About CPPE

Cosmetic Physician Partners Europe (CPPE) is a physician-led network of leading medical aesthetic clinics across the UK and Europe. Building on the success of Cosmetic Physician Partners in the US, we bring together some of the most respected operators in the industry. We partner with world renowned clinic founders and industry experts to help them grow their practices, enhance client experiences, and stay at the forefront of innovation. Along with our physician partners and shareholders, we are committed to a long-term vision that focuses on better partnerships, better support, and a culture that lasts.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on, and people-first Director of People & Culture to cover a maternity leave period of approximately 12 months. You will be joining at an exciting and fast-moving stage of CPPE’s growth, with a significant number of new clinic partnerships expected to onboard across the UK and Europe during the cover period. 

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will lead the day-to-day P&C remit for our HQ team of approximately 25 employees across three offices, while providing people operations support, compliance oversight, and ER guidance across our expanding network of clinic partners in the UK, Switzerland, Ireland, and beyond.

You will directly manage one People & Culture Generalist, sharing ownership of the full employee lifecycle across HQ and clinic partners, from recruitment and onboarding through to payroll coordination, ER, compliance, and offboarding.

This is a broad and varied role that spans the full depth of people operations, from compliance and payroll to clinic integration and employee experience. You will gain significant exposure to a fast-scaling, multi-country business and have real scope to shape how we deliver on people operations as CPPE grows. For the right person, this fixed-term role has the potential to evolve into a permanent position as the P&C function expands, supporting CPPE’s continued international growth and increasing clinic network across Europe.

This role suits someone who thrives in lean, entrepreneurial, and fast-moving environments, hits the ground running, and brings both strong operational delivery and genuine care for people.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Team Management

• Lead and manage one direct report (People & Culture Generalist), maintaining clear ownership of workstreams across the shared employee lifecycle and ensuring consistent, high-quality P&C delivery across HQ and clinic partners.

Employee Relations and Compliance

• Act as the primary P&C advisor to HQ leadership and staff on day-to-day ER matters, escalating complex or sensitive cases appropriately.

• Review, approve, and provide guidance on employment contracts, contractor agreements, offer letters, and HR policy documents.

• Proactively identify gaps in HR compliance across all jurisdictions, and ensure a clear and well-executed strategy is in place to achieve and maintain complete, accurate HR records across the business.

• Stay ahead of employment law developments across all relevant jurisdictions, including the UK, Switzerland, Ireland, and Germany and Austria as DACH acquisitions progress, proactively flagging compliance risk and leading on required updates.

Payroll

• Hold ultimate accountability for the P&C side of multi-country payroll, ensuring inputs are accurate, complete, and delivered on time across all existing and new jurisdictions.

• Coordinate closely with Finance, including Treasury and the CFO, to ensure payroll runs smoothly as CPPE continues to operate and expand into new markets.

• Ensure robust handoff processes are in place between P&C and Finance, and that any issues are identified and resolved ahead of each payroll cycle.

Clinic Integration and HR Due Diligence

• Own the end-to-end P&C workstream for clinic onboarding and integration, ensuring each new partner clinic has the employment documentation, HR processes, and people support in place from day one.

• Lead HR due diligence for all clinic acquisitions, identifying any compliance gaps, missing documentation, contractual red flags, or employment risks before and during the transaction process, with the P&C Generalist supporting on follow-up actions such as issuing new contracts.

• Work cross-functionally with Operations, Finance, Legal, and the Partner Onboarding team to surface and resolve people-related blockers or risks early in the integration process.

• Build scalable people processes and documentation that can be applied consistently as the clinic network grows.

Recruitment, Onboarding and Performance Management

• Partner with the P&C Generalist on recruitment across HQ, dividing ownership based on hiring priorities, with the Generalist leading on most processes and this role providing ad-hoc support and senior oversight on more senior or executive hires.

• Ensure adherence to salary bands across all HQ hiring, promoting internal equity and keeping all offers within agreed budgets across functions.

• Oversee the people operations components of new starter onboarding, including enrolment onto health insurance, pension, and payroll across all relevant jurisdictions, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks as the business grows.

• Support the delivery of performance management processes across HQ, ensuring managers are equipped and cycles run consistently and on time.

Essential Experience Requirements:

• Substantial HR generalist experience, ideally in a PE-backed, multi-entity, or acquisition-led business.

• Experience in start-ups or scale-ups with a proven track record of creating structure and implementing new processes.

• Experience managing at least one direct report in a people function.

• 3 to 5 years of experience in a People Operations or ER-focused role, with hands-on ownership of HR compliance, employment documentation, and record-keeping across one or more jurisdictions.

• Strong, current working knowledge of UK employment law, with confidence advising on ER, contracts, and compliance without day-to-day legal support.

• Experience working across multiple countries or within international, multi-jurisdiction teams.

• Experience leading on complex payroll coordination, including hourly employees, overtime, commissions, or shift-based workforces, with the ability to own the HR side of payroll end-to-end and coordinate effectively with Finance and external vendors.

• Proven ability to build process from scratch, operate with limited infrastructure, and keep people operations running smoothly in a fast-moving environment.

• Strong stakeholder management, with the confidence to advise and push back at all levels including founders, clinic partners, and senior leadership.

• Comfortable working in tech-enabled HR environments, with confidence navigating HRIS platforms, payroll systems, and people data.

Desirable Experience Requirements:

• Experience supporting HR through a business acquisition or integration process, including involvement in HR due diligence.

• Exposure to Swiss, German, Austrian, or Irish employment law.

• Experience with multi-country payroll across two or more jurisdictions.

• Experience with Rippling or a comparable HRIS platform.

• Background in healthcare, aesthetics, dental, veterinary, or other multi-site clinic-based businesses.

• French or German language skills at a professional level.

• CIPD Level 5 or Level 7 qualification.