Head of People and Talent

Reports To: Directors

About the Role

The Catalyst Group is hiring a Head of People & Talent on behalf of its client, Rina’s Hospitality Group, an established and high-growth multi-unit hospitality group.

This is not a conventional HR administration position focused on payroll, attendance, or policy enforcement. Rather, it is a strategic organizational development and talent engineering role designed to build the human infrastructure required for aggressive, multi-city expansion.

Reporting directly to executive leadership, you will serve as the chief architect of the group’s talent pipeline, succession planning, and leadership bench strength. Your primary mandate is to answer a critical strategic question: Do we have the people, capability, and operational leadership to launch new locations without diluting the quality of our existing operations?

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct structured evaluations of existing management and operational teams to map competencies, identify high-potential talent, pinpoint skills gaps, and uncover succession risks across both front-of-house and kitchen operations

• Work backwards from group expansion roadmaps to project future leadership needs, determine lead times for talent readiness, and map out internal promotion versus external hiring ratios

• Build structured succession frameworks for critical branch, culinary, and corporate support roles so that every new opening is backed by a fully vetted leadership pipeline

• Partner with Operations and Culinary Directors to establish clear career progression matrices, skill certifications, and leadership development programs to train and promote team members internally

• Drive end-to-end recruitment for critical management, specialist, and executive positions where internal successors do not yet exist

• Implement structured performance management, clear KPI tracking, and comprehensive onboarding systems that accelerate time-to-productivity for new hires

• Cultivate high-performance leadership behaviors, employee engagement initiatives, retention strategies, and employer branding over time to position the group as a top employer for frontline and operational talent

Key Requirements

• Proven track record in Talent Management, Succession Planning, Organizational Development, or Learning & Development within high-growth, multi-unit environments

• Experience managing or building talent pipelines for large frontline workforces across hospitality, QSR, retail chains, FMCG, banking, or telecom

• Demonstrated expertise in creating competency frameworks, succession plans, and workforce expansion models from scratch

• Practical experience partnering with operational and technical leaders to build skill certification programs and internal promotion tracks

• Commercial and operational mindset that approaches people strategy as a business enabler rather than an administrative compliance function

• Strong executive presence, analytical skills, and communication capabilities to influence leadership and mentor field teams alike