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Head of People at Dfns in Paris
Job Description
Head of People
Europe or United States, remote first with offices available · Full-time · People · Reports to CEO
About DFNS
Finance is moving onchain. Stablecoins, tokenized deposits, securities and funds are changing how money and assets are issued, held and transferred. The destination is a financial system where any asset can be issued, moved and governed onchain with the controls regulated institutions require. That shift needs a new foundation. Just as core banking systems manage accounts and ledgers today, financial institutions need a platform to manage digital assets. DFNS is that platform. Today, we secure hundreds of billions of dollars in assets every month for more than 500 clients worldwide.
Why this role
We have grown from a founding team in Paris into a company across Europe, America and Asia. You will be our first dedicated People hire, building the function from the ground up: the hiring engine for the roles ahead, onboarding that makes people productive in weeks, and leveling and compensation that hold up across countries and in front of investors and auditors. The title is Head of People because the scope is company wide, not because a department is waiting for you, so expect to do the work yourself before you build a team.
What you’ll do
Build the hiring engine, from process and tooling to hiring manager discipline, so we fill the roles ahead with people who raise the bar.
Design onboarding that gets a new joiner productive in their first weeks, wherever they sit.
Put in place leveling and compensation across every country we employ in, equity included, that is fair, explainable and ready for investor and audit scrutiny.
Run People operations end to end (contracts, payroll and benefits across entities, employee records, offboarding) with Finance and Legal teams.
Set up performance and development, from goals and reviews to career paths, so people know where they stand and where they can go.
Own engagement and retention, measure them and act on what you find, including the retreats and offsites that hold a distributed team together.
Keep us compliant with employment law in every country we hire in and keep People controls audit ready for SOC 2 and ISO 27001 (screening, access on and offboarding, security training).
Be the person people come to when something is wrong and resolve it with judgment and discretion.
What you bring
Must-haves
Experience building a People function at a company that grew from tens to hundreds of people across several countries.
Hands-on command of the full cycle (hiring, onboarding, payroll and benefits administration, performance, offboarding). You have done the work yourself, not only managed it.
Working knowledge of French and US employment law plus the judgment to know when to call counsel.
Experience designing compensation and leveling frameworks, including equity.
Discretion and judgment in employee relations, including the hard conversations.
Fluent English.
Nice-to-haves
French, since our headquarters and a large part of the team are in Paris.
Experience in a company certified to SOC 2 or ISO 27001, where People controls are audited.
Experience with international payroll or employer of record providers.
Experience hiring engineers and salespeople in the US.
How we work
We are a distributed company headquartered in Paris. Our teams work from Europe, the US and Asia, with offices in New York, Geneva, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and São Paulo. We write decisions down so they survive time zones. We hold our own work to the standards our clients are held to. We hire people who can own an outcome end to end and we give them the room to do it.
What we offer
A competitive base salary set by role and location, a bonus or variable plan where the role carries one and stock options vesting over four years. Healthcare, flexible vacation, parental leave and a one-time home technology allowance, with travel expenses covered. A MacBook and the equipment you need to do your best work. Remote first, with an office if you want one.
Base salary range: $150,000-250,000
Hiring process
We aim to complete the process in 2 weeks and we tell you where you stand after every step.
Intro call with Co-CEO (30 minutes).
Personality and cognitive assessments, completed on your own time (45 minutes).
Focus interviews with the hiring panel in role-specific sessions (about 3 hours in total).
Reference calls and background checks.
Equal opportunity
DFNS is an equal opportunity employer and considers every applicant based on ability and potential, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need an accommodation at any point in the process, tell us and we will arrange it.