Designation: Director of People & Culture Transformation
Central Function: People
Location: Dubai, UAE
About SUMWON STUDIOS
SUMWON STUDIOS is a global brand house building, scaling and reimagining culturally relevant fashion, lifestyle and consumer brands. Our portfolio includes MISSGUIDED, SUMWON, BALR, Baby Phat, Playboy, AiiRZ, KiZN, KSTM and 11SKNDS.
In just a few years, we have grown from a start-up to one of the fastest-scaling brand platforms in theindustry. Combining creativity, data, technology and an agile supply chain, we build brands designed to win in today's digital-first world.
We operate at the intersection of culture, commerce and innovation. Whether launching new brands, acquiring established ones, or unlocking growth opportunities across our portfolio, we move quickly, think globally and challenge conventional ways of working.
The Role
We are looking for a Director of People & Culture to make our people and culture a genuine competitive advantage.
You will own how Sumwon plans, hires, develops, measures and retains its best people, while helping shape the organisation as we continue to add brands, channels and markets.
This is not a traditional HR role. We are looking for a commercially minded operator who sees people decisions as business decisions, measures impact and builds lean, scalable systems with AI at their core.
You will work closely with the COO, C-suite and functional leaders, with regular exposure to the Board. The Head of Recruitment will report into this role, giving you ownership across both talent acquisition and the wider People function.
Key Responsibilities
Hiring & Talent Quality
- Own the company-wide workforce and hiring plan in partnership with functional leaders and Finance, prioritising roles against the wider business plan and budget.
- Lead Recruitment through the Head of Recruitment, holding the function accountable for delivery, quality, pace and cost.
- Set the hiring standard for senior roles through clear role scorecards, structured assessment and disciplined decision-making.
- Build meaningful measures around quality of hire, tracking performance and retention at 6 and 12 months.
- Ensure hiring decisions are aligned to both immediate business needs and long-term organisational capability.
Culture, Communication & Engagement
- Own the strategy for building a high-performing, outcome-driven culture where people are empowered, accountable and able to see a clear path for progression.
- Strengthen communication across the organisation, creating greater visibility and connection between Dubai, Manchester and wider teams.
- Establish regular employee feedback mechanisms and translate insights into measurable action.
- Build a culture that supports high performance while remaining collaborative, entrepreneurial and commercially focused.
Performance & Manager Development
- Design and lead a performance framework that clearly differentiates high performers, solid contributors and underperformance.
- Partner with leaders to establish clear expectations, KPIs and accountability across their teams.
- Support managers in giving effective feedback and managing performance confidently and consistently.
- Build and deliver manager onboarding and development programmes that raise the leadership standard across the business.
- Establish succession plans and development pathways for critical roles.
Organisation Design & Workforce Planning
- Partner with the COO and senior leaders on organisational structures, reporting lines, spans of control and decision rights as the business evolves.
- Lead workforce planning in line with the commercial strategy and budget.
- Ensure the organisation remains lean, scalable and fit for purpose as Sumwon adds brands, functions and markets.
Retention & Reward
- Own regretted attrition across the business, identifying trends, diagnosing root causes and implementing solutions.
- Develop clear compensation and progression frameworks that reward contribution and support retention.
- Ensure reward structures remain competitive across both the UAE and UK markets.
- Use people data to identify where the business is losing high-performing talent and why.
People Operations & Compliance
- Oversee People Operations across the UAE and UK, ensuring strong governance and compliance with relevant employment legislation.
- Provide leadership on employee relations, policies, processes and people governance.
- Build scalable People infrastructure without creating unnecessary complexity or headcount.
- Use technology, automation and AI to create a lean, efficient People function.
AI & People Technology
- Embed AI and automation across the People function, including recruitment, screening, assessment, onboarding, performance management, reporting and people analytics.
- Identify opportunities to reduce manual processes and improve the employee experience through technology.
- Champion AI adoption and capability across the wider business.
- Continuously test and implement new tools that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the People function.
What You'll Bring
- A strong track record of building or rebuilding a People or organisational function within a lean, fast-growing business.
- Experience working in environments where you have had to build rather than inherit established People infrastructure.
- Strong expertise across organisation design, performance management, manager development and employee engagement.
- Evidence of making difficult people decisions and delivering measurable outcomes.
- A genuinely commercial mindset, with the ability to understand financial performance and connect people decisions to business results.
- Hands-on experience implementing AI or automation within People processes, with clear examples of what you built and the impact it created.
- Strong working knowledge of UAE or UK employment practices. Experience across both jurisdictions would be highly advantageous.
- The confidence and credibility to work closely with the C-suite and Board, challenging senior leaders directly and constructively where required.
- Experience within fashion, retail, e-commerce, consumer or another fast-paced, commercially driven environment is highly desirable.
This Role Probably Isn't For You If...
- Your strength is primarily policy, administration or HR process rather than commercial People leadership.
- You have only operated within large, heavily resourced People functions.
- You prefer advising from the sidelines rather than owning outcomes.
- You are uncomfortable challenging senior stakeholders or making difficult people decisions.
- You see AI as a future concept rather than a practical tool for improving how People functions operate today.
What we'll bring
- 25 days annual leave, increasing to 30 days after your first year
- 30% employee discount across SUMWON STUDIOS brands
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities
- Company social events
- The opportunity to work with a high-performing team building brands at global scale
Why Join Us?
This is an opportunity to join a business in growth mode. You'll have the chance to make a visible impact, take ownership, move quickly and help shape the future of a multi-brand platform operating across global markets.
