Head of People

• Lead and grow the People function as Sona scales through its next phase of growth past 150 headcount and into new international markets. • Own the full breadth of People work from business partnering with senior leaders to building frameworks and processes for a globally distributed team. • Build much of the function from scratch or improve what exists in a fast-moving environment where priorities shift and the org evolves quickly.

• Be a People generalist comfortable spanning business partnering, ops, and project delivery. • Have worked in a startup or scaleup environment ideally post-Series A and be used to building things from scratch. • Bring a commercial mindset understanding business strategy and organisational priorities and framing People decisions in terms of what is right for the business. • Have personally handled performance management, probation, and difficult people situations not just designed policy around them. • Be self-sufficient managing senior stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and making judgement calls without constant input. • Communicate clearly and directly adapting style across different audiences and levels of seniority.

• Have experience scaling a People function through 100 to 250 headcount. • Have international employment experience. • Have exposure to building performance management or L&D frameworks from scratch.

• Own the People function day to day acting as the People leader across the business. • Partner with managers and leaders on performance management, probation, employee relations, and people decisions. • Drive strategic People projects including performance management frameworks, L&D, and culture initiatives from design through to delivery. • Work with the People Ops Manager to ensure all operational processes are documented, AI-first, and scalable. • Work closely with the VP of People to shape the People strategy as Sona scales past 150 headcount and into new international markets. • Manage the People Ops Manager shaping the operational side of the function.

Sona is one of the most exciting B2B SaaS companies in the UK right now. The company has raised over $100 million from world-class investors and has grown revenue by 400% in 2023 alone. Two of the three founders, Oli Johnson and Ben Dixon, previously spent six years building Catapult, a gig platform for hospitality and retail, while Steffen Wulff Petersen came from Rocket Internet, where he helped launch Lazada, HelloFresh and Payleven. That domain expertise is a genuine differentiator: Sona is not a generic scheduling tool bolted onto HR. It is built from the ground up for complex, multi-site enterprises with hundreds or thousands of frontline staff. What stands out on Glassdoor (4.6/5 from 26 reviews, 88% recommend, 94% positive business outlook) is how consistently employees praise the team culture, the benefits and the pace of growth. The compensation sub-score is a remarkable 4.9/5. Sona offers genuinely strong benefits for a startup: Bupa health insurance, 25 days holiday plus 10 flexible public holidays (with an extra day per year of service), enhanced parental leave (26 weeks full pay for primary parents, 8 weeks for secondary), share options, pension matching up to 5%, twice-yearly team retreats and a quarterly £200 learning budget. The main things to be aware of: this is a fast-paced startup where priorities shift quickly; some reviews mention long hours and pressure around headcount management; and the team is still relatively small, at around 150 people. But with a fresh $45 million Series B led by N47, US expansion underway, and the recent launch of Forge, an enterprise AI application builder that lets customers create custom software on top of Sona's platform, the company is at a genuinely exciting inflexion point.

• Earn £80,000 to £95,000 salary plus share options. • Work hybrid with 2 to 3 days per week in the London office. • Take 35 days annual leave including 25 standard days plus 10 flexible public holiday days. • Receive an extra day of leave for every year of service. • Receive pension contributions matched up to 5%. • Access comprehensive health insurance. • Benefit from enhanced parental leave and pay. • Attend bi-annual all-expenses-paid team retreats. • Receive the latest MacBook and equipment budget for home office. • Access a professional development budget and unlimited free books.

Sona is building the next generation of AI-native frontline workforce management. The end-to-end platform covers Scheduling, HR, Payroll, and Communications giving the largest frontline organisations everything they need to staff more intelligently and empower their teams. In under 5 years Sona has impacted over 100k frontline workers, grown to 140+ team members, and secured over $100M in funding including a Series B led by N47 alongside Felicis, Northzone, and Gradient Ventures.