Talent and People Partner

Goodwall.io is a mission-driven TIME100, WEF Global Innovator award winning platform that connects youth to skilling, opportunity and support alongside leading public and private institutions. Goodwall has over 4 million members. Goodwall works alongside industry leaders such as Microsoft, Nestle, UNICEF, Accenture and SAP to build pathways into skills and careers such as financial literacy, AI, green jobs and entrepreneurship for Gen Z.

Working alongside foundations and market leading corporates means youth never pay for pathways and credentials into learning or earning.

Goodwall has a clear vision to engage 100 million youth over the next 5 years by leveraging incredible talent, technology and AI, being the most effective and efficient organisation in our industry and thereby creating the most impact. Our work has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Fast Company, the UN and UNESCO.

Goodwall believes that impact at scale comes from technology, financial sustainability and business rigour. We are a multicultural team across Europe, Africa and Asia, and have raised over $25M from leading strategic and financial backers.

Your Mission

As Talent & People Partner, you’ll attract and hire the people who will take Goodwall to its next stage, while ensuring our team of 35 feels supported, engaged and set up to do their best work. About 80% of your time goes to recruitment: we plan to hire around 8 people in 2027, from programme and partnerships roles to senior leaders. The rest goes to running our people operations so that every contract, onboarding and team conversation is handled well and on time.

Your responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Sourcing and recruitment: Own the hiring plan with the founders and fill each role end to end: write the job descriptions, source candidates directly on LinkedIn and through networks, screen, run interviews and case studies, and manage offers. Track every role in Recruitee so the pipeline is always current.

• Senior hiring coordination: Run the process for senior hires with the founders, including shortlists, interview panels, references and offer terms.

• Onboarding: Lead onboarding for every new joiner, with contracts, equipment, access and a clear first 90 days agreed with their manager.

• Team relations: Be the person the team can speak to about their work, their questions and their concerns. Spot issues early and bring them to the right manager or founder.

• People operations and contracts: Keep every employment and contractor contract current in Deel, RLabs and PeopleForce, along with the handbook, leave and the people side of the contract register. Pass pay changes to Finance for payroll.

• Offboarding and employment matters: Manage offboardings and employee disputes with our employment counsel in South Africa, Spain, the UK and Switzerland, and prepare the documents and facts they need.

• Performance and roles review: Run the performance cycle with each manager and the quarterly review of roles and responsibilities.

• AI and systems: Work with the founders and our Head of Programs and AI to build AI tools and simple systems for hiring, onboarding and people admin, so the function stays light as we grow.

• Special initiatives: Lead a few people initiatives each year, such as our team offsite, employer brand or a compensation framework.

Your Profile

You are a recruiter first, with the judgement of a people generalist. You like finding great people others missed, you keep a hiring process moving without being chased, and you are hyper-organised with the details that matter to the team. You bring the following:

• 6 to 10 years of experience in talent acquisition, mostly in-house at scale-ups, plus some generalist HR

• Experience building a people function for the first time at a company of 20 to 80 people

• A track record of sourcing commercial, partnerships and senior roles directly, across South Africa, the UK, Europe and the US

• Hands-on experience with onboarding, offboarding and employee disputes, working with employment counsel; working knowledge of South African labour law

• Fluency with AI tools for sourcing, screening and admin; experience with Recruitee, Deel or PeopleForce is a plus

• Excellent organisation: contracts, records and processes are always up to date

• Discretion and sound judgement with confidential and sensitive matters

• Clear, warm communication with candidates, managers and the team

• A deliberate choice to work fractionally, with the time to commit 2 days a week

• Strong interest in youth, skills, education and the future of work

What we offer

• A mission you can be proud of and a meaningful opportunity and responsibility to impact the future of the next generation.

• The chance to shape who joins Goodwall and how our team grows, working directly with the founders.

• To leverage cutting edge, award winning technology and work alongside globally leading organisations to achieve outsized impact.

• Autonomy to manage your time and efforts to achieve our goals.

• A challenging, fast-moving environment working with an international team where change is constant and creativity is celebrated.

• A position with the potential to evolve as you acquire new skills, grow, influence and take on new responsibilities.

• Competitive compensation and a flexible work environment with a great team.