-end, and are now looking to take a more influential role in how managers interpret, calibrate, and act on performance outcomes
- You’re motivated by improving consistency in how performance is managed across teams, and by helping managers build confidence in giving feedback, driving development conversations, and improving overall employee engagement and growth
- You've been involved in launching and running employee engagement surveys, and are now looking to go beyond delivery into real impact, turning feedback into meaningful change. You care about what the data is saying, and more importantly, how it translates into action that improves the employee experience
- You’re excited by growth environments, comfortable being a key go-to person for managers and employees, and energised by helping build and shape people processes rather than just running them
What the job involves
- We are seeking a dynamic and commercially minded People & Talent Partner to join our growing People team
- This is a high-impact, broad scope role with a strong focus on people partnering, culture building, and employee experience, alongside some talent acquisition responsibilities
- You will act as a trusted advisor to leaders and teams, helping shape how we support, develop, and engage our people as we scale
- This role offers significant scope to grow into broader international HR expertise across the US, Canada, and South Africa as we expand
- This is your chance to make a difference and join a high growth tech startup on the ground floor
- You’ll report directly to Sandy Vo (that’s me!) People Lead at Zen. My background is in agency recruitment across all types of hiring: volume, permanent, contractors, as well as strategic exec level hiring
- I now manage the Talent function at Zen as well as all of our HR and People Operations and I can’t wait to coach you in everything I know. We're a small, collaborative People team, UK & Canada based but globally minded and we’re ready to support you as you grow and own your work
- People Partnering & Employee Experience
- Act as a trusted partner to managers and teams across the business on all people-related matters
- Support and guide managers through performance management cycles, including goal setting, reviews, and performance improvement processes
- Provide coaching and advice on team effectiveness, leadership capability, and employee development
- Manage and evolve the company’s people drumbeat (e.g. performance review cycles, check ins, calibration processes)
- Lead on employee relations matters, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally compliant outcomes
- Culture, Engagement & Internal Communication
- Own and drive our employee engagement surveys, including design, delivery, analysis, and action planning
- Report engagement findings to leadership and ensure meaningful follow-through on actions
- Lead initiatives to strengthen company culture, belonging, and connection across teams
- Own and deliver internal social, cultural, and team engagement initiatives (e.g. events, rituals, recognition programmes)
- Continuously improve the overall employee experience across the lifecycle
- Learning & Development
- Build and evolve our Learning & Development offering
- Identify capability gaps and design learning interventions aligned to business needs
- Source, design, or facilitate training programmes for managers and employees
- Support leadership development and ongoing skills growth across Zen
- Talent Acquisition
- Support hiring for key or strategic roles as needed
- Partner with leaders to ensure strong hiring decisions and alignment on talent needs
- Contribute to improving hiring quality, onboarding experience, and early employee success
- HR Operations & Broader People Work
- Handle day-to-day People queries and employee relations cases with professionalism and care
- Ensure HR policies and processes are applied consistently and fairly
- Contribute to improving HR systems, processes, and documentation
- Why you’ll love this role
- You will step into a broad, high-ownership role with real influence on culture and people strategy, where you’ll help shape the employee experience in a rapidly scaling organisation. You’ll be able to gain exposure to international HR practices and markets, while also having significant scope for career growth into senior People leadership roles
Application process
- Initial Screen (30 mins): With me! I’ll be delving deeper into your experience and why you’re interested in this role
- Meet the Team interview (1 hour): Opportunity to meet the People team. We work closely together and cover each other during busy periods. They’ll be asking you how you work - your approach, priorities, and ways you collaborate. At the same time, this is your opportunity to learn more about them, ask questions, and gain insight into how we operate. Think of it as a two-way conversation where you are interviewing us just as much as we are getting to know you
- Meet the People Managers (1 hour): You’ll meet two of our key people managers where they will interview you for skillset and stakeholder management
Salary benchmarks
Our take
With UK schools under immense financial pressure, Zen Educate is providing a smarter approach to education staffing. Recruitment in schools often relies on inefficient and expensive practices. Zen Educate is focused on tackling the pain points in the industry and providing a way to ensure schools get the best teachers possible.
It provides an online platform as an alternative to recruitment agencies, which is the only online platform accredited by the UK's Department of Education, helping schools fill staffing needs quickly and cost-effectively. Schools using the platform have reportedly saved 20-30% on supply cover costs.
On top of this, the company has also raised significant funding to support acquisitions in the UK and the US, plus the expansion of its operations and offering.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Top investors
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Aug 2025
$17.7m
SERIES B
May 2024
$37m
SERIES B
Total funding: $103.6m
Company benefits
- Macbook and tech equipment provided
- Regular "lunch 'n' learns" every month on a range of topics
- Investment in your professional development
- Regular socials
- Ownership in the company
- Pension scheme
- 25 days of holidays + all UK public holidays off
- Central London dog-friendly office with perks like fresh fruit, bike parking, showers, and an on-site gym and café
- Life insurance
- Vitality health insurance and benefits
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Electric Car Scheme
Company values
- Commit to the mission- We commit to our mission, our customers, and our teams. We work hard because we care more
- Choose greatness over comfort- Greatness and comfort rarely coexist. We seek greatness. We understand success takes grit & determination so we seek colleagues that possess it
- Act like an owner- We all take responsibility for driving the company forward and making it a success. If we see something that could be better, we fix it. We offer stock options to all employees
- Help each other be better- Every person at Zen is someone we can respect and learn from
- A culture of trust- We hire people who are great at their jobs and we let them get on with it while being there to lend a hand when needed
- Challenge the status quo- We take action when we can see opportunities for improvement. We are in it to make our customers' lives better and to fix a broken system
- Embrace learning over perfection- We make decisions quickly and we don't hesitate. We may disagree with a decision, but we support the team and the mission by committing to it. We embrace making unknowable mistakes and learning from them
Company HQ
HQ, London
Articles
Leadership
Slava Kremerman
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously a member of the Leadership Team at Nutmeg a FS startup, they also worked at Barclays and Aon.
Oren Cohen
(Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer)Ran the UK office of Optimizely, a Silicon Valley tech company. Prior to this, they worked at G-STAT and Intel.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Zen Educate
- At Zen, we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion, where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated for their unique traits, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer, more compassionate environment for all
- We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives — just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where people’s voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work
- We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all. We seek out diverse opinions, beliefs, and experiences because they collectively make us stronger; we’ve had former teachers, pilots, fundraisers, engineers, lawyers, marketers, social media experts and more join our team
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