People Partner

The People Partner at SwiftSku is the whole function in one person — running the systems that keep the company compliant and organised, while also being the adviser managers turn to when they have a performance conversation to navigate or a team structure that isn’t working. You will be in the HRMS at 1pm and in a sensitive ER conversation at 8pm. That’s the role.

The role sits at the intersection of people, process, and systems — and is critical to delivering a reliable employee experience at scale.

We need someone who has scaled people functions before, not at a 5,000 person company with 20 HRBPs, but at a company that looked a lot like us — a 50+ headcount and growing steadily: fast, distributed, ambitious. Someone who can set up the infrastructure that lets us hire well, retain the people who drive outcomes, and build managers who don’t need hand-holding.

This is a builder role, not a maintainer role. If you need a fully staffed HR team and mature processes to do your best work — this isn’t the right fit.

WHO YOU ARE

• You have built HR infrastructure from scratch at a company that was scaling fast — you know what corners to cut and which ones you can’t
• You have worked across at least two geographies and understand that global doesn’t mean uniform
• You think in systems, not transactions. You solve the root problem, not the symptom
• You are direct with founders and leaders — you give your view, disagree openly, and commit fully once a decision is made
• You don’t need the team to be big to do the work well. You can execute alongside the people you’re enabling
• You are credible on the technical details — employment law, comp mechanics, HRMS administration — without getting lost in them
• You care about people’s outcomes. You measure yourself by what actually changes, not by programs launched

WHAT WE OFFER

• A seat at the leadership table — not a support function that gets consulted after decisions are made
• The scope to build the people function the way it should be built, with leadership that will back the right calls
• Competitive compensation with meaningful equity — we will share the upside with the people who build it
• A company that genuinely cares for its people — the decisions you make will define the culture for years

ROLE DETAILS

People Infrastructure
The architecture that makes everything else possible

• Design and own the global people operations framework: process, policies, employment structures
• Own the HRMS (Keka) as the system of record: data integrity, workflows, reporting, and adoption across all geographies
• Define and enforce documentation standards: offer letters, employment terms, policy acknowledgements, and lifecycle records

HR Business Partnership
Strategic counsel to leadership and founders

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the founders and leadership team on all people matters — org decisions, team health, difficult cases, and growth tradeoffs
• Make people data useful: surface patterns, flag risks, and present options
• Own sensitive Employee Relations matters end-to-end: investigations, documentation, and resolution — with consistency and without unnecessary escalation
• Represent the employee perspective in leadership decisions — not as a blocker, but as someone who helps the company make better calls
• Manage and grow — build the team as headcount scales

Culture & Engagement
Distributed by structure, connected by intention

• Own the engagement signal: pulse cadence, synthesis, and action — not just survey scores, but what changes because of them
• Build the rituals and systems that sustain culture across time zones: recognition, communication norms, and shared operating principles
• Maintain a flight-risk radar and work with leaders on proactive retention before people have already decided to leave
• Be the honest voice in the room about culture drift: call it when you see it, propose solutions, and track whether they’re working

Compensation, Payroll & Rewards

• Run payroll end-to-end: collect inputs, validate, and execute processing. Payroll runs on time, every month
• Define levels and bands that hold — so that every offer, promotion, and raise is made within a framework
• Manage the annual comp review cycle: merit, promotion, and equity refresh
• Design and maintain a benefits approach that is locally relevant

Talent & Hiring

• Partner with hiring managers and leadership to define role scopes, success profiles, and hiring bars before roles open
• Own the hiring process from JD to offer — structured, consistent
• Drive workforce planning with leadership: anticipate hiring needs 2–3 quarters ahead rather than reacting to headcount pressure
• Own the new hire experience globally — from offer acceptance to 90-day integration — so joiners hit the ground running regardless of geography

Manager Effectiveness

• Define what good management looks like at this company: expectations, cadences, and non-negotiables — and make them explicit, not assumed
• Build the enablement layer: toolkits, templates, and coaching that give managers what they need to run their teams well (1:1s, feedback, performance conversations, hiring decisions)
• Diagnose manager gaps systematically and drive structured improvement plans with accountability, not just advice
• Build a feedback loop between team health signals and manager behaviour, so problems surface before they become attrition

Performance & Org Design

• Own the performance cadence: lightweight, consistent, and actually run
• Drive goal-setting discipline across the org: every employee knows what they’re accountable for and how their work connects to company outcomes
• Support leaders on performance decisions — not by making the call for them, but by ensuring they have the right framework, documentation, and consistency
• Advise leadership on org design: team structure, role clarity, decision rights, and span of control — especially during rapid headcount growth
• Own the improvement and exit framework: structured, documented, and executed fairly across geographies