How a retired HR Director with 35 years in manufacturing proved at 61 that she could recruit engineers, scale product teams, and thrive in the fast-paced world of SaaS startups — across three companies on three continents.
Retired HR Director – 35 years in manufacturing
London, United Kingdom
Role: Head of People / People Ops Lead / HR Lead
Duration: 3 terms across 12 months
Margaret had spent 35 years building and leading HR functions in manufacturing. She'd hired thousands, built training programmes that transformed teams, and earned a reputation as someone who could build high-performing organisations. Then she retired. But retirement, it turned out, didn't suit her. The question that kept her restless wasn't whether she could still contribute — it was whether she could contribute somewhere completely new. Could a 61-year-old HR Director who had never hired a software engineer learn to recruit for tech product teams? Could she keep up with the pace of a SaaS startup? She needed to find out.
A South African EdTech company building a skills assessment and matching platform — scaling from 15 to 45 employees to build out their product and engineering teams.
A Pakistani FinTech company building a micro-lending platform — scaling the operations team to support rapid product growth across South Asia.
An Australian LegalTech company building a contract management platform — building the support and customer success teams from scratch.
Three terms, three industries, three continents. Each tested a different aspect of tech HR: engineering recruitment, ops scaling, and customer-facing team building.
"I'd excelled in manufacturing HR for 35 years. But could I excel recruiting engineers for an EdTech platform? Product managers for a FinTech? Three SaaS companies tested me. At 61, I'm proving I can still learn, grow, and build high-performing product teams."
— Margaret, London
After three terms, Margaret had her answer — and so did the startups she'd worked with. She had built teams that performed, hired technical talent she'd never recruited before, and kept up with a pace that would have exhausted many people half her age. Three SaaS founders reached out to ask if she'd continue advising. Margaret became a fractional Head of People, supporting three startups simultaneously — proving that age was no barrier to excellence in tech, and that 35 years of people leadership translated powerfully into the product world.
Margaret's core HR skills — interviewing, onboarding, culture building — worked identically in tech. Only the context (what roles, what skills) was new.
At 61, Margaret learned to assess technical talent, understand engineering hiring, and operate at startup pace — proving capability has no expiry date.
Three terms across three industries gave Margaret — and the market — proof that she could excel in tech HR. That certainty was worth more than any CV.
This hypothetical scenario shows how senior professionals can prove their skills transfer to the tech world before committing permanently. Your testing ground could start today.