Where does this role fit in?UpGuard is a category-defining Cybersecurity company that is at a pivotal moment in our growth journey. With a team of nearly 300 passionate team members distributed across the globe and products loved by thousands of customers, we are poised for exponential growth. We are seeking a visionary Chief People Officer to be the architect of our people strategy as we scale from 300 team members and beyond.As our Chief People Officer and a key member of the executive leadership team, you will be the strategic driver behind building a world-class, future-focused, and scalable people function. You will not just manage HR; you will build the engine that powers our global growth. This role requires a leader who has seen the hyper-growth journey before, thinks from first principles, and is passionate about leveraging modern technology, including AI, to create an unparalleled team member experience.
What will you do?
- Architect our scaling strategy: Develop and execute the global people roadmap to support the company’s growth from 300 team members and beyond, ensuring our culture, talent, and organisational design evolve effectively.
- Be a strategic partner to the COO & Exec team: Act as a trusted advisor and coach to the executive team on all people-related matters, from organisational design and leadership development to succession planning and M&A integration.
- Champion a global, remote-first culture: Nurture and evolve our culture, ensuring it remains a competitive advantage as we scale. Implement programs and rituals that foster connection, inclusivity, and high performance across a globally distributed workforce.
- Build a future-forward People function: Reimagine and modernise our core people processes. Pioneer the use of AI, automation and data analytics to drive efficiency, predictability, and insights across all People activities.
- Oversee the full People & Talent lifecycle: Provide leadership across all facets of the People function, including Talent Acquisition, HR Business Partnering, Learning & Development, Compensation & Benefits, and People Operations.
- Drive Organisational Effectiveness: Implement and refine systems for performance management, career pathways, and leadership enablement that empower our team members to do their best work.
- Ensure Global Compliance & Governance: Oversee our global employment policies, ensuring compliance and mitigating risk across all jurisdictions where we operate.
What will you bring?
- Proven hyper-growth experience: You have been a senior people leader (e.g., CPO, VP of People) and have successfully scaled a technology company from a similar stage to 500+ team members.
- Global workforce expertise: Deep, hands-on experience building and managing a globally distributed, remote-first or hybrid workforce across key regions (e.g., APAC, North America, EMEA and India).
- Comprehensive HR mastery: You are a master of your craft with a strong foundation in core HR disciplines, including compensation philosophy, benefits design, employee relations, and international employment law.
- Strategic M&A experience: You have demonstrably led the People function through at least one significant merger or acquisition, from due diligence through to post-close integration.
- Executive presence & influence: Exceptional communication skills and the emotional intelligence to operate as a credible, influential leader at the executive and board level.
- Data-driven & commercially minded: A business-first mindset, with the ability to use data to inform decisions and connect our people strategy directly to business outcomes.
- A builder's mentality: You thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a track record of building teams, systems, and processes from the ground up.
- AI & automation vision: You possess a strong, forward-thinking perspective on how AI and automation will transform the People function, and you have practical ideas or experience implementing these technologies.
What will give you an edge?
- Australian Tech scene pedigree: You were part of the early journey at one of Australia’s iconic, high-growth tech companies (e.g., Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, etc.) and have seen firsthand what a world-class scaling operation looks like from the inside.
- Deep SaaS industry experience: You understand the unique talent landscape, metrics, and organisational challenges specific to B2B SaaS companies.
- Experience in a player-coach capacity: You are comfortable rolling up your sleeves and being hands-on while simultaneously leading and developing a high-performing team.
What's in it for you?
- Stock options: Participate in our ESOP plan
- Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: use this for financial, physical and mental wellbeing (all regions)
- WFH set-up allowance: to ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set-up within your first 3 months at UpGuard (all regions)
- $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: to support your career development all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance (all regions)
- Generous Annual Leave/PTO allowances: time to recharge your batteries (all regions)
- 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: irrespective of parenting role (all regions)
- Personal Leave allowance: this includes sick & carer’s leave (all regions)
- Fully remote working environment: whilst we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance (all regions)
- Top spec hardware: all team members will be provided with top-spec laptops for their role (all regions)
- Generative AI & Automation tooling: UpGuard provides industry leading generative AI and automation tools to support all team members with their work (all regions)
Originally posted on Himalayas
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