Senior Head of People

Head of People

📍 Barcelona · Hybrid · Leadership Team

About the role

Great companies are built by exceptional people.

At haddock, we're entering an exciting new stage of growth. We're scaling our teams, strengthening our leadership and building the organization that will take us to the next level.

We're looking for a Head of People to help us build a high-performance, AI-powered organization where exceptional talent can do the best work of their careers.

You'll work directly with our founders and Leadership Team to shape how we attract talent, develop leaders, manage performance and scale our culture.

We believe the future of People is about combining great human judgment with technology, automation and data to build smarter, faster and more effective organizations.

Your mission: help us build a company where great people can have an extraordinary impact.

➡️ Who are we?

haddock (Y Combinator W22) is building the AI-workforce for restaurants.

We help more than 2,500 restaurants across Spain and Portugal control their costs, improve their margins and automate their operations.

What started as a system to manage invoices, purchases and inventory is becoming an AI-powered platform where intelligent agents take care of repetitive operational work.

Our mission is simple: help restaurateurs build better businesses by saving time, reducing costs and increasing profitability.

We're building a company with the ambition to transform how the restaurant industry operates.

➡️ Why are we hiring?

We're at an exciting stage of growth.

As we scale our Product, Engineering, AI, Customer Experience and Sales teams, we're also evolving how we attract, develop and support our people.

We want to take our People function to the next level: strengthening our hiring processes, developing great managers, building a high-performance culture and creating an exceptional employee experience.

We're looking for someone who can combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution and help us build a People function that grows alongside the business.

This is an opportunity to have a direct impact on how haddock operates, develops talent and scales its culture.

You'll report directly to Pol Rosell, one of the co-founders, join the Leadership Team and help shape the next stage of our organization.

➡️ What you'll do

1. Build an AI-powered People function

We believe AI can help us work smarter and spend more time on what matters most: people.

• Explore how AI and automation can improve recruiting, onboarding and People operations.

• Reduce repetitive tasks and build simple, scalable processes.

• Collaborate with our internal AI team to implement new solutions.

You don't need to be an AI expert, just curious, proactive and excited about using technology to make People better.

2. Attract and hire exceptional talent

Hiring great people is one of our biggest priorities.

• Own our talent acquisition strategy and hiring plan.

• Build structured, scalable hiring processes that consistently raise the bar.

• Partner with hiring managers and lead our Talent Acquisition team.

• Improve hiring quality, speed and candidate experience.

3. Build a high-performance culture

We want talented people to do the best work of their careers.

• Set clear performance expectations and build a culture of ownership and feedback.

• Lead performance reviews, talent assessments and development plans.

• Identify, develop and retain top talent, helping managers make effective people decisions.

4. Develop outstanding leaders

Great managers build great teams.

• Coach managers on leadership, feedback, delegation and difficult conversations.

• Develop future leaders and strengthen management capabilities.

• Partner with founders to shape our organizational structure as we scale.

5. Scale our culture and People operations

Our values — Extreme Ownership, Extreme Transparency, Disagree & Commit, Raise the Bar, Think Big and Love our Customer — guide how we work.

• Embed our values into everyday decisions and the employee experience.

• Own compensation frameworks, onboarding, offboarding and People operations.

• Ensure labor compliance with our external advisors.

• Use data and automation to build efficient, scalable processes.

➡️ What success looks like

We measure success by the impact People has on the company.

Exceptional talent. We consistently attract, hire and retain high-performing people.

Stronger leadership. Our managers build better teams, develop talent and make effective decisions.

High performance. Everyone understands what's expected of them and receives the feedback and support needed to succeed.

AI-driven efficiency. Our People processes become faster, smarter and increasingly automated, without compromising employee experience.

Scalable organization. haddock grows while maintaining its culture, speed and operational excellence.

➡️ What we're looking for

👉 You've scaled People in a fast-growing tech company. You know how to attract talent, develop leaders and build strong teams.

👉 You're a builder with a business mindset. You combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution and connect People decisions to business results.

👉 You believe in high-performance teams. You set high standards, develop top talent and build a culture of ownership and accountability.

👉 You have strong judgment. You're comfortable challenging founders, coaching managers and navigating difficult conversations.

👉 You're curious about AI and technology. You enjoy experimenting with new tools and finding smarter, more efficient ways to work.

👉 You move fast and keep things simple. You prioritize impact over bureaucracy and take ownership of results.

👉 You know Spanish employment legislation, speak fluent Spanish and English, and can work from our Barcelona office three days per week.

⭐️ You'll stand out if you have experience with

• Scaling a startup through a period of rapid headcount growth.

• Building performance management and talent development frameworks from scratch.

• Designing compensation structures, salary bands, bonus schemes and stock option plans.

• Working with Sales and Customer Experience teams with performance targets and variable compensation.

• Organizational design and leadership development.

• Implementing AI-powered tools and automations in People processes.

• Working in a venture-backed startup.

• Speaking Catalan.
  

➡️ What we offer

🚀 Build something meaningful. You'll have the opportunity to shape the People function of a fast-growing technology company.

🎯 Real impact on the business. You'll report directly to Pol, one of our co-founders, join the Leadership Team and influence some of the most important decisions we make as a company.

👥 Lead and develop your own team. You'll have the opportunity to build a strong People organization that supports our next stage of growth.

📈 Grow with the company. We're looking for someone with the ambition and potential to take on greater responsibility as haddock scales.

☯️ Flexible working. Three days per week in the office and two days working remotely.

💰 Competitive compensation. Fixed salary, with variable compensation and stock options under consideration.

🧘 Benefits. Access to private health insurance and Wellhub through our benefits partners.

➡️ Our hiring process

We move fast and communicate openly. We want to get to know you, understand how you think and give you a clear picture of the challenges ahead.

1. Intro call with Pol, Co-founder — 20 minutes

A first conversation to get to know you, understand your background, motivations and expectations, and share more about haddock and the role.

2. Practical case — Your first 90 days at haddock

You'll prepare and present your proposed People strategy for your first three months.

We want to understand how you prioritize, make decisions and approach scaling our People function, including how you'd use AI and automation to improve efficiency.

You'll present your proposal to the Leadership Team.

3. Cultural Fit with Arnau, our CEO

A conversation about our values, leadership, decision-making and how we work together. We want to understand how you think, what drives you and how you'd contribute to haddock's culture.

4. References

We'll speak with people you've worked with to better understand your impact, leadership style and track record.

We're looking for someone who believes that great people, strong leadership and a culture of high performance are the foundations of a great company.

Someone who enjoys building, challenging the status quo and finding smarter ways to work.

If you're excited about helping exceptional people thrive and shaping how a fast-growing company scales, we'd love to meet you.

Apply now.