The People & Culture Manager is a hands-on senior leader who will own the end-to-end People & Culture function, enabling our team to thrive, and driving operational excellence through robust policies, streamlined processes, and modern digital systems. The role is responsible for nurturing organisational culture and lifting human capability to support Stone & Chalk’s mission: 

Stone & Chalk exists to accelerate Australia’s transformation to a sustainable, technology-driven future. We do that by building a connected ecosystem that gives innovators the foundations, networks and momentum they need to go further, faster. With hubs across Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, we help over 550 technology startups and scaleups to succeed.

This role is our one-stop-shop for People & Culture: a builder-practitioner who creates structural integrity in People & Culture operations, installs scalable people systems, and ensures a high-quality employee experience at key touch points. Stone & Chalk is a small, high impact not-for-profit — this role exists to help us move quickly while helping grow our capability, support our people, stay compliant, efficient, and rich in talent density.

Reports to: CEO 

Member of: Leadership Team 

Scope: National (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide) 

Location: Sydney or Melbourne 

Core remit: End to end People and Culture 

Direct reports: 0 

Hours: Part-time; 2-4 days per week.

What you’ll own

1) Organisational culture

Design and run the annual rhythm of People & Culture and culture activity that keeps a national team connected to a shared identity.

• Own the annual People & Culture calendar: all-hands cadence, recognition moments, engagement surveys, milestones, and team events across all three hubs, etc.
• Lead initiatives that strengthen engagement and connection within teams and between hubs, so we always feel like one team.
• Be the trusted leader for sensitive employee matters
• Facilitate values-based internal communications — make our values visible in how we recognise people, onboard, and make decisions.
• Run a regular pulse on engagement and culture health, and turn findings into concrete actions.
• Partner with the Leadership Team on how culture initiatives support broader organisational priorities (member value, growth, OKRs, national scaling).
• Act as a strategic advisor to the Leadership Team on talent acquisition and retention strategies to support business growth.

2) Human capability and development

Build the leadership and workforce capability Stone & Chalk needs to scale our founder outcomes — treating high talent density as a deliberate outcome.

• Develop and run a practical leadership development approach focused on the skills our people leaders need day to day.
• Coach leaders directly on people management fundamentals: setting expectations, giving feedback, managing underperformance, and resolving conflict early.
• Identify capability and skill gaps across the organisation and build targeted development initiatives.
• Build a simple, consistent language and framework for what ‘high performance’ and ‘high talent density’ look like at Stone & Chalk, so hiring, development and performance management all reinforce the same bar.
• Support succession planning for key roles.

3) People & Culture policies and compliance

Own Stone & Chalk’s People & Culture policy suite, and act as the single source of truth on employment law, industrial relations, and compliance across every state we operate in.

• Own the existing policy suite end-to-end and ensure they are fit-for-purpose, compliant with current legislation and plain to understand.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert on employment law, modern awards, and industrial relations, including for our not-for-profit and volunteer-involving context.
• Ensure national coverage and consistency, adapted only where state law requires it.
• Monitor legislative change and translate it into timely policy updates and manager guidance.
• Own staff training and change management of People & Culture policy compliance.
• Maintain a compliance calendar so nothing lapses silently — policy reviews, mandatory training, reporting obligations.

4) People & Culture processes and systems

Stone & Chalk is always looking to focus more resources on founder success, and efficient and effective People & Culture processes which leverage our core systems (Employment Hero) will help keep our workforce focused on value adding activities.

• Own the full implementation and optimisation of our core People & Culture system with the maximum possible set of processes and forms managed within the system. Move key People & Culture processes (e.g. onboarding forms, goal setting, engagement surveys, feedback, notices etc) into systematised workflows and automation rather than email or paper.
• Build and run the performance management framework — goal-setting cadence, check-ins, and a review cycle that’s lightweight enough for a small team but rigorous enough to drive real performance conversations.
• Design and own the recruitment lifecycle: role briefs, sourcing, interview structure, decision criteria, offer, and employer branding standards that reflect who we are.
• Own onboarding end-to-end — so new hires reach full productivity fast and feel set up to succeed.
• Own off-boarding with a similar rigour.
• Report on key People & Culture metrics such engagement, recruitment, talent density etc

Ideal Candidate Profile

You are someone who takes ownership of your function, cares about the people, and loves seeing a business deliver on its vision through the success of its people. You are comfortable with ambiguity and autonomy, and are passionate about enabling innovators. You are adept at switching between hands on tools and operations, and strategic conversations.

Essential

• 4+ years of senior People & Culture experience
• Track record of building or improving People & Culture processes
• High discretion and judgement handling sensitive employee matters
• Exposure to both the human capability and policy compliance sides of People & Culture
• Passion for the innovation ecosystem

Desirable

• Employment Hero experience
• Experience in small to medium sized businesses
• Demonstrated ability to operate the People & Culture function for virtual and in-person teams distributed across the country