Head of People H/F

About Alta Ares

Alta Ares is a deeptech startup founded in 2024, building real-time AI for defense operations (ISR, C-UAS). Our primary clients are NATO-aligned militaries, with regular deployments during live exercises. Raised €2M pre-seed in May 2025 Products include:

• Real-time AI ISR module deployable on drones and tactical platforms
• Counter-UAS solution enabling autonomous drone takeover under GNSS-denied environment
• Full-stack MLOps platform for training & deploying military-grade AI models
• Data fusion and trajectory prediction

Role & Mission

• Own and scale the full talent journey using data and AI-driven insights to enable high performers to do their best work across all stages from recruitment to retention.
• Design the People roadmap for the coming year, establish high-bandwidth communication with the leadership team, and raise the bar on recruitment and people operations.
• Recruit, develop, and manage a high-performing people team across admin, recruitment, and operations to build clear ownership and a culture of high standards rooted in a deeptech native mindset.
• Align hiring plans, org design, and people programs with product and go-to-market priorities to ensure the right people are in the right roles at the right time for business success.
• Act as a strategic partner to leadership by providing clear data, simple processes, and training to empower them to scale their teams effectively and make informed people decisions.
• Design systems, structures, and processes that anticipate business changes to gracefully scale with volume, headcount, and the needs of a global team.
• Monitor best practices in a high-growth tech to selectively bring in what makes Alta Ares more resilient and efficient as the company evolves.

Candidate profile

• 8+ years in People Operations, including in high-change tech startup/scale up environments (Defense, AI) scaling teams from 50 to 150+ people
• Experience managing the entire talent journey from hiring to onboarding to people development to long-term retention
• Experience working in ambitious, culture-driven and internationally distributed teams
• Track record of empowering and engaging leaders rather than setting up heavy processes
• Ability to embody and champion a strong company culture
• Can get operational and hands-on when needed
• Empathetic approach to people and their development

Nice to Have

• Experience recruiting for defense, aerospace, or deeptech companies
• Experience in high-growth startup environments (Series A to C scale-ups)
• Track record building people functions from scratch or through rapid scaling (10 → 100+ people)
• Multilingual capabilities (French/English)
• Network in European defense or AI/ML engineering communities
• Understanding of security clearances, export controls, or defense procurement