People Director

About SUMWON STUDIOS

The role

Hiring, culture, and performance

• Own workforce and hiring plans with functional leaders and Finance, aligned to business priorities and budget.
• Lead Recruitment through the Head of Recruitment, setting delivery, quality, pace, and cost accountability.
• Set senior hiring standards, role scorecards, structured assessment, and quality-of-hire measures.
• Build an accountable, high-performing culture; improve communication and employee feedback across locations and teams.
• Design performance frameworks, KPIs, manager development, onboarding, succession plans, and critical-role pathways.

Organization, retention, and operations

• Partner with leaders on organization design, reporting lines, spans of control, decision rights, and workforce planning.
• Own regretted attrition and develop compensation and progression frameworks that support retention and competitiveness in the UAE and UK.
• Oversee People Operations, employee relations, policies, processes, governance, and compliance across the UAE and UK.
• Build scalable People infrastructure without unnecessary complexity or headcount.

AI and People technology

• Embed AI and automation across recruitment, screening, assessment, onboarding, performance management, reporting, and people analytics.
• Identify technology opportunities that reduce manual processes and improve employee experience.
• Champion AI adoption across the business and continually test and implement tools that improve People-function effectiveness.

What you'll bring

• Track record building or rebuilding a People or organizational function in a lean, fast-growing business, including building rather than inheriting infrastructure.
• Expertise in organization design, performance management, manager development, and employee engagement.
• Evidence of difficult people decisions and measurable outcomes; commercial ability to connect people decisions to business results.
• Hands-on implementation of AI or automation in People processes, with clear examples of what was built and its impact.
• Strong working knowledge of UAE or UK employment practices; experience in both jurisdictions is highly advantageous.
• Credibility working with C-suite leaders and the Board and constructively challenging senior stakeholders.
• Fashion, retail, e-commerce, consumer, or another fast-paced commercial environment is highly desirable.

What the company offers

• 25 days of annual leave, increasing to 30 days after the first year.
• 30% employee discount across SUMWON STUDIOS brands.
• Learning and development opportunities, company social events, and the opportunity to help shape a global multi-brand platform.