Leadership & Culture Development Lead

Role Purpose

The Leadership & Culture Development Lead owns how Neko's leaders are developed and how the leadership bar shows up in practice, plus which culture products get built and how they deploy across markets.

This role merges leadership and culture development deliberately: it is broader than either would be alone, and the combination is what earns the credibility to coach and challenge the ELT. It sits on the two priorities CHROs rank first and second for 2026.

What You'll Deliver in the First 6–12 Months

• Onboard every new leader into Neko's leadership standards, Vitals and culture code from day one of their leadership role. (Member-first, Always)

• Turn the Neko leadership model into ongoing practice — coaching, mentorship, scans — with a measurable improvement in leadership capability, not a one-off training event. (Impact, Not Activity)

• Ship a reusable culture product library that any market or clinic can deploy without this role being in the room. (Chase 10X, Not 10%)

• Run the first leadership and culture scans that show where the gaps are and what to do about them. (Optimistic Truth-seeking)

• Direct the AI Enablement releases: i.e leadership buddy and culture buddy live and in use by real leaders. (Tech-enabled, Human-centred)

Responsibilities

Leadership development

• Own how leaders are developed and what the leadership bar looks like in practice.

• Design and run leadership development programmes and leadership scans.

• Provide coaching and mentorship directly to leaders, including holding the standard with the ELT.

Culture

• Own culture design and iteration, ways of working, and input into the EVP.

• Decide which culture products get built and how they are deployed across HQ and clinics.

• Own culture activations that reinforce the Vitals in day-to-day work, not just at onboarding.

Decisions & Authority

• Owns the leadership development and culture product roadmap.

• Authority to coach and challenge ELT members on leadership behaviour; carries a credibility floor for this.

• Directs the AI Enablement priorities within the frameworks this role sets.

Minimum Requirements

Education & Experience

• Required — Has personally built something with AI — an agent, tool, script, or workflow — even an experiment that didn't scale. We're screening for hands-on builder evidence, not familiarity with AI as a concept.

• Track record designing and running a leadership development programme at a scaling company, ideally 500–2,000 employees.

• Experience building or evolving a company culture framework, including translating it into concrete products, not just a values deck.

• Direct coaching experience with senior leaders, including giving unwelcome feedback to people more senior than them.

Skills & Competencies

• Can turn an abstract leadership model into a scan, a coaching product and a habit — not just a slide.

• Executive presence: credible challenging ELT members on leadership behaviour.

• People management: sets direction for a builder role without micromanaging the build.

• AI fluency: knows which parts of leadership and culture coaching are safe to delegate to an agent, and which require a human.

Mission & Vitals Alignment

• Believes leadership capability is the highest-leverage lever available and acts like it, not like a training administrator.

• Optimistic truth-seeker: delivers hard leadership feedback with care, not with a manual for tenure.

• Comfortable being new at the top table: this credibility has to be earned in the room, not inherited from title.