Head of People at Kota

About Kota Kota is reimagining insurance and retirement benefits for the modern workforce. Through our two flagship products—Kota Platform, the first fully integrated benefits platform, and Kota Embed, our embedded insurance solution—we're making benefits more accessible, valued, and global. Today, we power benefits for tens of thousands of employees at Europe's most forward-thinking companies, including Carwow, Tines, Zoe, and Remote. Founded in 2022, we've raised more than €20M from leading investors like EQT Ventures, Eurazeo, Northzone, and Frontline, along with founders and executives from Workday, Remote, Personio, OpenAI, and more. Current stage: 50 employees, growing to 100+ by end of year THE ROLE This isn't a typical Head of People role. You'll be Kota's first dedicated People leader to build our internal People function from the ground up—while also serving as an external voice on the future of benefits. As you'd expect, the internal focus is to build a high-performing People function: talent strategy, performance systems, manager development, and People ops across multiple European jurisdictions. But the external piece is what makes this role different. You'll partner directly with our customers (HR and People leaders), advise on benefits strategy, collaborate with Product on what we build, and represent Kota in the broader HR community. We're looking for someone exceptional who's energised by both sides—building the infrastructure of a high-growth People function while also shaping the conversation around how companies should think about benefits. This role is open to candidates who are based in Ireland or the UK. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Set the People strategy. Define and execute a People strategy aligned with our growth trajectory, culture, and position in the HR industry. - Hold the talent bar. Build the strategy and infrastructure that supports our hiring plans to ensure our hiring standards stay high as we scale. - Design performance systems. Create scalable frameworks for performance reviews, career progression, and compensation that work for a high-autonomy, high-output team. - Shape culture. Foster a values-driven environment where people do their best work and want to stay. - Develop team. Coach managers on feedback, performance, and team health. Build programs that strengthen capability across the company. - Advise the exec team. Serve as a trusted partner on org design, leadership development, compensation philosophy, and people risk. - Build People ops. Stand up and refine our core people operations from processes to systems to enable the organisation to be the most effective and effective while we scale. - Own workplace experience. Oversee physical spaces that inspire Kota's teams to do their best work, while simultaneously ensuring that our ways of working motivate those working remotely. - Represent Kota externally. Speak at events, join panels, and contribute to the broader conversation about the future of benefits and HR. - Advise customers. Serve as a strategic partner to the People and HR leaders who use Kota, helping them think through benefits strategy and workforce trends. - Influence product. Collaborate with Product and Engineering to ensure we're building solutions that solve real problems for HR teams. - Build community. Grow a network of forward-thinking HR leaders around our platform—people who are passionate about doing benefits differently. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - 8+ years in People/HR roles at startups or scaleups (sub-500 employees preferred), with at least 3 years in a leadership capacity. - Experience building. You've stood up or significantly scaled a Talent and People in a high-growth, tech-first environment. You know what great looks like and how to get there without over-engineering. - HR tech fluency. You've either worked at an HR tech company or have strong opinions from implementing and living inside these tools. You understand the buyer's perspective. - Commercial instinct. You're excited to work with customers, influence product decisions, and think beyond the traditional People team remit. - European employment expertise. You understand the complexity of multi-region operations across the UK, Ireland, and the EU. You've navigated it before. - Strong advisory presence. You're a trusted partner to founders and execs. You build relationships easily and can translate between strategy and execution. - Clear communication. Excellent written and verbal skills. You can write a crisp policy doc and hold a room at an offsite. - Comfort with ambiguity. You thrive when there's no playbook. You'd rather build the thing than inherit the thing. OUR VALUES - Have Integrity. We care deeply about our why and it won’t jeopardise our how. - Care Deeply. Our products are our story, we look at the details, go the extra mile to delight customers. - Own Your Ship. Ask why, do the work, get the data, solve the problem, be an owner. - Raise the Bar. We continuously look to push past good enough. Expect more, move faster, and never stop raising your and the team’s standards. - Play to Win. We exist because we decided to say no to the norm – now we do this everyday. KOTA BENEFITS - Comprehensive Health Insurance via Kota - Workplace Pension with matched contributions up to 5% via Kota - WFH stipend to support your home office needs - Life Insurance - Generous Paid Time Off - work hard and take the time you need - Annual company-wide offsite and dedicated team offsite We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.