Chief People Officer

Chief People Officer Chief People Officer at sunday: build world-class talent, culture, and systems across US/EU; own hiring, development, and scalable people programs from Day 1. Apply to this job 👋 About Us sunday is building the fastest, simplest way to pay in restaurants. With a quick scan of a QR code, diners can pay, tip, and leave in about 10 seconds. We believe great products should feel obvious, not complicated, and we focus relentlessly on keeping things simple while earning trust from restaurants and guests at every interaction. Today, sunday powers payments in thousands of restaurants across the US, UK, and France, helping operators turn tables faster, increase tips, and unlock valuable insights. We push ourselves to go beyond what’s expected, building with ownership, moving fast, and scaling with ambition as we tackle our biggest growth opportunity in the US. About the Role This is not a traditional HR leadership role. As Chief People Officer, your mission is to be the guardian of talent density at sunday. You will join the leadership team at a pivotal Series B → Series C inflection point, reporting directly to the Co-founder, with full ownership and a real voice at the table from Day 1. sunday operates across two continents: in the US, the UK and France. You will shape how we recruit, develop, and retain exceptional talent across all of these markets, while ensuring our culture scales without losing what makes us great. The People function at sunday is not about administration or compliance. It is about building an organization where every single person pursues growth and raises the bar. Every hire, every promotion, every exit, and every performance conversation should answer one question: does this increase the quality of our team? Join early, grow fast, and shape the journey! Key Responsibilities Own talent density. Define and enforce the standard of excellence for every hire, promotion, and exit. Recruit people who raise the bar in every team they join. Promote exceptional performers fast. Act decisively, and with empathy, when someone consistently falls below the required standard. Build performance systems that drive excellence, not bureaucracy. Design compensation philosophies, promotion frameworks, probation processes, calibration mechanisms, and continuous performance reviews that genuinely hold people accountable and reward those who deserve it. Hold the leadership team accountable. Challenge leaders, push them to make difficult decisions, and stay in the trenches until those decisions are executed. When a leader hesitates because a situation is uncomfortable, the answer is never to lower the bar. Make sunday magnetic. Build sunday's Talent Acquisition muscle to close 150+ roles per year. Own employer branding, especially in the US, where sunday is still early-stage, and make us irresistible to top-tier candidates in a competitive market. Prepare the People function for scale. Design compliant, adaptable processes across US multi-state employment law (NY, GA, and beyond) and European markets. Partner with Finance on rigorous headcount planning ahead of Series C. Own and evolve the HRIS stack (currently HiBob). Develop sunday's next generation of leaders. Build the company's first structured L&D framework. Coach and upskill managers. Ensure every high-potential employee has a clear path and the support to take it. Bring a rigorous AI lens to People. Apply a coherent, evidence-based point of view on how AI will transform recruiting, performance management, learning, and organizational design, and actively implement it within the People function. Champion culture across two continents. Shape and protect what makes sunday special as we grow from 200 to 500+ employees, across US and European teams, time zones, and cultural contexts. About You You have operated at C-level or immediately below in a high-growth technology company. You know what it takes to build a world-class People function, because you've already done it. You are a builder, not just an operator. You have designed performance systems, compensation philosophies, and TA strategies from scratch, not inherited them. You have real 0→1 experience in a scaleup environment. You are US-based with international leadership experience across at least two countries. You can navigate US multi-state employment law and European work cultures without ever compromising on performance standards. You have lived through hypergrowth. Headcount doubling, complexity exploding, execution at full speed. You know how to replace intuition with mechanisms and make decisions based on data, not gut feel. You are a bar raiser. You instinctively raise expectations wherever you go. You refuse to protect harmony at the expense of performance. You believe culture follows talent density, not the other way around. You have a rigorous, evidence-based POV on AI, not just as a user of tools, but as a strategic thinker about how AI will reshape the People function over the next five years. Nice-to-haves: Experience in hospitality tech, fintech, or SaaS scaleups (500–1,000 employees). Experience managing People functions across both US and European markets simultaneously. A network in high-performance environments for HR What makes you stand out at sunday: Internally driven: you push yourself by nature. You seek challenge over comfort, and you arrive with that fire already inside you. Executive presence: you earn trust with co-founders and boards from Day 1, without relying on formal authority. Hands-on: you execute alongside strategy. There is no large People team to hide behind at this stage, and you don't need one. Talent magnet: you close top candidates personally and make sunday irresistible in a competitive market. What We Offer Competitive salary and meaningful stock options in a company that tripled revenue in 2024/2025 A great office in the heart of NYC or Atlanta with a balance of in-person and remote work Free Vacation Policy 100% Employer-Covered Health Insurance 401K Plan Steps in our Recruitment Process Phone Screen : Mathilde Lugger, current Chief People Officer: Culture fit, ambitions, track record, salary & logistics Business Case : Mathilde Lugger + Christelle Leforestier: Deep dive into your People philosophy and approach to sunday's challenges Founder Interview 1 : Christine, Co-founder Founder Interview 2 :Victor, Co-founder Reference Checks People Team, with your 3 most recent managers Thank you for taking the time to apply, and looking forward to getting to know you! sunday is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, gender, ethnicity, religion, national origin, ancestry, nationality, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, genetic information, or on any other basis prohibited by law (except where an attribute is a bona fide occupational qualification). Department People Locations Atlanta, Georgia, New York City, New York Remote status Hybrid Employment type Full-time Team People