Location: Chicago
Job Type: Full-time, hybrid working
Salary: $55,000 - 65,000 + share options
About the role
We are seeking a dynamic and commercially minded People & Talent Partner to join our growing People team. This is a high-impact, broad scope role with a strong focus on people partnering, culture building, and employee experience, alongside some talent acquisition responsibilities.
You will act as a trusted advisor to leaders and teams, helping shape how we support, develop, and engage our people as we scale. This role offers significant scope to grow into broader international HR expertise across the US, Canada, and South Africa as we expand.
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 & Canada based but globally minded and we’re ready to support you as you grow and own your work.
What you’ll own
People Partnering & Employee Experience
- Act as a trusted partner to managers and teams across the business on all people-related matters.
- Support and guide managers through performance management cycles, including goal setting, reviews, and performance improvement processes.
- Provide coaching and advice on team effectiveness, leadership capability, and employee development.
- Manage and evolve the company’s people drumbeat (e.g. performance review cycles, check ins, calibration processes).
- Lead on employee relations matters, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally compliant outcomes.
Culture, Engagement & Internal Communication
- Own and drive our employee engagement surveys, including design, delivery, analysis, and action planning.
- Report engagement findings to leadership and ensure meaningful follow-through on actions.
- Lead initiatives to strengthen company culture, belonging, and connection across teams.
- Own and deliver internal social, cultural, and team engagement initiatives (e.g. events, rituals, recognition programmes).
- Continuously improve the overall employee experience across the lifecycle.
Learning & Development
- Build and evolve our Learning & Development offering.
- Identify capability gaps and design learning interventions aligned to business needs.
- Source, design, or facilitate training programmes for managers and employees.
- Support leadership development and ongoing skills growth across Zen.
Talent Acquisition
- Support hiring for key or strategic roles as needed.
- Partner with leaders to ensure strong hiring decisions and alignment on talent needs.
- Contribute to improving hiring quality, onboarding experience, and early employee success.
HR Operations & Broader People Work
- Handle day-to-day People queries and employee relations cases with professionalism and care.
- Ensure HR policies and processes are applied consistently and fairly.
- Contribute to improving HR systems, processes, and documentation.
Why you’ll love this role
You will step into a broad, high-ownership role with real influence on culture and people strategy, where you’ll help shape the employee experience in a rapidly scaling organisation. You’ll be able to gain exposure to international HR practices and markets, while also having significant scope for career growth into senior People leadership roles.
What We're Looking For
If the above reads a bit vague, here's a breakdown of what I'm looking for:
- Experience in a People Partner, HR Business Partner, or hybrid HR/Talent role where you've been responsible for a wide range of HR-related tasks including onboardings, exit interviews, benefits, employee complaints, flexible working requests etc.
- You have experience coordinating and running performance review cycles end-to-end, and are now looking to take a more influential role in how managers interpret, calibrate, and act on performance outcomes.
- You’re motivated by improving consistency in how performance is managed across teams, and by helping managers build confidence in giving feedback, driving development conversations, and improving overall employee engagement and growth.
- You've been involved in launching and running employee engagement surveys, and are now looking to go beyond delivery into real impact, turning feedback into meaningful change. You care about what the data is saying, and more importantly, how it translates into action that improves the employee experience.
- You’re excited by growth environments, comfortable being a key go-to person for managers and employees, and energised by helping build and shape people processes rather than just running them.
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 People Managers (1 hour): You’ll meet two of our key people 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: [email protected] 