People Lead

Fresh Food, Happy Dogs.

We believe dogs deserve the healthiest, most natural and tastiest meals - with none of the nasties. That’s why we make FRESHly prepared food, cooked just like you would at home and delivered direct to our customers in perfect portions. As a B-Corp certified company, you’re joining a sustainable business that genuinely cares about our people, our products and our impact on the planet. Our goal is simple: to help dogs live healthier, happier, and longer lives, while leaving humans smiling after every interaction.

We’ve come a long way since our co-founders (Kev & Dave), hand delivered the very first Butternut Box. Today, we feed hundreds of thousands of hungry dogs across the UK and Europe - but we won’t stop until we’re feeding dogs everywhere. To get there, we need a team of brilliant people who share that ambition to come and work for us. 

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🐾 The job: 

Please note that this role will close on: Monday 16th March.

A bit about the team you’ll be joining:

You will be a trusted advisor to stakeholders across Finance, Engineering, Commercial, Customer Love, Legal, and Brand & Creative, with a focus on the UK, Ireland and Remote teams.

You will be part of the People Team, reporting directly to the Head of People (UK & Ireland).

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A bit about the work you’ll deliver:

• Own the employee lifecycle with rigour and care. Take accountability for cyclical People activities (system updates post pay and performance reviews, sabbaticals), and end-to-end lifecycle processes including onboarding, policies off-boarding, parental leave, flexible working and internal moves. Ensure all documentation (secondments, promotions, location changes, contractual variations) is accurate, timely and compliant.
• Lead employee relations with sound judgement. Own case management across absence, probation, disciplinaries, PIPs, grievances and appeals. Coach managers to handle issues confidently and pragmatically, balancing commercial outcomes with fairness and risk management, and reducing escalation through early, preventative action.
• Build scalable, compliant People operations. Safeguard the integrity of systems, workflows and data across HRIS (HiBob)and payroll. Partner closely with Payroll & Benefits to ensure accuracy of contracts, changes in hours, and EOR arrangements. Oversee IR35 assessments, visa applications and renewals, and ensure policies and guidance remain aligned to current legislation.
• Enable better leadership decisions. Deliver training and collaborate with L&D to strengthen manager capability. Use surveys, exit data and recurring ER themes to generate practical recommendations, improve programmes, and embed Butternut’s values into everyday behaviours, ensuring People operations actively drive performance, compliance and operational efficiency.

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A bit about what we’re looking for:

Please note this role is based in our London office. The ways of working expectations are 3 days per week in the office, 2 days from home. Flexibility may be required to meet business needs.

• Hands-on, zero ego, proud of your craft. You’re willing to roll your sleeves up to get the job done — whether that’s resolving a complex ER case, working through highly detailed or repetitive tasks, or fixing a broken workflow — and you take genuine pride in leaving things better than you found them.
• A self-starter who joins the dots. You don’t wait to be told what’s broken. You spot patterns across cases, data and feedback, connect them to business priorities, and turn insight into practical improvements. You draw on your experience of up-skilling managers through both 1:1 coaching and larger training sessions.
• Commercial and systems-minded. You’ve built or optimised scalable lifecycle processes and HR systems (e.g. HiBob), understand how People work links to performance, and are comfortable influencing stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong operational depth in UK employment practice. You’re confident navigating ER, compliance, IR35, visas and contractual change, and can translate legislation into clear, practical guidance for managers. Knowledge of Irish employment practice and law is an advantage.
• Sound judgement and resilience. You’ve handled complex, sensitive cases and can stay calm and balanced under pressure, making clear calls early while protecting both culture and commercial outcomes.

 

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⏳ The interview process:

1. Initial call with your dedicated Talent Acquisition Partner, carried out remotely. 
2. Sometimes the process will include a take home task, or a presentation of some kind.
3. Skills interview, usually carried out remotely. 
4. Behaviours interview, usually carried out in person.

We usually expect our interview process to take 3-5 weeks, end to end. 

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💡 Important things to note:

• We recommend getting your application in as soon as possible. We reserve the right to close the role early. 

• Our team thrives on collaboration. We spend 3 days a week in our West London office (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and 2 days working from wherever you’re most productive. Because being together is a big part of our culture, we’re looking for someone within a comfortable commutable distance to London.

• We’re a small (but mighty!) recruitment team. We aim to respond to everyone personally, but if we’re flooded with brilliant applications, we may need to close the role early. We appreciate your patience while we review applications. 

• For this specific role, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship, so you’ll need the right to work in the UK.

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🙌 Our benefits:

• 25 days holiday (plus 8 bank holidays) and an additional day for every year of service up to 5 years
• 5 additional, paid 'paws' days off per year dedicated to your learning, development or personal wellbeing. Hit pause when you need it most
• £500 personal learning & development budget to sharpen your skills
• A significant discount on our Fresh food, to keep your own dogs as healthy as our customers
• Enhanced parental leave
• Flexible core working hours
• Cycle to work scheme
• Pension with NEST
• Private Medical Insurance with Vitality
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa
• Paid time off for fertility treatments and pregnancy loss
• Paid sabbaticals for squad members with 5 or more years service at Butternut
• Discounted gym access through MyGymDiscounts
• Lots of office dogs (Ajax, Peggy, Chief, Louis, Hansen, Winnie and many more….)

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❗️We believe in a seat at the table for everyone. 

Butternut Box is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that to make the best food for all dogs, we need a team that represents all humans. We celebrate different nationalities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We are specifically committed to increasing representation from underrepresented groups. We want a strong, diverse team built from different identities and lived experiences. We’re not perfect, but we are dedicated to the ongoing work of building an inclusive, supportive place where you can do the best work of your career.

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