Vice President of People

Mission

Lead the People function for a growing global organization. Build a scalable operation with consistent processes and systems across the US, Hungary, and the EU. Provide the operational discipline and clear direction needed to support our growth from 150 to 300+ colleagues.

You Are

An experienced People leader with strong operational expertise and a pragmatic approach to building teams and processes. You respect the organization's history while creating the systems, structure, and discipline required for sustainable, compliant growth. You understand that culture is shaped through consistent leadership behaviors and well-designed people processes.

The Opportunity

Scaling from 150 to 300+ colleagues across the US, Hungary, and the EU requires a more structured and scalable People & Culture operating model. This is a build role.

You will lead the function with a mandate to review the current setup, identify areas that need improvement, and implement the processes and structure required for scale. You will align the recently onboarded Talent Acquisition and People Operations leaders into a cohesive leadership team. You will establish consistent practices across all three regions, creating a single source of truth, while maintaining a positive and consistent employee experience.

As the most senior member of the People function, you will be a part of the C-suite, partnering with executive leadership on organization-wide decisions.

Core Responsibilities

1. Strategic Transformation & Organizational Design (20%)

• Review the current People & Culture setup and define priorities to strengthen and scale the function.

• Lead the development of a clear People leadership structure, aligning the Talent Acquisition and People Operations leaders into a cohesive team.

• Define a scalable People structure that supports global consistency while enabling effective regional execution.

2. Culture & Employee Experience (20%)

• Shape culture as we scale, ensuring it is reinforced through consistent leadership behaviors and well-designed people processes.

• Set direction for employee experience programs that support our growing workforce.

• Use employee feedback to identify what’s working and where to improve.

3. Global Integration & Platform Harmonization (15%)

• Establish consistent people operations, practices, and platforms across the US, Hungary, and the EU.

• Oversee the evaluation of current HRIS, payroll, and time-tracking tools; develop a unified systems roadmap that ensures a single source of truth.

• Partner with Finance, Legal, and IT to integrate people platforms with enterprise systems.

4. Compliance & Governance (15%)

• Ensure People practices and policies comply with employment regulations across the US, Hungary, and the EU.

• Oversee the development and maintenance of employment policies, contracts, and data privacy practices (GDPR/SOC2).

• Ensure compliance is embedded in platforms and processes, not managed through manual workarounds.

5. Organizational Structure Across the Company (15%)

• Partner with the executive team to evolve the broader organizational structure: reporting lines, spans of control, and decision-making.

• Guide career path development and role clarity across the organization.

• Advise leaders on structuring their teams for impact.

6. Talent, Compensation & Equity Architecture (10%)

• Champion a data-driven compensation philosophy ensuring fairness across multiple countries.

• Define and maintain clear compensation frameworks and salary bands across regions.

• Continue EU Pay Transparency work already underway; partner with Legal on compliance.

• Own ESOP administration, education, and future grant criteria.

7. Leadership Coaching & Change Navigation (5%)

• Act as a trusted advisor to the executive team, helping leaders navigate scaling complexities.

• Coach managers through organizational change.

Qualifications:

• 12+ years in People Operations, Talent, and HR leadership, with 5+ years in a senior leadership role scaling organizations through 150–300 employees.

• Proven track record strengthening a People function to support growth through structure and process.

• Demonstrated experience shaping culture through consistent leadership and well-designed people processes.

• Demonstrated experience establishing consistent operations and platforms across multiple countries (US-HU-EU).

• Deep expertise in multi-country compliance including Hungarian labor law and US employment law.

• Proven ability to lead complex compliance initiatives (GDPR, SOC2, pay equity) and monitor emerging regulations like the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

• Experience with equity compensation and ESOP administration, including employee communication.

• Executive presence advising C-level leaders through significant change.

• Fluency in English and Hungarian is required.

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred.

Apply If You:

• Are an experienced leader with deep operational expertise, building for the future while stabilizing the present.

• Thrive in complexity and provide clarity for others.

• Have a track record of aligning and leading functional experts to support scalable growth.

• Have experience leading complex compliance transformations (GDPR, SOC2, pay equity) and monitoring emerging regulations.

• Have experience rolling out equity compensation that makes employees feel informed and valued.

• Care deeply about culture, shaped by consistency, fairness, and intentional employee experience design.

• Are energized to build the foundation for the next 150 people we hire.

• Are comfortable operating as the most senior People leader with a C-suite seat while holding a VP title.

Nice to Have

• Experience integrating HRIS and payroll platforms across multiple countries.

• Familiarity with Bamboo, Gusto, Deel, Remote, or Clockify.

• Working knowledge of Jira.

• Prior experience in technology or professional services with distributed global teams.