Head of People

Job DescriptionTitle: Head of People

Location: Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland

Reporting: Phil Martin, CEO

Job Type: Full-time

Industry: FMCG/Food Manufacturing

Our Company

Blanco Niño is a rapidly growing, award-winning, premium Mexican food brand known for exceptional quality, traditional cooking methods and its advocacy of regenerative farming practices.

The business sells a foodservice (B2B) offering across 19 European markets and the Middle East, and a retail (B2B + B2C) offering across 5 European markets. The major focus markets are the UK and Ireland for retail, with significant opportunity across the European continent for further expansion through our existing distribution network.

All of our production takes place at our factory in Clonmel, Ireland, which sits at the heart of the business and plays a critical role in delivering the quality and consistency we’re known for. We also have an office in London, near Holland Park.

The Company’s Mission

To produce Mexican food products that make us proud and empowers better farming in the process.

Your Mission

To lead the people function of Blanco Niño, helping us scale while making us more of who we are as we do. Driving organisation unity and mission alignment.

The Opportunity:

As Blanco Niño continues to grow, maintaining alignment across the business becomes increasingly important. This role sits at the heart of that.

We believe that a business is ultimately a group of people working towards a common goal. The degree to which those people are aligned, accountable and pulling in the same direction is a major determinant of success.

As Head of People, you will play a vital role in making that happen.

You will work closely with the CEO and leadership team to ensure the organisation has the right structure, the right people, and the right environment to perform at its best. From recruitment and onboarding to performance management, capability development and culture, your role will touch every stage of the employee journey.

This is a role for someone who enjoys balancing people and process. Someone who understands that culture doesn't happen by accident, that great teams require clarity and accountability, and that strong people systems create the foundation for exceptional performance.

What You’ll be Doing:Strategy & Organisational Development

• Work with the CEO and leadership to ensure the organisation is structured optimally.
• Support organisational capability planning and workforce planning activities.
• Ensuring clarity around roles, responsibilities and reporting lines.

Culture & Values

• Protect and strengthen the culture that makes Blanco Niño successful.
• Ensure company values are reflected in decisions and ways of working.
• Develop initiatives that build alignment across the business.
• Help maintain a strong connection between teams, functions and locations.

Hiring & Onboarding

• Lead recruitment across the business.
• Partner with hiring managers to attract and select exceptional talent.
• Continuously improve onboarding processes to ensure new hires integrate quickly and successfully.

Performance & Accountability

• Oversee and maintain people development systems and processes.
• Support managers in setting clear expectations and providing effective feedback.
• Help build a culture of accountability, ownership and continuous improvement.
• Support performance reviews, development conversations and succession planning.

Learning & Development

• Support managers in developing talent within their teams.
• Help build individual development plans and career pathways.
• Support leadership development across the organisation.

Employee Relations

• Provide guidance and support on employee matters.
• Manage disciplinary, grievance and performance-related processes where required.
• Support conflict resolution and help maintain positive working relationships.
• Ensure people-related decisions are fair, consistent and compliant.

Remuneration, Engagement & Retention

• Support and manage compensation and reward frameworks.
• Review and evolve our employee benefits, ensuring it remains competitive, meaningful and aligned with the needs of our people and the ambitions of the business.
• Monitor employee engagement and retention trends.
• Develop initiatives that help attract, retain and motivate high-performing people.

People Operations & Compliance

• Own and continuously improve people systems, policies and processes.
• Support managers in effectively managing their teams.
• Ensure compliance with employment legislation and best practice.
• Maintain accurate employee records and people data.

Occupational Health & Safety

• Support the development of a strong culture of safety across the organisation.
• Ensure appropriate people-related health and safety processes are in place.
• Help maintain compliance with relevant legislation and standards.
• Work with operational leaders to promote safe working practices.

Who You Are:

• You are a people person.
• You are an excellent communicator.
• You enjoy helping people perform at their best.
• You believe that culture matters and understand that it must be actively nurtured.
• You are highly organised and bring structure and clarity to complex situations.
• You have strong judgement and can balance the needs of individuals with the needs of the business.
• You are proactive and don't wait for problems to find you.
• You are comfortable operating in a fast-moving, fast-growing environment where not everything is fully defined.
• You enjoy building, improving and refining systems and processes.
• You bring energy, positivity and professionalism to your work.

Ideal Experience:

• Experience in a broad People, HR or People Operations role with responsibility across multiple areas of the employee lifecycle within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience supporting a growing organisation through periods of change and growth.
• Experience implementing or managing performance management processes.
• Experience supporting employee relations matters and people-related decision making.
• Experience developing people policies, systems and operational processes.
• Strong understanding of employment legislation and HR best practice.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders and managers.

It would be a plus if you also have:

• Recruitment or talent acquisition experience.
• Familiarity with the People System: HiBob.
• Experience in FMCG, manufacturing or an operationally intensive business.
• Experience supporting multi-site teams.
• Experience implementing HRIS, people systems or other technology platforms.
• Exposure to organisational design, workforce planning or leadership development. initiatives.

Why Join Us:

At Blanco Niño, you’ll be part of a small and ambitious team making a real impact, not just in the food industry, but in the world of sustainable agriculture.

This role gives you the opportunity to shape how we manufacture products of exceptional quality at scale, supporting both today’s production and the future of our products

Benefits

• Competitive salary and bonus
• Pension contribution
• Generous product allowance (our chips are seriously tasty)