Talent Partner
Zen Educate
People & HR
London, UK
GBP 35k-45k / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 6, 2026
Location: London
Job Type: Full-time, on site
Salary: £35,000 - 45,000 + share options
About the role
If you’ve made it this far, either the job title or Zen has caught your eye. I can’t wait to tell you more about Zen, but let’s focus on the role first. I’m looking for a new Talent Partner to join me. (Hi! I’m Sandy, People Lead at Zen 👋)
Yes, I’m looking for the classic “fast-moving, high-volume, delivery-focused recruiter” and I genuinely mean it. We’re scaling quickly, partnering closely with every member of our senior leadership team, and often hiring up to 30 roles at once. Pace matters. But this role goes beyond filling roles. I’m looking for someone who brings urgency, has solid experience in volume hiring, and is excited to partner with senior leaders on more strategic, business-critical roles too. You’ll need to love the full talent lifecycle, from early screening and references, right through to offer calls, closing cohorts, and everything in between.
This isn’t a “heads down, deliver” role. You’ll be spotting patterns, challenging assumptions, and feeding insights back into the business to influence how we hire, who we bring in, and how we continue to scale smarter over time.
About Zen
Zen Educate is a technology company that matches schools with temporary educator staff. Our mission is to change the world of education recruitment. Schools spend over $9bn a year on temporary educators, with over $2bn per year of that spent on fees that take money out of the education system. By leveraging the latest technology, we purpose built a platform that helps schools to pay less while educators earn more.
We want students to have access to the best education possible, and we go the extra mile to find, onboard, match, and coach incredible educators that deeply care about their students. We wake up every day on a mission to care more. We care more about our schools. And we care more about our educators.
This is your chance to make a difference and join a high growth tech startup on the ground floor. We are a collaborative company, and the career growth opportunities are endless if you are someone willing to dive in, be entrepreneurial, and do whatever is needed to get the job done. We are passionate about learning and development, and will invest in both your personal and professional growth.
We have recently raised our Series B funding of $37mil, the largest round in European EdTech last year. This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference and be part of a high growth start-up that is expanding rapidly in the UK and US markets!
What the People team achieved last year
We’re a small team that moves fast. In 2025, we successfully:
- Made 195 new hires, and of course onboarded them
- Conducted and coordinated 1,518 interviews
- Revamped our handbooks, policies, and processes to ensure 100% company compliance
- Delivered countless training sessions across People Operations and Talent, upskilling leaders on how to interview, offer, reference, and manage their people
- Developed our People Drumbeat with a regular cadence of employee engagement surveys and performance reviews across all of our regions
- Managed countless daily moments across onboarding, offboarding, documentation, engagement, and general team support
This is the momentum you’ll step into and help drive forward.
Who you’ll be working with
You’ll report directly to Sandy Vo (that’s me!) People Lead at Zen. My background is in agency recruitment across all types of hiring: volume, permanent, contractors, as well as strategic exec level hiring. I now manage the Talent function at Zen as well as all of our HR and People Operations and I can’t wait to coach you in everything I know. We're a small, collaborative People team, UK based but globally minded and we’re ready to support you as you grow and own your work.
What you’ll own
- You will run and own the Talent function at Zen, utilising all the resources we have to ensure we continue to scale. Full recruitment lifecycle for our UK and South Africa roles, from job description to offer stage.
- Cohort and high volume hiring, especially for educator / school facing and internal roles that grow in waves.
- Stakeholder partnership, aligning with hiring managers and senior leadership to ensure fast, focused hiring that is constantly evolving to your market insights.
- Proactively source, network, and maintain strong candidate pools.
- Act as the key communicator for candidates, being responsive, clear, and empathetic at every stage.
- Own and actively manage our Glassdoor presence, ensuring it accurately reflects the candidate and employee experience at Zen.
- Process improvement, identifying gaps, flag inefficiencies, and suggest better ways of doing things.
Why you’ll love this role
You’ll make an impact from day one, helping us build and deliver an outstanding candidate and employee experience in the UK. On top of this, you’ll be shaping the type of people we hire at Zen and ultimately the culture of our business as we scale. You’ll work closely with Sandy who is committed to upskilling and empowering you. This is a high trust team, and we love seeing people stretch and own new areas. You’ll be doing work that matters, supporting our mission to help schools and educators thrive, while shaping the Talent function at a company that’s scaling fast.
What We're Looking For
If the above reads a bit vague, here's a breakdown of what I'm looking for:
- You've worked in fast-moving, high-volume environments, managing multiple roles simultaneously without compromising quality. Experience in agency recruitment is a plus but not essential.
- You've partnered with senior leaders, providing market insights, spotting hiring patterns, challenging assumptions, and influencing hiring decisions.
- You love managing the full talent lifecycle, from crafting job descriptions, sourcing, and interviewing, to offer negotiation. You take ownership of your pipeline and see every stage through.
- You have experience using tools such as LinkedIn Recruiter to proactively source, maintain candidate pools, and build talent pipelines for current and future needs. You know how to attract top talent and engage them in a way that reflects the company’s culture and values.
- You track recruitment metrics, analyse patterns, and provide actionable insights to improve hiring efficiency and candidate quality over time.
The interview process
Initial Screen (30 mins): With me! I’ll be delving deeper into your experience and why you’re interested in this role.
Meet the Team interview (1 hour): Opportunity to meet the People team. We work closely together and cover each other during busy periods. They’ll be asking you how you work - your approach, priorities, and ways you collaborate. At the same time, this is your opportunity to learn more about them, ask questions, and gain insight into how we operate. Think of it as a two-way conversation where you are interviewing us just as much as we are getting to know you.
Meet the Hiring Managers (1 hour): You’ll meet two of our key hiring managers where they will interview you for skillset and stakeholder management.
If you feel that there aren't enough stages to give you insight into who we are, we’re also happy to organise any additional conversations you think may be beneficial. And if you’re curious about the role, but still have questions before you put in an application I’m happy for you to contact me directly here: sandy.vo@zeneducate.com
35000 - 45000 GBP a year