People Lead -Part-time- High-Growth Global Impact Scale-Up

Location: Cape Town (Hybrid)

Compensation: Competitive salary + equity

Are you the kind of operator who loves building structure from chaos, shaping culture, and driving performance in a fast-moving, mission-led environment? We’re looking for a People Lead who wants to make a real dent in the world, not just run HR admin.

You’ll join a high-growth, award-winning global platform helping millions of young people develop the skills, confidence, and networks they need to thrive in an AI-driven and climate-shifting future. We partner with Fortune 500s, governments, and international organisations to deliver experiential learning campaigns to a global youth community.

This is a company recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Global Innovator, named a TIME100 Top EdTech, and featured in Bloomberg, CNBC and Forbes and you’ll be directly shaping the people engine behind it.

THE ROLE

As People Lead, you’ll be the operational heartbeat for the entire organisation, partnering directly with the founders and leadership to create a high-performance culture. You will:

• Own people operations end-to-end; hiring, onboarding, performance cycles, comp frameworks, offsites, and culture programmes.
• Run year-round recruitment, from identifying talent gaps to delivering an exceptional candidate experience.
• Operationalise compensation, bonus and equity frameworks, ensuring fairness, clarity and cross-team alignment.
• Launch and manage pulse surveys, onboarding flows, and people playbooks.
• Act as a trusted partner for team members, supporting HR issues with empathy and discretion.
• Drive culture codification- values, rituals, and working norms, to support rapid global growth.

This is a builder–finisher role for someone who is autonomous, detail-obsessed, and able to push projects over the line without being chased.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 5+ years in people, HR, operations, or strategy roles within high-growth startups or scale-ups.
• Experience in performance management, compensation processes, and internal operations.
• Background in strategy consulting, operations, or Series A+ environments is a huge plus.
• A calm, clear communicator who can work directly with founders and senior leadership.
• A passion for people, culture, and impact-driven work.
• A mindset that combines empathy with execution- you care deeply, and you deliver.

WHAT YOU GET

• A mission you can be genuinely proud of, improving access, opportunity and skills for young people globally.
• A fast-moving, international environment where creativity and ownership are celebrated.
• The chance to work with cutting-edge tech and world-class partners.
• Flexibility, autonomy, global exposure and opportunities for rapid growth.
• Competitive salary + equity in a high-potential global organisation