A company that believes every student deserves a better education has to hold itself to the same standard for the people who are building it.
Cadmus has done serious, first-principles work on who we are and what we value. We have a defined value set, a hiring philosophy grounded in evidence, and a genuine belief that the people function is a strategic lever — not a support function. What we do not yet have is the person to build it.
The Head of People & Culture will be the architect of how Cadmus attracts, develops, and retains the people who will take this company to its next stage. You will report directly to the CEO and be a genuine thought partner at the leadership level. This is a leadership role with real scope — hiring strategy, culture, people development, and the operational infrastructure that makes a growing global team work.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
In your first year, you will have:
- Cadmus' hiring process is values-led, consistent, and fast. Every role is filled with someone who raises the standard, not just fills the seat. The five Cadmus values are alive in how we source, assess, and onboard — not just written on a page. Leaders across the business are hiring with more confidence and less noise.
- The culture that made Cadmus good is now explicit and transferable. It lives in systems and practices, not just in the people who built it. As the team grows across Australia, the UK, and the US, the things that matter most about how Cadmus works are not diluted — they are strengthened.
- Every leader in the ELT has better visibility into the health of their team — and the tools to act on it. Feedback is structured. Career conversations are happening. The people who should be growing are growing. The people decisions that were being avoided are being made — with honesty, and with support.
- The people infrastructure a global company requires is in place — without the bureaucracy that slows companies down. Employment frameworks, compensation philosophy, performance processes — the foundations are solid, the ELT trusts them, and they have been built with enough care that they do not need to be rebuilt in two years.
Requirements
WHO YOU ARE
- 6+ years in people, HR, or talent leadership — spanning at least two of: hiring strategy, people development, culture, and HR operations.
- Experience building people functions in a high-growth environment — you know how to go from informal to structured without losing what made the informal work.
- Operational credibility — compensation frameworks, performance processes, multi-geography employment law. You can build these and you have.
- Strong enough presence to be a genuine thought partner to the CEO and ELT. This is a leadership role, not an advisory one.
- You are obsessed with how people develop — what conditions produce growth, and what organisations owe the people who build them.
- Mission before ego. You care whether the people function actually works — whether people are growing, whether the culture is holding — not whether the function is visible.
- You do not need a brief to identify what needs building. You come to the CEO with a recommendation, not a question.
- You see the architecture of how a team is built, developed, and held together as one of the most consequential design challenges in the business — and you are exceptional at it.
Benefits
WORKING AT CADMUS
Cadmus is a company that has done its values work seriously. Our values, the hiring rubric — these are not decorations, they are the foundation you are building on. You will report directly to both CEO, which means real access and real expectations. The team spans Australia, the UK, and increasingly the US — which makes the people infrastructure genuinely complex to build and genuinely important to get right. This is not a role for someone who wants to manage a mature function. It is a role for someone who wants to architect one.
