Head of People

3 billion people across the world work in frontline jobs. Yet, despite rising costs and staff shortages, frontline organisations are still left to choose between paper, Excel, and WhatsApp, or decade-old workforce management solutions to take care of the most important part of their businesses - their people.

Enter Sona: the next generation of AI-native, frontline workforce management. We’ve built an end-to-end platform covering Scheduling, HR, Payroll, and Communications that gives the largest frontline organisations everything they need to staff more intelligently and empower their teams.

In under 5 years, we’ve already made a deep impact on the lives of over 100k frontline workers and the operation of their organisations, grown the team to 140+, and secured over $100M in funding from notable VC’s, including our Series B led by N47 alongside Felicis, Northzone, and Gradient Ventures (Google).

It’s a hugely exciting time to be joining the team as we’re still small enough that you’ll have a significant impact on the company’s growth trajectory and culture, yet large enough to have a great structure, experienced leaders and world-class benefits in place. More on working at Sona here.

About the Role

We're hiring a Head of People to lead and grow our People function as Sona scales through its next phase of growth. Reporting to the Chief of Staff & VP of People (single person, dual role!), this is a role for someone who wants to own the full breadth of People work - from business partnering with senior leaders through to building the frameworks and processes that help a 150+ person, globally distributed team do their best work.

Day to day, that means being the go-to partner for managers navigating performance conversations, probation, and difficult people decisions. It also means driving forward strategic projects like performance management, learning and development, and the systems that support a high-performance culture. You'll manage our People Ops Manager, shaping the operational side of the function while focusing your own time on the areas where Sona needs the most help: strategic thinking, stakeholder partnership, and building what doesn't exist yet.

This isn't a role where you'll inherit a fully formed function and keep it running. Much of what you'll be responsible for needs to be built from scratch or improved. If you're energised by that kind of ambiguity - and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities shift and the org evolves quickly - this will be a great fit.

Responsibilities 

• Own the People function day-to-day, acting as the People leader across the business

• Partner with managers and leaders on performance management, probation, employee relations, and people decisions

• Drive strategic People projects - including performance management frameworks, L&D, and culture initiatives - from design through to delivery

• Work with the People Ops manager to ensure all our operational processes are documented, AI-first and scalable

• Work closely with the VP of People to shape the People strategy as Sona scales past 150 headcount and into new international markets

Requirements

• You're a People generalist who's comfortable spanning business partnering, ops, and project delivery

• You've worked in a startup or scaleup environment (ideally post-Series A) and are used to building things from scratch, not just running established processes

• You bring a commercial mindset - you understand business strategy and organisational priorities, and you frame People decisions in terms of what's right for the business

• You've personally handled performance management, probation, and difficult people situations - not just designed policy around them

• You're self-sufficient - you can manage senior stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and make judgment calls without constant input

• You communicate clearly and directly, adapting your style across different audiences and levels of seniority

• Bonus: experience scaling a People function through 100-250 headcount, international employment experience, or exposure to building performance management or L&D frameworks from scratch

Benefits

• Salary: £80,000 - £95,000

• Hybrid working: 2-3 days per week in the London office

• Share options

• 35 days annual leave (25 days standard plus 10 flexible public holiday days) 

• Extra day of leave for every year of service

• Pension contributions matched up to 5%

• Comprehensive health insurance

• Enhanced parental leave & pay

• Bi-annual all expenses paid team retreats

• The latest Macbook and equipment budget for your home office

• Professional development budget

• Unlimited free books

Note: this represents a typical benefits package for a UK-based, full-time employee. Exact details may vary based on location and employment type but we try to be as fair as possible to all of our team members. Please ask your contact in the Talent team to clarify the available benefits for you.