The position holder will serve as a trusted thought partner to executive leadership and portfolio company founders, aligning people strategies with fund performance. Combining strong commercial acumen with deep human capital expertise, the candidate will lead annual goal-setting and the quarterly accountability cadence, design competitive total reward architectures across cross-border jurisdictions, conduct human capital due diligence for new investments, and cultivate a high-performance, evidence-led organisational culture.
Key Responsibilities Strategic Human Capital Advisory
Serve as a strategic advisor to the COO and Managing Partners on all human capital dimensions across the firm and its investment lifecycle.
Translate fund strategy into an actionable human capital agenda, refreshed annually and stress-tested quarterly.
Provide strategic counsel on organisational design, leadership capability, and team effectiveness during growth or restructuring phases.
Contribute human capital insights to the Investment Committee, evaluating talent risks, management quality, and organisational dynamics during deal evaluations.
Own and govern the organisation s goal-setting framework, ensuring all individual and team objectives are aligned to fund strategy before Q1.
Design and facilitate the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) cadence tracking evidence-based progress against OKRs/KPIs, mitigating performance risks, and recalibrating priorities.
Manage the end-to-end performance cycle (mid-year, year-end, calibration, and documentation) with zero overdue reviews.
Develop and maintain an annual talent-tiering framework to drive succession planning, retention strategies, and reward decisions.
Recognition, Reward & Retention
Design and govern the total rewards philosophy, benchmarking base, variable, and long-term incentives against VC/PE market benchmarks in Nigeria and broader Africa.
Lead data-driven retention strategies for top-quartile talent, identifying flight risks early and implementing targeted interventions.
Embed non-monetary recognition frameworks that reinforce fund values and high-performance behaviours while ensuring reward equity and transparency.
Portfolio Human Capital Support & Due Diligence
Provide structured human capital advisory to portfolio companies during key inflexion points (scaling, leadership transitions, structural redesigns).
Support investment due diligence by evaluating management capability, organisational health, and cultural risks of target companies.
Curate and maintain an executive talent pipeline for senior leadership roles across portfolio companies.
Culture, Leadership & Organisational Development
Champion firm values and observable behaviours across hiring, performance conversations, and leadership practices.
Design and execute targeted leadership development programmes for internal staff and portfolio executives.
Steward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as a strategic driver of fund performance rather than a compliance exercise.
Monitor organisational health signals (engagement metrics, turnover patterns) to address culture risks proactively.
People Analytics & Workforce Intelligence
Leverage HR technology to generate actionable workforce analytics covering engagement, attrition risk, and capability gaps.
Produce and present a Quarterly People Dashboard to executive leadership within 10 business days of quarter-end.
Ensure all people and talent decisions across the firm are evidence-led, commercially grounded, and measured against business outcomes.
Educational Qualifications
Bachelor s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Economics, Organisational Psychology, or a related discipline.
Master s degree (MBA or MSc) from a top-tier institution is strongly preferred.
Relevant professional certifications (e.g., SHRM-SCP, CIPD Level 7, SPHRi) are strongly desirable.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
Experience: Minimum of 13 - 15 years of progressive human capital experience, with significant exposure to venture capital, private equity, management consulting, or fast-paced financial services.
Commercial Mindset: Demonstrated ability to think commercially, act with urgency, and link human capital strategies directly to financial and venture returns.
Performance Governance: Proven track record of designing and running firm-wide performance management systems, OKRs, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs).
Cross-Border Expertise: Deep understanding of compensation benchmarking, employment standards, and talent dynamics across African markets and international hubs (specifically UK/Europe).
Due Diligence & Advisory: Direct experience or capability in conducting leadership assessments and human capital due diligence for investment/M&A targets.
Leadership Potential: Strong executive presence, high emotional intelligence, and the strategic capacity to quickly step into broader operational oversight as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
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Closes Tuesday 27 October · 4 days left
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Human Resource Business Partner - Rhizome Consulting
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