Head of People

Budget:

The company is the Financial Relationship Management (FRM) platform, combining a SaaS model with financial services, and helping finance teams turning receivables from a back-office task into a strategic advantage.

Now profitable and growing intentionally, they are investing in its People foundations to ensure clarity, fairness, and scalability as the company continues to expand with a lean, high-performing team.

Mission
Deliver immediate, hands-on impact on their Talent Acquisition and People frameworks, while building the foundation of a function they will internalize. This is a build-and-transition mission, not an operational "run" role. You'll diagnose, design, and deploy pragmatic systems — and ensure that, by the end of the engagement, the team can operate and improve them autonomously.

1) People — Build Clarity, Fairness & Motivation
Current Gaps

• Only Sales has structured comp grids; other teams risk inequities.
• Employees lack visibility on their level, impact, and next steps.
• Incentives (salary %, stock options) could appear inconsistent across teams and regions.

Objectives

• Bring fairness, transparency, and predictability across all functions.
• Create clear role families — groupings of related jobs with shared expectations, levels, and growth paths (ie. Engineering, Product, Sales…).
• Align incentives and recognition systems to business performance and geography.

Deliverables

• Company-wide Title & Compensation Grids benchmarked and validated.
• Progression Maps: for each role family, define levels, criteria for advancement, and sample compensation ranges.
• Unified Incentive Model (bonus + equity) that is transparent and

explainable.

• Communication toolkit + enablement pack to train managers on applying and maintaining these frameworks.
• Ownership transition plan: Finance → Comp ; future HR Lead → People systems continuity & Team progression.

2) Talent Acquisition — Build a Predictable, Accountable Hiring Engine
Current Gaps

• Inbound funnels too narrow (ie. 90 % of intern candidates come from one school).
• Outbound sourcing inconsistent or absent.
• Process fragmented; ownership unclear.

Objectives

• Unblock current hiring bottlenecks while building a repeatable, manager-driven system.
• Define clear accountability for hiring managers: measurable outbound expectations, feedback quality, and hiring velocity.
• Design mechanisms to reinforce adherence (ie. lightweight tracking, potential incentives, progress reviews).

Deliverables

• Quick audit of sourcing channels → propose and pilot 2–3 stronger inbound sources (e.g. WTTJ, targeted schools, niche communities).
• Hiring Manager Playbook: clear expectations, outbound checklist, and accountability framework.
• Standardized hiring workflow with RACI (who does what, when, how, why) and explicit checkpoints for compliance and follow-through.
• Templates: job briefs, interview scorecards, feedback forms…
• Targeted coaching & follow-up cycles to embed habits and track adoption.

Scope Boundaries (Non exhaustive)
In Scope
Diagnosis

• Framework design
• Hands-on fixes to unblock key hires
• Playbooks
• Enablement
• Documentation
• Transition

Out Of Scope
Payroll

• Legal/admin HR ops
• Daily candidate management
• Routine employee relations

Definition of Done (After 3–6 Months)

• All active hiring managers trained and following the standardized process.
• At least two new, higher-quality inbound channels producing qualified candidates.
• Outbound sourcing tracked weekly with 80 %+ compliance.
• Full comp & progression grids validated and shared internally.
• Incentive model approved and documented.
• Handover package + enablement week completed with future HR Lead and CFO.

Ideal Profile

• Hands-on mid-seniority HRBP from a 50–250 FTE startup/scale-up.
• Proven record in systems building, enablement, and transition (neither pure execution nor pure strategy).
• Pragmatic, autonomous, and outcome-driven — combines strategic structure with operational grip.
• English mandatory

Your challenge: Design, deploy, and hand over the People systems that will power Upflow's intentional growth.