Carlie Paton

Strategic People leader with 15+ years’ experience designing and scaling global HR operations across SaaS, AI and regulated environments. Specialising in workforce transformation, organisational design, and the integration of modern HR and AI technologies to drive efficiency, performance and culture at scale. 

Trusted by founders, boards and leadership teams, I’ve built HR infrastructures from the ground up — leading hypergrowth, architecting HR systems, aligning people frameworks to funding milestones, and steering businesses through acquisition. I combine commercial awareness, data-driven decision making and a people-first approach to create high-performing, resilient, and engaged organisations. 

Core Focus Areas

• Executive people strategy, workforce design & transformation
• HRIS, people analytics & automation
• AI-enabled HR process optimisation
• Organisational design, succession planning & scaling frameworks
• Talent acquisition strategy & retention improvement
• Culture, leadership development, engagement & DEI
• Compensation design, reward architecture & board advisory
• Global HR operations & compliance (UK/EU)  

Career Highlights

• Scaled a SaaS company through 800% growth to acquisition, designing all People Operations, culture, systems and talent frameworks from scratch.
• Led HRIS/ATS deployments including HiBob and integrated platforms, unifying global processes and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Built leadership development pathways and internal talent pipelines that increased promotion rates and boosted retention by 30%.
• Introduced performance management frameworks and OKR alignment for a 200+ distributed workforce across technical and commercial functions.
• Partnered with founders and CFO on compensation, equity structures and strategic workforce planning to support rapid expansion.
• Delivered end-to-end compliance across UK and EU operations, including regulated and SC-cleared environments.  

I’m a senior People leader with over 15 years’ experience building and scaling HR functions across SaaS, AI and regulated sectors. I’ve led full People Operations, organisational design and workforce transformation through rapid growth, including architecting HR infrastructure from scratch and guiding a high-growth SaaS business through 800% scaling to acquisition. 

My experience spans executive People strategy, global compliance, talent acquisition and retention, HR technology implementation (including HRIS/ATS), leadership development, cultural alignment, and performance systems. I’ve partnered at board level on compensation, equity and strategic workforce planning; increased internal mobility and retention through leadership pipelines; and embedded OKRs, analytics and automation to align distributed teams and drive organisational clarity. 

I’m recognised for my builder’s mindset, data-driven decision making, and ability to unite people under a shared culture and purpose — always balancing operational rigour, compliance and high-EQ leadership.  

Level 7 CIPD qualified