Head of People (People & Workflow Lead)

Location: Remote in CET time zone, with in-person team meet-ups biannually. 

About WBA 

The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is an independent, non-profit organisation that measures how businesses impact people and planet so that together, we can hold companies accountable for contributing to sustainable development. To achieve this, we measure how the 2,000 most influential businesses are impacting people and the planet. Our research is freely available, our benchmarks and methodologies serve as a roadmap for companies to understand the changes they need to make to put our planet, society, and the economy on a more sustainable path. 

We support our Allies, UN agencies, governments, and other stakeholders in the broader corporate accountability ecosystem to understand how they can establish clear consequences for corporate inaction. 

WBA is a Teal-inspired organisation, intentionally shaping a distinctive organisational culture—the ‘WBA Way’. Drawing on principles of Teal, Regenerative Leadership, and other inspirational leadership models, we are building a workplace where collaboration, trust, and personal growth are prioritised alongside high performance. We are committed to ongoing cultural evolution and seek candidates who are excited to contribute to an environment where both our results—and our people—continually improve. 

Why This Role Matters 

You’ll lead all aspects of People, HR and Operations at WBA, working autonomously across the organisation to reshape a work environment after a period of major change. We've just completed a restructure, in Q4 2025, to create a more agile team and ways of working. We’re looking for someone who can bring strategic clarity, resilience, and creativity to rebuild our people foundations, amplify our ways of working across teams, isn’t afraid to roll their sleeves up and get into the detail and will nurture a healthy, high-performing, and supportive culture.  

This is a chance to play a foundational role in shaping WBA’s future, working alongside a passionate and international team driven by purpose, you’ll be a key architect in defining our new phase and building our evolving culture across 31 countries and 37 nationalities. 

The Opportunity 

You’ll hit the ground running across all the three pillars you’ll be building: 

Build Brilliant Systems & Workflows 

• Develop transparent frameworks for performance, pay benchmarking & calibration, and progression in line with our Teal inspired principles. 

• Own and strengthen core people operations, overseeing HR, compliance, contracts, payroll, benefits, onboarding/offboarding, and people data, partnering with Finance on payroll and people budget to make sure it all happens seamlessly. 

• Ways of working champion, supporting our remote team to thrive and supporting the roll out of digital productivity tools. 

Rebuilding Our Culture 

• Create and drive people strategies that build clarity, capability, and accountability for leaders in a remote, global organisation. 

• Redesign and deliver seamless onboarding, re-onboarding, and learning experiences that bring people and values together. 

• Amplifying internal comms,  develop and oversee internal communications strategy to ensure the right people get the right information at the right time. 

• Leading on the setup & implementation of our People’s Forum (our version of a Worker’s Council) 

Inspire High Performing Teams 

• Establish clear guidelines, reporting lines, and workflow foundations to support out new structure and inspire high performing teams. 

• Mentor and lead the People & Talent team (1.5 FTE), ensuring expertise, care, and compliance as WBA rebuilds post-restructure. 

• Advise leadership on all things HR and compliance. 

• Managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders (i.e. EOR partners, Papaya, BambooHR, Legal counsel, ICPs, Alumni etc) 
  
  

What You'll Bring 

• Brilliant and experienced HR leadership, with 8+ years running a small/medium sized organisation in remote, and values-driven organisations 

• Deeply comfortable with employment law and able to provide clarity on how to balance compliance across multiple jurisdictions 

• An excellent strategic thinker, and project manager, comfortable picking up and running with projects on your own. 

• Demonstrated experience with team leadership and management, and also obsessed with the detail and making sure everything ‘People’ is running like a well-oiled machine 

• Energised by building things from the ground up and learning as you go - experience in overseeing change management, internal comms and navigating change to rebuild how teams work and deliver our mission. 

• Collaborative, thoughtful, and calm under pressure, you thrive in a fast paced, constantly changing environment, this is your happy place! 

• Deep interest in equity, diversity, and inclusive and diverse workplace culture 

• Proficiency with HRIS (we use Bamboo HR), data analysis, and digital workplace tools 

• Relevant HR qualification (such as CIPD, SHRM) highly desirable 

• Brilliant at wordsmithing - fluent in written and spoken English. 

Reporting to: 

Head of Operations (Strategic People & Learning Lead) 

Quick Facts: 

• Org headcount: 85 

• Jurisdictional spread: 31 countries 

• Number of Direct Reports: 1 

• People Team size: 3 (based across South Africa and the Netherlands) 

• Working Hours' Time Zone: CET, with flexibility. 

• Job type: Full time (40 hours per week) 

• Salary Banding: € 65 -75k 

Interested?  

Send us your resume by clicking the 'apply for this job' button including a short answer to these two questions (not more than 250 words in total) 1. Why this role at WBA, and why now for you? 2. Where do you come alive in a People Lead role, and where do you not shine? 

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, no later than 18 January 2026 at 23.59 CEST. We will review the application after 18 January 2026. Virtual online interviews will be held for this role. For more information about WBA and our benchmarks, please see our website or follow @SDGBenchmarks.