Interim People an Culture Lead
Ochre Bio
Interim Culture & People Lead (Parental Leave Cover – 6 Months)
Where - Oxford
Working Hours - Full-time 35 hours per week, (Could consider 0.8 FTE)
Contract - Fixed-term (6 months)
Start from - Mid - July (Please only apply if you are immediately available, sorry!)
Are you a steady, solutions-focused People & Culture lead who thrives in fast-paced environments?
Do you enjoy getting stuck into the detail, keeping things moving across teams and time zones, and making sure people processes run smoothly without fuss? Can you bring clarity, calm and a bit of humour to the chaos? If so, we’d love to hear from you.
About Ochre Bio
Ochre Bio develops RNA therapies for chronic liver disease. We use deep phenotyping, combining machine learning with genetics to uncover novel therapeutic targets, which are validated through our proprietary human-specific in vitro and ex vivo systems.
Ochre Bio develops RNA therapies for chronic liver disease. We use deep phenotyping combining machine learning with genetics to uncover novel liver therapeutic targets which are validated through our proprietary human-specific in vitro/ex vivo systems.
At Ochre, our mission is bold: to end the need for liver transplants.
Our approach is built on three pillars:
- Human Discovery – deep phenotyping of human liver samples and models to causally map genes to clinical outcomes
- Human Validation – testing therapies in human liver systems including co-cultures, diseased liver slices, and perfused whole livers
- RNA Therapies – accelerating the path from target to therapeutic using chemistry optimised for real-world human relevance.
Just as important as what we do is how we do it: with ambition, resilience, and kindness.
The People and Culture Role
We are looking for an experienced and thoughtful interim Culture & People Lead to step in for six months while our current lead takes parental leave. Many of the core people processes – performance and progression – are in place and gaining traction. The next phase is about keeping those running smoothly, supporting teams across our global sites, and picking up on a few key projects already in motion.
You will be joining at a point where things are structured enough to give clarity, but evolving enough to offer real scope to contribute. From refining manager toolkits and nudging along development initiatives, to keeping our day-to-day culture steady and supportive, you will play a central role in helping Ochre stay ambitious, human and well-organised during a period of steady growth.
This is a great opportunity for someone who loves operations, culture and coaching, and wants to make a difference by supporting a team and set of people practices already in motion.
What you’ll be doing:
- Coordinating day-to-day people operations across the UK, US and Taiwan
- Keeping our newly launched performance and goal-setting processes running smoothly
- Supporting compensation and benefits operations, including coordination with our US and Taiwan counterparts
- Handling first-line HR queries and employee relations issues, escalating where needed
- Continuing the rollout and communication of key People & Culture initiatives already in motion
- Managing our learning and development programme, including onboarding follow-ups and early-stage training offers
- Monitoring people data and reporting on key trends to support decision-making
- Ensuring people systems, data and processes (HRIS, folders, payroll links) are accurate, up to date and compliant
- Supporting hiring managers with headcount planning, recruitment coordination and offer processes
- Acting as a partner to line managers, coaching and supporting them on performance, development and team engagement
- Supporting ongoing DEI, wellbeing and engagement initiatives across sites
- Pitching in on anything that supports a great employee experience and enables Ochre to grow sustainably
What we’re looking for -
Must haves:
- Have strong HR generalist experience, ideally across international teams
- Have worked in a standalone HR or People & Culture role, balancing strategy with hands-on delivery
- Feel confident running day-to-day People & Culture operations independently, with good judgement and self-direction
- Have delivered or supported performance, development and pay processes
- Well organised, clear communicator with a calm and pragmatic approach to problem-solving
- Have experience navigating SOC 2, ISO27001 or similar audits, and understand how they intersect with people processes
- Passionate about learning and development, ideally with experience designing content and delivering workshops
- Thrive in environments that are fast-moving and evolving, where not everything is written down and agility matters more than perfection
Nice-to-haves:
- Experience in biotech, tech or other fast-paced, scaling environments
- Familiarity with compensation benchmarking and global benefits
- An interest in organisational culture-building and people systems
- Experience using BambooHR
How we work at Ochre Bio
This role requires behaviours that reflect and reinforce our three core laws. These principles guide how we show up for each other, handle setbacks, and keep moving forward together.
- Clarke’s Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
(Don’t fear failure, be ambitious)
- Murphy’s Law: “What can go wrong, will go wrong.”
(You will fail, learn quickly)
- Wheaton’s Law: “Don’t be a d*ck!”
(Others will fail you, support them)
A note from the current People & Culture Lead
Ochre is full of brilliant, kind and driven people. It is a place that runs on ambition, curiosity and trust – and one I care about deeply. As I step away for parental leave, I want to hand over this role to someone who will care just as much. Someone who will hold the spirit of the place while keeping things moving, who will balance structure with flexibility, and who understands that people are at the heart of everything we do here.