Head of People

We are fonio.ai. A phone AI that sounds like a human and handles entire calls end-to-end. Our customers use it for customer service, appointment scheduling, and much more. Since launching just over a year ago, more than 6,000 businesses have adopted our solution.

We're growing fast - and we're growing globally. This year we're expanding into the biggest countries in the EU, the UK and the US. That means new markets, new teams, new structures - and someone who builds all of that from scratch.

So far, we've handled People topics operationally as we went. That worked. Now it's time to build a real People function - strategic, scalable, with full ownership. This role is the foundation for that.

You'll work directly with our C-Level and own everything related to building, structuring, and scaling our team - in Austria and across our new markets.

Responsibilities

Hiring & International Expansion

• Build local hiring pipelines for all countries - including sourcing strategy, channel activation, and efficient pre-screening

• Define clear role profiles in close collaboration with the respective hiring managers

• Run screening calls with meaningful, actionable outcomes

• Coordinate all steps of the hiring process efficiently - from first contact to signed contract

• Negotiate employment contracts across all relevant jurisdictions

Culture & People Development

• Build and actively shape a strong, consistent company culture - across locations and time zones

• Develop structures for performance, feedback, and growth that match our pace of scaling

• Plan and run team events and formats that create real cohesion

• Work closely with the founders to make sure our values and mindset stay tangible even at 100 people

HR & Structures

• Set up compliant employment structures in the UK, US, and France - contracts, benefits, local requirements

• Build and orchestrate all HR-related administrative processes - efficient, lean, no overengineering

• Develop and execute our employer branding strategy

• Coordinate external partners (payroll, legal, tax advisory, local counsel)

• Build onboarding and offboarding structures and set up the right HR tooling

Requirements

• You've run recruiting processes in different shapes and for diverse role profiles - and have a clear picture of what excellence in recruiting looks like

• You have a genuine feel for culture - and know how to actively shape it rather than just describe it

• You can define and implement lean, scalable processes from scratch

• You work data-driven and measure effectiveness in hard numbers

• You have a broad understanding of recruiting and HR platforms and tools, and can set them up and use them efficiently

• You're proven at quickly and accurately filtering the right candidates from a large pool - both on substance and cultural fit

• You don't lower your standards under pressure - high quality is non-negotiable for you

• Fluent in English; German a clear plus

What we offer

• A role with extreme ownership: you build our entire People function from the ground up - directly with the C-Level

• Three new markets, zero ready-made playbooks - you define how we do this

• Extremely short decision paths, lots of speed, lots of freedom

• Top equipment & a fully equipped office in Vienna

• Strong growth potential: we always prioritize promoting from within before looking externally

• Access to the latest AI tools & workflows from our own product

Interview process

1. 15 min - Intro call

2. 45 min - Skill Interview

3. 30 min - Culture Interview