Head of People

• 10+ hires in your first six months across tech, ops and GTM, found and closed in-house: ML engineers, data engineers, a product manager, sales, ops.
• You hunt. Cold outreach, referrals, communities, whatever finds the right person. Agencies when it helps, never as a crutch.
• You close, against counter-offers, big-tech comp and plain inertia. And you co-own the bar with us: who we hire, who we don't, and why.
• You keep it fast and humane. Board clean, interviewers prepped, every candidate answered within 48 hours. People should enjoy the process even when the answer is no.

Employer brand

• Careers page, YC Work at a Startup, content, events. Make Ooak the place AI-curious people want to work.

The team we become

• Turn our values into how we actually work: how we give feedback, how we decide, how we welcome someone on day one, how we say goodbye when we have to.
• Help us make the hard people calls, and make sure they are made with care.

The people foundation

• The BSPCE plan and the salary grid, and their yearly refresh.
• Payroll coordination with our accountant, France and US, employees and freelancers.
• Onboarding, feedback cadence, reviews, and the rituals that keep 25 people feeling like one team.

Who you are

You have done this before. You have run People in a startup or scale-up that grew fast while you were there, and you know what crossing 50 people does to a company. Maybe you built the function from a blank page, maybe you scaled one. What matters to us: you have closed hard profiles yourself, and you have stayed close to a team through the good weeks and the hard conversations.

• You see People as a lever for the business, not a support function. You know what a decision really costs before you advise against it, and you can tell real risk from theoretical risk.
• You have worked directly with founders, and you tell them what they don't want to hear, kindly and with reasons. You are right often enough that we listen.
• You have built a culture. Somewhere there is a company where the values showed up in everyday decisions because of you.
• You listen. Friction, unspoken needs, the mood of the place: you pick it up before it becomes a problem.
• You give trust first, and you are demanding on what follows: deadlines, contracts, process.
• Kind, not soft. Honest feedback, hard conversations, and warmth in how you deliver both.
• You can build and run a team, in-house and with the right partners.
• Curious about AI. You use it every day, and you actually want to understand what we build.
• 8+ years in People or Talent. Fluent French and English, ideally with a multi-country story behind you. Based in Paris.

And you want to give a lot to build an ambitious, fast-growing company where people are glad to come in on a Monday.

Bonus points if you have hired for an AI or data company and know what a good ML engineer looks like on paper and in a call.

Terms

• Compensation: €70-90k + bonus, and 0.2% to 0.5% BSPCE depending on profile.
• Location: Paris, on-site with 1 to 2 days WFH.
• Start date: as soon as you can.
• Perks: Alan health insurance, 50% Navigo.

A meeting lands on your calendar

If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.