About TORTUS AI
At TORTUS we work with clinicians and hospitals to provide clinically safe and reliable AI. We use speech-to-text and LLM models to infer information about a patient visit and provide verified documentation and actions, eliminating the documentation burden that costs clinicians hours every day.
We've recorded over 2 million consultations. Clients include London Ambulance Service and a large proportion of UK GP surgeries.
About the role
We are building a people function from the ground up. The foundations are in place; we have an HRiS, an ATS, a working employer brand, values, processes, and most importantly a talented and engaged team, and now we need someone to own and accelerate it.
This is a standalone People Lead role reporting directly to the CEO. You will be the primary People Partner for the leadership team, owning the full employee lifecycle from talent acquisition through to performance, development, and engagement.
This is a junior Head-of-level position: senior enough to set direction yet hands-on enough to do the work.
Where we are, and where you come in
Over the past several months we've worked with a consultant to establish the core infrastructure: basic tooling, a talent acquisition approach across our three hire types (AI/technical, clinical, and commercial), and early employer brand foundations. We've run our first values workshop and are mid-way through defining the behaviours and embedding plan that will make our culture explicit and durable.
What we need now is someone to take ownership of this, running the ongoing talent pipeline, deepening our people partnering capability, and building the performance and development frameworks that will support us as we scale through Series A and beyond.
What you'll do
Talent & Acquisition
Partner with hiring managers to deliver an end-to-end recruitment across that allows us to hire great talent
Build and maintain our employer brand, leveraging our mission and clinical impact as a talent differentiator
Use selective agency and search partnerships for niche or senior hires
People Partnering
Act as the primary people partner to the CEO, CTO and leadership team, advising on org design, team dynamics, and people decisions
Support managers on performance conversations, capability development, and team health
Be the go-to for employee relations, ensuring a fair and consistent approach
Performance & Development
Develop and embed a performance framework suited to a high-growth, mission-driven environment
Build out manager capability, coaching and training our growing leadership layer
Create career frameworks and progression pathways that help us retain great people
Culture & Engagement
Complete and embed our values work, turning the framework into lived behaviours
Run engagement initiatives and track sentiment, acting on what you find
Champion inclusion and psychological safety across a genuinely multi-disciplinary team (clinicians, engineers, AI scientists)
People Operations
Own our people policies and ensure they are current, compliant, and accessible
Manage the people calendar: reviews, pay cycles, onboarding, offboarding
Use data and reporting to inform decisions and demonstrate people ROI to the board
What we're looking for
Solid generalist background across the full people and talent lifecycle; you understand how the pieces connect
Genuine depth in HR business partnering and talent management; these are your spikes
Experience in a high-growth environment (Series A–C stage, ideally sub-100 people), where you've had to build as well as run
Comfortable operating as the sole senior people professional; you don't need a team around you to deliver
Used to working directly with founders and C-suite, influencing and bringing structure to ambiguity
Strong written and verbal communication; able to translate people strategy into things leaders and managers actually do
Nice to have
Background in software, AI, healthtech, or another regulated sector
Familiarity with the talent landscape for technical (AI/ML) and clinical hiring
Experience with HRIS optimisation
What does wild success look like?
In 12–18 months, TORTUS has a talent pipeline we're proud of, a performance culture that engineers and clinicians genuinely value, and a set of values that are visible in how we hire, promote, and lead.
Where does this role take you?
As TORTUS scales through Series A, this role grows with a team beneath it. The intersection of AI, clinical care, and fast growth is one of the most interesting talent environments in tech right now, and your work here will shape the kind of company we become.
Equal opportunities
TORTUS is an equal opportunities employer. We're building a genuinely multi-disciplinary team, clinicians, engineers, and AI scientists, and we know our best work comes from bringing different perspectives to the same problem. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Every application is reviewed by a member of our team, and hiring decisions are made on merit, skills, and experience.
Right to work in the UK is a legal requirement for this role, separate from and not a measure of a candidate's suitability, see above for more detail.