Chief People Officer

** This appointment is being managed in partnership with Redgrave, the executive search partner supporting McCarthy & Stone on this search. All applications and expressions of interest will be treated in strict confidence and managed by Redgrave. **

About The Role

McCarthy & Stone is seeking to appoint a high-calibre Chief People Officer to partner CEO Matthew Pratt, the Executive Team and Board through the next phase of growth, scaling and organisational development. This is a broad executive role spanning the Group’s Development, Services and central functions, leading the people agenda across approximately 3,000 colleagues.

The business enters this phase from a position of strength, with Great Place to Work certification, modern HR technology and self-service capability, and an established People team of c.30. The mandate is to provide the experienced leadership needed to translate ambitious plans into practical workforce strategies, scalable structures and stronger organisational capability.

A defining priority will be enabling significant growth across the Services platform, including the substantial expansion of care and support services. This will require building a high-performing recruitment, retention and workforce planning engine capable of scaling in a competitive labour market where talent attraction and colleague retention are critical to success.

Working closely with the CEO, the successful candidate will also help build a higher-performing organisation by modernising reward and performance frameworks, strengthening management capability, and bringing greater rigour, accountability and commercial focus to the People function.

This is a hands-on executive role for an operator who combines strategic judgement with delivery focus and wants to make a visible impact in a business with significant commercial potential and clear social purpose.

Key Priorities

Executive Leadership Contribution

• Operate as a trusted partner to the CEO, Board and Executive Team on strategic and operational matters, contributing as both a business leader and functional expert
• Translate business strategy into clear people priorities, providing sound judgement on leadership, organisational and sensitive people matters
• Build strong relationships and credibility across functions, business units and operating locations

Build the Workforce Platform for Growth

• Lead the people agenda required to support significant expansion across both divisions, particularly the growth of Services and care provision
• Create scalable recruitment, onboarding and retention capability across frontline and specialist populations
• Strengthen workforce planning aligned to growth plans and operational demand
• Develop sustainable talent pipelines in constrained labour markets

Strengthen Organisational Capability

• Partner the CEO and Executive Team to support the continued development of a high-performing organisation
• Build management capability, clear standards and a culture of ownership and delivery
• Support organisational design and structural evolution as the business grows

Lead the Group People Agenda

• Lead and develop the existing People team, ensuring clear priorities, strong delivery and effective business partnership
• Continue enhancing the pace, quality and practicality of People support across the business and maximise the value of systems, technology and self-service capability
• Provide strong leadership across employee relations, ensuring fair, consistent and commercially sound people practices
• Oversee reward, benefits and performance frameworks to ensure they remain competitive, effective and aligned to business needs
• Support executive reward governance and Remuneration Committee matters

Experience

You will be an experienced, high-calibre Chief People Officer who brings the judgement, credibility and depth of expertise to lead the people strategy for the organisation through it’s next phase of growth.

This role requires a proven senior HR leader, someone who combines strategic capability with strong operational execution, and who has successfully led complex people agendas through periods of growth, change and organisational development. The successful candidate will bring the maturity to navigate sensitive issues, the confidence to advise at executive level, and the practicality to stay close to the operation and ensure outcomes are delivered.

Candidates will bring:

• Significant senior people leadership experience within a complex, multi-site or operationally intensive business
• Experience leading large frontline or customer-facing workforces, ideally in related sectors such as care, hospitality, retail, logistics, housing, property or construction
• A track record of leading high performing HR / People functions to support growth, transformation, restructuring and organisational scaling agendas
• Strong recruitment, retention and workforce planning expertise, alongside deep employee relations experience and sound judgement managing complex people matters at scale
• Experience shaping reward, incentives and performance frameworks
• Credibility working with CEOs, Boards and senior operational leaders
• Exposure to private equity-backed or similarly performance-focused environments would be advantageous

Leadership Style

• An authentic culture carrier who leads by example, holds high standards and reflects the values of McCarthy & Stone in how they operate
• Straightforward, honest and courageous, willing to speak truth constructively and challenge where needed
• Inclusive and collaborative, able to build trust, strong relationships and shared success across teams, customers and partners
• Commercially aware, pragmatic and outcome-focused, able to flex effectively across distinct businesses and workforce groups
• Hands-on, accountable and delivery-oriented, taking ownership and following through on commitments
• Curious and improvement-minded, open to learning, simplifying complexity and driving positive change
• Calm, resilient and dependable under pressure, comfortable making difficult decisions when required