Appointment of General Manager, People & Culture, Technology Scale-Up

At a Glance

• Sector – Technology
• Location – Sydney, NSW
• Workforce – 650 Employees
• Service – HR Executive Search
• Engagement – Retained Search

The Challenge

A technology scale-up had grown past 650 employees with People operations still running on the informal processes that worked at 100 people, no formal levelling framework, inconsistent performance management, and a founder-led culture starting to strain under scale.

Leadership needed someone who could build a proper People function from a near-standing start, without slowing the hiring pace the business still needed to hit its growth targets.

Our Approach

Civitas specifically targeted candidates with scale-up or hyper-growth building experience rather than steady-state corporate GM People & Culture backgrounds, screening for evidence of having actually built, not inherited, HR infrastructure.

The Solution

The appointed GM People & Culture had previously built the People function at another Australian scale-up from 150 to 900 employees, bringing a playbook rather than a theoretical approach.

Measured Impact

• Formal job architecture and levelling framework implemented within the first 6 months
• Reduced average time-to-hire by an estimated 25% through process redesign
• Established a consistent performance management cycle across the business for the first time
• Supported continued headcount growth without a corresponding rise in early attrition

Client Reflection

We needed someone who had actually built this before, not just studied how to.

Why This Matters

Scale-ups consistently underestimate how much operational HR infrastructure they need until growth exposes the gap,this appointment reflects Civitas’s advisory-informed view that a GM People & Culture hire in a scale-up needs demonstrated builder experience, not just seniority.

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