People & Talent Lead - Kestra

Kestra is seeking its first dedicated People hire to lead the growth from 50 to 100 people over the next 12 to 18 months, strengthening the foundations for a distributed team. This hands-on role involves owning recruitment and People operations, working directly with the founders and hiring managers, with significant room to shape the function.

Reporting to: Emmanuel (CEO) and Ludovic (CTO), co-founders
Working language: English
Location: France or Germany

Why Kestra

Kestra is building an open-source platform for orchestration, coordinating data, infrastructure, business processes, and AI agents across tools, teams, and environments. Founded in France, Kestra is growing its enterprise business in Europe and the United States, having raised a $25M Series A in March 2026. Teams at major enterprises like JPMorgan Chase, Apple, and TotalEnergies run Kestra in production.

The Opportunity

This role is critical for Kestra's next stage of growth, focusing on bringing in the right people and ensuring their success. You will provide dedicated People and Talent leadership, collaborating with founders, hiring managers, and existing Administration, Workplace Operations, and Finance teams. With colleagues across more than ten countries and many recent joiners, the work extends beyond hiring to ensuring a consistent and positive experience for all as the company scales.

What You Will Own

• Recruitment from sourcing to signed offer: Manage the full recruitment lifecycle, from candidate engagement and initial conversations to coordinating interview processes and maintaining the ATS. Partner with founders and leaders to prioritize roles and support hiring managers in decision-making.
• People operations across countries: Coordinate contracts, payroll partners, EOR providers, benefits, time off, and employee requests with Administration, Workplace Operations, and Finance teams. Ensure clear records and deadlines, working with local providers on employment requirements.
• Onboarding that gets people started well: Facilitate a smooth practical setup and empower managers to provide new joiners with clear expectations, useful context, and the right relationships from day one.
• Compensation and performance processes: Develop frameworks with founders and manage cycles for salary reviews, levels, performance reviews, and equity administration (including BSPCE where applicable).
• How we work as a distributed team: Organize all-hands meetings and the annual company offsite, enhance internal communication, and establish routines for effective cross-location collaboration.
• A clear view of progress: Provide founders with actionable insights on hiring, headcount, and employment costs to identify bottlenecks and prioritize attention.

What You Bring

• Experience combining People and Talent in a growing company: Proven track record during periods of significant hiring, understanding the necessary processes as a team scales.
• Self-built recruitment experience: Demonstrated ability to source, assess, and close candidates, with insights into challenging searches, successful hires, and lessons learned.
• Experience recruiting across functions: Proficiency in hiring technical and business profiles, adapting approaches to different roles and markets, and collaborating with managers to assess performance beyond interviews.
• Practical knowledge of international employment: Experience with EOR providers, payroll partners, and local advisers, knowing when specialist input is required.
• Strong operational judgment: Comfortable with ATS, HRIS, and payroll platforms, meticulous with sensitive information, and detail-oriented.
• Ability to build and operate: Capable of introducing useful processes, running them independently, and improving them without unnecessary complexity.
• Fluent professional English: French or German is beneficial for local interactions.

Valuable additional experience: Developer tools or open source, background in operations or consulting, or supporting US employment from Europe.

How You Will Work

You will build upon an established organization, supported by existing Administration, Workplace Operations, and Finance teams. Your role is to provide dedicated expertise, coordinate efforts, and scale People processes as the company grows. Kestra leverages its own platform to automate business and administrative workflows, and you will continue this approach to simplify processes and focus human attention where it matters. Managers retain responsibility for hiring decisions and teams; you will guide, challenge, and align priorities with founders.

What We Offer

• Compensation discussed based on role scope and level.
• Equity participation (BSPCE where applicable).
• Remote work from France or Germany, with flexibility.
• Annual company offsite.
• Equipment, conference, and training budgets, with time for learning.
• Direct access to founders and the opportunity to build a function.

How We Hire

1. 45 minutes with Emmanuel and Ludovic: Discussion on the role, your experience, and your questions.
2. 60 minutes on your work: Deep dive into a hiring process you managed end-to-end and a complex international People situation you resolved.
3. 45 minutes with two future colleagues: One from the commercial team and one from the technical team.

Three conversations, no take-home exercise, and a decision within two weeks of the first call.

Send your CV or LinkedIn profile.