Head of People, Sona
ÂŁ80-95k
Offers Equity
AI-powered people operating system for frontline teams
Job no longer available
AI-powered people operating system for frontline teams
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
ÂŁ80-95k
Offers Equity
101-200 employees
Company mission
To solve the unique challenges of frontline work with truly intelligent AI that empowers every employee.
Role
Who you are
- If you're energised by that kind of ambiguity - and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities shift and the org evolves quickly - this will be a great fit
- You're a People generalist who's comfortable spanning business partnering, ops, and project delivery
- You've worked in a startup or scaleup environment (ideally post-Series A) and are used to building things from scratch, not just running established processes
- You bring a commercial mindset - you understand business strategy and organisational priorities, and you frame People decisions in terms of what's right for the business
- You've personally handled performance management, probation, and difficult people situations - not just designed policy around them
- You're self-sufficient - you can manage senior stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and make judgment calls without constant input
- You communicate clearly and directly, adapting your style across different audiences and levels of seniority
- Bonus: experience scaling a People function through 100-250 headcount, international employment experience, or exposure to building performance management or L&D frameworks from scratch
What the job involves
- We're hiring a Head of People to lead and grow our People function as Sona scales through its next phase of growth
- Reporting to the Chief of Staff & VP of People (single person, dual role!), this is a role for someone who wants to own the full breadth of People work - from business partnering with senior leaders through to building the frameworks and processes that help a 150+ person, globally distributed team do their best work
- Day to day, that means being the go-to partner for managers navigating performance conversations, probation, and difficult people decisions. It also means driving forward strategic projects like performance management, learning and development, and the systems that support a high-performance culture
- You'll manage our People Ops Manager, shaping the operational side of the function while focusing your own time on the areas where Sona needs the most help: strategic thinking, stakeholder partnership, and building what doesn't exist yet
- This isn't a role where you'll inherit a fully formed function and keep it running. Much of what you'll be responsible for needs to be built from scratch or improved
- Own the People function day-to-day, acting as the People leader across the business
- Partner with managers and leaders on performance management, probation, employee relations, and people decisions
- Drive strategic People projects - including performance management frameworks, L&D, and culture initiatives - from design through to delivery
- Work with the People Ops manager to ensure all our operational processes are documented, AI-first and scalable
- Work closely with the VP of People to shape the People strategy as Sona scales past 150 headcount and into new international markets
Salary benchmarks
Our take
80% of people don’t work at desks, but the technology for deskless workers only attracts 1% of all enterprise software investment. Consequently, little software has been designed to benefit the frontline. Sona is a workforce technology startup setting out to help solve this issue, building an all-in-one platform specially designed to empower frontline workers and help their employers retain staff and operate more efficiently.
By using its app, users can view and claim shifts, communicate with their colleagues, and book holidays. Moreover, Sona has additional modules for HR, Payroll, and Engagement, so customers can manage all of their people operations in one place, or integrate with their existing tools.
Sona is an early-stage startup, yet already counts big names across Social Care, Hospitality, and the Charities sector who have combined to book millions of shifts on the Sona platform.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Apr 2026
$45m
SERIES B
May 2024
$27.5m
SERIES A
Total funding: $81.7m
Company benefits
- Share options
- Remote first and flexible working
- 35 days annual leave (25 days standard plus 10 flexible public holiday days)
- Pension contributions matched up to 5%
- Enhanced parental leave & pay - 26 weeks full pay primary parent / 8 weeks full pay secondary parent
- Co-working space stipend (if you don't live in London)
- Quarterly all expenses paid team retreats
- The latest Macbook and equipment for your home office
- Professional development budget
- Unlimited free books
- Comprehensive health insurance via Bupa
Company HQ
Fitzrovia, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Ben Dixon
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously Associate - Consulting at PWC and Software Engineer at Thorlabs. Also, Co-Founder & CTO at Catapult Ventures Limited for 6 years.
Oli Johnson
(Co-Founder)Previously Associate at NEO Capital and Investment Manager at Baugur Group. Co-Founder at Catapult for 6 years.
Steffen Wulff Petersen
(Co-Founder)Previously Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs for 2 years. Since then has been Co-Founder & Managing Director at Lazada Group and Co-Founder at Catapult.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Sona
- Fully remote work and total control over your schedule means you can excel at Sona no matter where, when, or how you like to work. We also offer extended parental leave to everyone.
- We're partnered with the Women in Tech Forum, a membership platform dedicated to supporting and accelerating the careers of women. Optional memberships are available to all women and allies at Sona to access their wide range of events, masterclasses, articles, and more.
- Salary transparency across all of our job postings means your offer is based on your experience and interview performance, not your previous salary or your negotiating skills.
- We use structured interview processes and assessment criteria to remove as much bias from our process as possible
- We do all of our collaborative work in public channels, which means everyone gets a say and the recognition they deserve, and nobody's out of the loop.
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