Head of People
On-site Paris Full-time Director HR Business Partner & Generalist
At a glance
Director-level HR Business Partner & Generalist role at Upway. Paris · full-time.
Pay not stated HR Business Partner & Generalist salary
RoleHR Business Partner & Generalist
SeniorityDirector
LocationParis
WorkplaceOn-site
EmploymentFull-time
PostedFeb 6, 2026 · 8mo ago
Role brief
hrroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Work with founders and executives on organization design and leadership decisions as the company grows
- Turn business priorities into a six-to-twelve-month People plan, then deliver it with practical processes
- Lead hiring from workforce planning through offers, personally handle pivotal hires, and coach managers on hiring
- Run People operations across regions, including contracts, onboarding, payroll and benefits coordination, and HR systems
- Manage sensitive employee matters, organizational changes, compliance, and constructive employee dialogue in France
What you bring
- You have built a People function from the ground up or reshaped one during major growth or expansion
- You have partnered with founders or executives and handled sensitive organizational and leadership decisions
- You have worked across multiple countries and can balance local requirements with consistent practices
- You bring hands-on employee relations experience and knowledge of French labor law
- You are fluent in English
Who this fits
This director-level role suits a pragmatic, hands-on People leader who can influence founders and executives while building processes without adding unnecessary bureaucracy. The role is based onsite in Paris and includes responsibility for People operations across regions.
From the employer
Upway is looking for its first Head of People, someone who will partner with the Co-founders and the rest of the leadership team to build and scale the People function. This role sits on the leadership team and participates in company-level strategic decision-making.
This role is not about building “perfect” HR systems. It is about bringing clarity, judgment, and leadership on people and organizational topics in an environment where things evolve quickly and are not always fully defined.
The Head of People role will be a highly strategic position within Upway, a founder-led scale-up, and therefore the candidate will be someone who is pacy, action orientated, pragmatic and results driven. Partner with founders & leaders
This role is not about building “perfect” HR systems. It is about bringing clarity, judgment, and leadership on people and organizational topics in an environment where things evolve quickly and are not always fully defined.
The Head of People role will be a highly strategic position within Upway, a founder-led scale-up, and therefore the candidate will be someone who is pacy, action orientated, pragmatic and results driven. Partner with founders & leaders
- 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
- 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)