Head of People Operations

WHO WE ARE

Manychat is a leading chat marketing platform, helping businesses engage with their customers on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Trusted by over 1 million brands in 170+ countries, we're an official Meta Business Partner, backed by Bessemer Venture Partners. With 400+ teammates across offices in Austin, Barcelona, Yerevan, São Paulo, and Amsterdam - we're building the infrastructure of conversational commerce.

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.

This commitment is also reflected through our candidate experience. If you have individual needs that may require an accommodation during the interview process, please indicate this in your application. We will do our best to provide assistance throughout your interview process to ensure you’re set up for success.