As Head of People, you will shape and run human resources systems for a globally distributed organization committed to impact and efficiency. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you’ll operate at both strategic and tactical levels, designing frameworks that scale across countries while maintaining agility and alignment with core values.
Key Responsibilities
- Elevate hiring standards by building a consistent, data-informed recruitment process that assesses candidates against clear principles and measures early performance.
- Develop a proactive talent pipeline for critical roles, especially leadership positions, ensuring depth and readiness across geographies.
- Design and implement a lean performance system that links feedback, development, and outcomes with clarity and fairness.
- Modernize compensation and rewards to remain competitive and equitable, balancing retention goals with financial discipline.
- Manage sensitive personnel issues with integrity, discretion, and cultural fluency, including investigations, safeguarding, and crisis response.
- Advise executives on organizational structure, leadership effectiveness, and succession planning, intervening when performance or alignment falls short.
- Enhance HR technology and workflows to improve accuracy, compliance, and ease of use across legal entities and employment models.
- Ensure HR operations meet local regulatory requirements in partnership with Finance and Legal, especially for contractors and international teams.
- Champion inclusive practices that foster belonging, trust, creativity, and high performance across diverse teams.
- Deliver leadership-facing dashboards tracking headcount, hiring quality, retention, engagement, and performance trends to guide decisions.
- Lead a small, high-impact People team with clear ownership, service level expectations, and minimal friction for internal partners.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated ability to treat People as a strategic function that drives organizational outcomes like talent density, speed, and reliability.
- Proven experience building simple, scalable HR systems across international contexts with varying legal and cultural landscapes.
- Strong judgment in high-pressure, resource-constrained environments, with a focus on principled tradeoffs.
- Experience handling complex employee relations, risk mitigation, and safeguarding in multicultural settings.
- Track record recruiting, assessing, and developing senior leaders.
- Ability to build and lead a lean, high-leverage team that operates with discipline and pace.
- Structured thinker who breaks down problems, designs from fundamentals, iterates quickly, and measures impact.
- Comfort navigating both NGO and private-sector environments across different organizational scales.
Work Environment
This is a fully remote role with a preference for candidates in the East Africa Time (EAT) zone or within operational countries. Candidates outside EAT must ensure at least three hours of daily overlap with that timezone. Occasional travel (3–4 times per year) to operational countries is expected for team gatherings and field visits.
Benefits
- Comprehensive health coverage tailored to local contexts
- Flexible paid time off with strong encouragement to use it
- Home office setup allowance
- Funding for learning and professional development
- Annual benefits stipend (amount varies by country)
- Opportunities for international travel related to mission work
Compensation
Salary ranges vary by country: $154,500–$200,000 in the US, £106,374–£127,761 in the UK, and $120,000–$145,000 in Kenya. Other locations will receive benchmarked estimates during the hiring process. A 15% performance bonus is offered, with target amounts ranging from $18,000 to $30,000 depending on location. An annual benefits stipend is also provided. There is a no-negotiation policy.
Our Culture
We value candor, analytical rigor, agility, and ownership. Decision-making centers on the people we serve. The team is non-hierarchical, ambitious, and supportive, with a shared commitment to growth, impact, and mutual respect. We move quickly, learn continuously, and find joy in meaningful work.
Equal Opportunity
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or other protected characteristics. We maintain a zero-tolerance stance on abuse and exploitation. Pre-employment screening includes reference checks, criminal background checks, sanctions reviews, and participation in the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.
