Workforce Planning Manager - #1689881

About The Role

Hippo is recruiting for a Workforce Planning Manager to join our growing consultancy of over 500 professionals. This is a dedicated and significant role that will lead the evolution of resourcing at Hippo. Reporting to one of our Profession Directors, the Workforce Planning Manager will work closely with Delivery Partners, Profession Directors, and Heads of Profession to drive visibility, accountability, and strategic alignment across workforce planning.

This position is an opportunity to make a tangible impact at a critical point in our growth journey. As the first dedicated hire in this role, you will be instrumental in defining the way Hippo evolves its approach to workforce planning as we scale. Over time, we anticipate this function expanding, offering progression opportunities for those looking to grow their leadership influence in a people-focused business.

This is a hybrid role with flexibility required to attend one of our office locations 2-3 days per week (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Edinburgh)

What Youll Be Doing

• Consistently updating and fully leveraging Kimble, our Professional Services Automation (PSA) tool, to proactively match team members to projects based on skills, experience, and availability
• Forecasting people requirements and partnering with the Talent Acquisition team to ensure recruitment activity is organised and aligned with project needs
• Establishing and maintaining clear Service Level Agreements (SLAs) covering role fulfilment, abandonment, and overall resourcing effectiveness, to support efficient allocation and improved visibility
• Maximising utilisation across Hippo while balancing commercial drivers, business objectives, and individual career aspirations
• Engaging with key stakeholders, including Delivery Partners and Heads of Profession, to resolve conflicts and deliver creative, practical solutions
• Attending regular meetings to provide updates on resourcing, highlight risks or constraints, and support leadership decision-making
  
  

What Success Looks Like

• Significantly reduced time spent by senior leaders on people allocation
• Full utilisation of Kimble to support a streamlined, data-informed workforce allocation process
• Greater transparency across Hippo on staff availability, skillsets, and resourcing commitments
  
  

About The Candidate

Were seeking someone with previous success in a Workforce Planning Manager role within a professional services or consultancy environment. You will bring:

• Experience using Kimble or similar PSA tools, ideally integrated with Salesforce
• The ability to operate at pace, managing competing priorities and navigating stakeholder expectations in complex environments
• A track record of establishing and reporting against SLAs or workforce planning metrics
• Strong commercial awareness and the capability to apply pragmatic solutions to real-time people allocation challenge
  
  

About The Company

As well as a competitive salary which were transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%)
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of:
• private health cover
• private dental cover
• additional company pension contributions
• additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
• wellbeing contribution
• charity contributions
• tree planting
  
  

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, were dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, were Hippo.

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We're a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society. We're confident in our abilities, authentic in our approach, and passionate about what we do. If you're looking for a digital services partner that can deliver real results, let us help you build for the future and make a lasting impact.

Hippo locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and located across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide, so don't let location hold you back from applying. We welcome candidates from all over the UK who possess the flexibility to work from any of our locations. Plus, we offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8k to help make your move a smooth one. It's worth noting that, given the dynamic nature of our business, you may be required to work on-site at client locations or from your own home.