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Head of People Operations

Manychat, Inc · Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Who We Are

🌍 Creating content that resonates is great — turning that attention into growth is even better. That's what Manychat does. Our AI-powered automations help creators and brands engage with audiences across Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and TikTok — at the right moment, with the right message, minus the manual work. We're 400+ people across three continents behind the leading platform for conversational growth, with AI skills shaping how we build, how we work, and how we grow.

Who We're Looking for

🌟 We are looking for a Head of People Operations to build and run a distributed hub model that delivers an excellent people experience — in every location, every day. Your job is not to design the system from scratch. It's to own the execution of it across six hubs: hold the standard, make local teams genuinely strong, and build the kind of autonomy where hub partners decide and act without waiting. This is not a classic HR Operations leadership role. What distinguishes it:

  • You lead distributed hub teams that own the full employee lifecycle on the ground — not a central function serving locations from a distance
  • You build autonomy, not dependency — hub teams should know what winning looks like and act on it
  • You partner directly with the individual domain leads across the function — Workplace & Experience, Payroll, Compliance, People Tech, Rewards. Not their manager, but a peer who depends on their expertise to run the hubs well
  • AI is core infrastructure, not a pilot — you default to automation for everything repeatable in the function You thrive in ambiguity, move fast, and think in systems. You have the operational depth to manage complex multi-country employment realities, and the leadership to develop hub teams that genuinely own their work.

What You'll Do

🚀 Lead the Hub Model

  • Own People Operations across all hubs: Netherlands, Spain, Armenia, US (Austin, Bay Area, New York), Brazil, Remote
  • Each hub team covers the full employee lifecycle in location — pre-boarding, onboarding, changes, exits — with local office and facilities support, and local events and team-building
  • Set the standard for what excellent hub execution looks like, and hold it across all locations
  • Run the weekly sync rhythm with each hub — align priorities, surface blockers, keep quality consistent
  • Build the hub community: connect People Ops partners across locations to share practice and raise the floor Own Outcomes, Not Process
  • Hub teams should decide and act — your job is to remove blockers, not add approval layers
  • Own the OKR cascade: every hub has OKRs that roll up through the function; you're accountable for making that cascade real, not formal
  • Define what success looks like in each location — local service standards, local processes, local roadmap Partner with Domain Leads Clear interfaces are the model, not the exception:
  • Workplace & Experience — deploy global programs and standards locally; coordinate on facilities, office improvements, and events beyond the local scope
  • Payroll — ensure multi-country payroll accuracy and surface local issues early
  • People Tech — maintain HRIS data quality and drive system adoption across hubs
  • Compliance — support policy adoption, manager training, and exit case handling in every location
  • Rewards — run compensation reviews and benefits implementation per country Challenge feasibility, propose alternatives, execute agreed decisions. Build the Team
  • Manage People Operations Partners across locations: NL, ES, AM, BR, US, Remote
  • You're standing up the hub model while running it — build the team while it's operating
  • Drive team development: upgrade skills, address underperformance, enable people with AI tools
  • Build hub teams that operate autonomously — no daily hand-holding required Manage the Operational Realities
  • Visa and relocation support coordination across locations
  • Local compliance and employment framework adherence, in partnership with Compliance
  • Office and facilities baseline across hub locations — in coordination with Workplace & Experience on standards Build AI-Native Operations
  • Default to automation for employee queries, document generation, onboarding workflows, and operational logistics
  • Build self-service so people don't need to contact us for anything a good system can answer
  • Treat AI adoption within the function as infrastructure and a performance metric

What Success Looks Like

🎯

  • Hub teams operating autonomously across all locations — you're steering, not executing day-to-day
  • Every hub has OKRs, knows what winning looks like, and can tell if they hit it
  • Employee lifecycle is consistent and increasingly automated across all locations
  • Cross-functional interfaces with Payroll, Tech, Compliance, W&E are clean and frictionless
  • Knowledge base live and current in a single source of truth
  • AI and automation handle the majority of repeatable operational tasks inside the function
  • Every hub partner owns their roadmap — not just their to-do list

To Shine in This Role

💥 Experience & Background

  • 10+ years in People Operations, HR Operations, or Operations leadership in multinational environments
  • Direct experience managing distributed teams across multiple countries and employment frameworks
  • Proven record building distributed operating models — not just inheriting and running existing ones
  • Experience standing up new processes and functions in fast-changing environments
  • Strong change management experience — organizational transitions handled with operational rigor and human care
  • Experience in fast-scaling tech environments — SaaS and start-up / scale-up required Skills & Mindset
  • Systems thinker: you see how processes connect, where the friction is, and what the fix is
  • AI-native operating instinct: you treat every new process as a question of which system or agent should own it
  • Comfortable with ambiguity: non-linear situations with predictable outcomes
  • Stakeholder management: you go and solve, not email and wait
  • Cross-cultural judgment: you understand employment realities across NL, ES, BR, AM, US — or learn fast when you don't
  • Executive presence: you partner with senior leadership and personally own the hardest operational calls

What We Offer

🤗 Benefits at Manychat don't start with a spreadsheet — they start with a belief: that you should be healthy, able to care for the people you love, and set up to do your best work. Everything below follows from that: • 🌍 Hybrid onboarding to start work remotely and relocation support for you and your family • 💙 Comprehensive health insurance for both you and your family • 📚 Professional development budget for conference tickets, online courses, and other relevant resources to help you grow • 🫶 Flexible benefits package: instead of a fixed set of perks, you get a flexible benefits budget you can direct across the things that matter most — health, wellbeing, family, and your home office among them. Within these areas, the choice is yours. • 🪴 Hybrid work and generous, flexible time off — planned with your team, not rationed by a rigid quota • 🌎 Work from where you need to — agreed with your team, not tied to a desk. Flexibility we built in on purpose, because location shouldn't get in the way of great work. • 🍽️ In-office perks, including free meals and snacks • 🤝 Company-funded sport activities, annual offsites and team-building events • 🤖 AI isn't a perk here — it's how we work. Tools like Claude and OpenAI are available by default, and we genuinely back teams in adopting whatever makes them faster. It's a toolkit that's well ahead of the market, and you'll have it from day one. Manychat is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, sexual preference, sexual i