Head of People

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a close partner to the founders on People, org design, and leadership topics
• Bring structure and perspective to people decisions as the company scales
• Create a pragmatic People operating rhythm (cadence, prioritization, leadership alignment, communication)
• Challenge assumptions when needed, always in the interest of the company’s long-term health

• Translate business priorities into a clear HR roadmap (6–12 months) and execute with speed.
• Own the TA strategy and delivery end-to-end: workforce planning, role definition, sourcing strategy, interview design, hiring manager enablement, and offer approach.
• Personally drive critical hires and raise hiring standards while maintaining speed.
• Build scalable recruiting infrastructure (tools, playbooks, metrics, partner management).
• Coach leaders on hiring discipline and set clear measures of success (quality, time-to-hire, funnel health).
• Avoid over-engineering: bring “just enough process” to strengthen accountability and execution without slowing the company down.

• Personally handle complex employee relations and sensitive situations
• Step into difficult conversations directly, balancing empathy and firmness
• Support organizational changes and transitions with clarity and calm

• Help managers grow into their roles by setting clear expectations
• Build lightweight people analytics to steer decisions (headcount, attrition, hiring velocity, performance signals).
• Raise the overall quality of people management across the company
• Model strong leadership behaviors: clarity, accountability, and courage 

• Build and run the operational backbone of People in all the regions: contracts, onboarding, policies, payroll/benefits coordination, and scalable employee experience for both office and frontline populations.
• Select and deploy systems that scale (HRIS, ATS, onboarding tools) with a bias toward simplicity and adoption.
• Ensure strong compliance and risk management across geographies (France as the anchor, multi-country exposure valued).
• Be hands-on on employee relations: performance/disciplinary processes, conflict management, exits, sensitive cases, and partnership with external counsel/advisors.
• In France, lead constructive social dialogue (CSE/employee representation) with rigor and pragmatism

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Built and scaled a People function from scratch or through a major inflection point (hypergrowth, international expansion, new sites/regions), including structuring the team, operating model, and priorities
• Partnered directly with founders/executives in high-intensity contexts and handled sensitive decisions (org changes, underperformance, leadership transitions, restructurings when applicable) with rigor and pace
• Operated across multiple countries (Europe and/or U.S.), balancing global principles with local compliance and execution realities.
• Demonstrated a low-bureaucracy approach: shipped “minimum viable” People processes quickly, iterated based on feedback, and protected business agility while reducing risk.
• Hands-on experience with employee relations (e.g. CSE/Works Council) and labor law (incl. France required)
• Natural authority and assertiveness, without being rigid or dogmatic
• Fluent in English (French is a plus)