Head of People & Culture
About Somerce
Somerce is one of the UK’s fastest-growing TikTok Shop agencies, working with world-class brands like L’Oréal, P.Louise, and Unilever to unlock serious growth through social commerce. With offices in London and Manchester and a team of 40+ specialists spanning four countries, we blend creativity, performance, and an infectious energy that makes this a genuinely exciting place to work.
We’ve delivered record-breaking live streams, scaled affiliate communities from scratch, and helped brands go viral, all while building a culture our team actually loves being part of. Now, as we enter our next phase of growth, we’re looking for someone to own and evolve that culture from the inside out.
The Role
This is a newly created role for someone who believes that brilliant businesses are built by brilliant people, and that the employee experience matters just as much as the client experience. As our first Head of People & Culture, you’ll shape the strategy, structures, and rituals that help Somerce attract, develop, and retain exceptional talent as we scale.
You’ll be a trusted partner to the leadership team, a champion for the wider team, and the person who ensures our values aren’t just on the wall, they’re in the way we work every day. This role is both strategic and hands-on: you’ll design people frameworks one moment and be having a meaningful one-to-one with a team member the next.
What You’ll Be Doing
People Strategy: Develop and lead a people strategy that supports Somerce’s ambitious growth plans, ensuring the team scales thoughtfully and sustainably.
Culture & Engagement: Be the guardian of Somerce’s culture. Design initiatives that strengthen connection, belonging, and engagement across a hybrid, multi-location team.
Talent Acquisition: Own the end-to-end hiring process, from employer branding and attraction through to onboarding, making sure every new starter feels the Somerce energy from day one.
Learning & Development: Build development pathways, coaching frameworks, and growth opportunities that help people at every level do the best work of their careers.
Performance & Wellbeing: Create fair, transparent performance processes and embed wellbeing into everyday working life, not as a perk, but as a priority.
People Operations: Ensure HR fundamentals are solid: policies, contracts, compliance, and systems that are efficient, people-friendly, and scalable.
Leadership Partnering: Coach and support managers and senior leaders, helping them build high-performing, happy teams.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Champion DE&I across the business, embedding inclusive practices into hiring, development, and day-to-day decision-making.
Requirements
Who You Are
You’re someone who genuinely cares about people and understands that a thriving culture doesn’t happen by accident. You bring warmth and emotional intelligence alongside commercial awareness and operational rigour. Specifically:
- You have significant experience in a senior People / HR role, ideally within a fast-paced agency, creative, or tech environment.
- You’ve built or scaled people functions before and know what ‘good’ looks like at different stages of growth.
- You’re comfortable operating at both strategic and operational levels, happy to set the vision and roll up your sleeves.
- You have strong knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice.
- You’re an exceptional communicator who builds trust quickly at every level of a business.
- You’re energised by fast-moving, entrepreneurial environments and thrive on building things from scratch.
- You have a genuine passion for developing people and creating workplaces where everyone can do their best work.
Nice to Have
- Experience working in social media, e-commerce, or the creator economy.
- Familiarity with scaling teams internationally.
- CIPD qualification (or equivalent).
- Experience embedding people analytics and using data to inform decisions.
Benefits
Benefits
- 28 days holiday plus bank holidays
- 10 days work from anywhere
- £50 monthly wellness allowance
- Opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands launching and scaling on TikTok Shop
- A fast paced, high growth environment with significant career progression
- The opportunity to play a key role in building one of the leading TikTok Shop agencies globally