Head of People

📋 Description

• • Own the entire People function from day one. You will architect and run every element of talent, performance, culture, and People operations for a company that is doubling headcount in 12 months. This is not a caretaker role—you will write the playbook that every future Kota People team member uses.
• • Build a world-class talent engine. Define sourcing strategy, employer-brand narrative, interview design, and onboarding rituals that allow us to hire 50 exceptional people across engineering, product, sales, and operations while keeping our bar sky-high. You will personally coach hiring managers, run exec-level searches, and create scalable processes that feel human, not bureaucratic.
• • Design performance and progression frameworks that scale. Replace ad-hoc feedback with lightweight, transparent systems for goal-setting, quarterly reviews, career ladders, and compensation bands. Ensure every Kotan knows what great looks like and how to get there.
• • Shape culture deliberately, not accidentally. Codify our five values into rituals, recognition programs, and manager playbooks. Run pulse surveys, culture audits, and off-sites that turn remote-first teams into tight-knit communities. Make Kota a place where people stay because they are growing, not because they are comfortable.
• • Coach and develop leaders at every level. Create manager circles, 1:1 templates, and leadership workshops that move first-time managers from anxious to confident. Sit in on exec-team meetings as the sparring partner on org design, succession, and leadership gaps.
• • Stand up bullet-proof People operations across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, and beyond. Select and configure HRIS, payroll, equity, and compliance tooling. Own employment contracts, works-council interactions, visa sponsorship, and GDPR-compliant people data. Make multi-country complexity invisible to employees.
• • Craft a remote-first workplace experience that rivals the best offices. Oversee a global co-working budget, quarterly in-person summits, and micro-retreats that bond teams without burning them out. Ensure every home office is ergonomic, connected, and inspiring.
• • Become the external face of modern benefits strategy. Speak at People conferences, host round-tables with CHROs, and publish thought-leadership pieces on how benefits can drive retention and belonging. Turn Kota’s customer community into a movement that redefines what “good” looks like.
• • Advise customers as a strategic peer. Join sales calls, onboard new clients, and run quarterly business reviews with People leaders at Carwow, Tines, Zoe, Remote, and the next 200 logos. Translate their pain into product requirements and co-create features that make Kota indispensable.
• • Influence product roadmap with real-world insight. Feed aggregated customer feedback, regulatory trends, and competitive intelligence to Product and Engineering. Ensure every new feature passes the “would our own People team use this?” test.
• • Build a network of progressive HR leaders who evangelise Kota. Launch a private Slack community, invite-only dinners, and certification programs that position Kota as the hub for next-gen benefits thinking. Make our customers our best marketers.
• • Report to the CEO and sit on the executive team. Own the People P&L, set quarterly OKRs, and present board-level metrics on engagement, retention, diversity, and time-to-hire. Be the voice that balances growth with humanity.