Job description

WHO WE ARE Notion is the collaborative AI workspace where teams and agents think together youtube.com. We're building one place where your knowledge, projects, meetings, and AI tools live side by side, so work is faster, clearer, and less fragmented. Millions of individuals, small teams, and large companies run their work on Notion. Notinos (our employees) are customer zero in bringing this future of work to life. We care about craft, building things that last, and the belief that great work is still fundamentally human. Our goal isn’t to ship the next feature. Each and every team of Notinos is working to set the standard for how humans work together in the AI era. From building a business’s system of record to making and managing AI agents to automating away the busy work, we care deeply about giving our customers more time for their life’s work. ABOUT THE ROLE: What if the busy work just got out of the way? Behind every great employee experience is a quiet system: the onboarding that feels effortless, the leave handled with care, the paycheck that's right the first time. It's craft most people never see, and we think it deserves the same care we put into the product. We want People Ops that feels like a great mechanical watch: you never think about it, and it's never wrong. Imagine the first day at a company where every laptop, login, and handshake worked on the first try. That's the bar. We're looking for a Head of People Operations to lead that work. You'll shape the strategy across People Operations and Total Rewards operations, making everyday work simpler, more reliable, and increasingly agent-enabled. This is a player-coach role. You'll develop the team, set direction, and stay hands-on, especially as you learn Notion. You'll combine operational craft with thoughtful automation, keeping care and human judgment at the center of every sensitive decision. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We work from our offices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (our Anchor Days) because we do our best thinking and building together in person. We’re looking for someone who’s excited to work alongside the team during those days. WHAT YOU'LL ACHIEVE: - Be customer zero for AI-enabled operations. Prototype and scale agents on real workflows, with trusted data, the right access, and human review built in. (Yes, we run our own People Ops on Notion. Yes, it's a little meta.) - Build the experience behind the experience. Every hire, change, leave, and farewell runs through the systems you design. - Lead a team that wears many hats. You'll coach, set the roadmap, and still get your hands dirty. No boredom guaranteed. - Join at a moment of growth. Notion is scaling, and there's a real green field to build something simple and lasting. - Work across the whole company. Partner with People, Finance, Payroll, Legal, IT, and BizTech to make handoffs smooth and change stick. - Put agents to work, thoughtfully. Test and scale useful workflows with validation and human review. (Automate the busy work, never the judgment.) - Lead the team and set the roadmap. Clear ownership, clear priorities, and room for people to grow. - Build reliable lifecycle workflows. Onboarding, employee changes, leaves, and offboarding, with clear intake, service standards, and escalation paths. - Run Total Rewards operations. Own routine compensation and benefits operations, from cycle readiness and data changes to Payroll handoffs, with accuracy and good judgment on exceptions. - Measure what matters. Use service, quality, and adoption data to keep improving, with data integrity and audit readiness built in. - Make change stick. Align partners across the company and drive adoption. SKILLS YOU'LL NEED TO BRING: - You've led a People Operations team in a shared services model and built scalable processes in a growing company, while staying hands-on. - You've built People programs and operational processes from the ground up. - You know compensation administration and benefits well, with sound judgment on approvals and exceptions. - You design great systems and processes across HRIS, case management, and lifecycle workflows. (Workday and global experience are a plus.) - You've used AI and automation to improve real work, with privacy, quality, and oversight in mind. - You communicate clearly, hold strong beliefs loosely, and lead people through change with kindness and directness. Notion is committed to providing highly competitive cash compensation, equity, and benefits. The compensation offered for this role will be based on multiple factors such as location, the role’s scope and complexity, and the candidate’s experience and expertise, and may vary from the range provided below. For roles based in San Francisco, the estimated base salary range for this role is $270,000 - $310,000 per year. By clicking “Submit Application”, I understand and agree that Notion and its affiliates and subsidiaries will collect and process my information in accordance with Notion’s Global Recruiting Privacy Policy notion.notion.site. dev.notion.so #LI-Onsite A NOTE ON AI You don’t need deep AI expertise for every role, but we do expect every Notino to be intellectually curious, drawn to tinkering and discovery, and excited to use AI as a real collaborator in their work. For some roles, AI fluency is a core requirement — when that’s the case, we'll say so explicitly in the qualifications. People who thrive here don’t treat AI as a novelty. They use it to think better, and make their work easier for others to build on. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & ACCOMMODATIONS We hire talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every bullet, we still encourage you to apply. Notion is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic. Consistent with applicable law, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Notion provides reasonable accommodations during the application process; if you need one, please let your recruiter know. Notion is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Notion considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Notion is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.

Requirements

Must-haves

What if the busy work just got out of the way?
Imagine the first day at a company where every laptop, login, and handshake worked on the first try. That's the bar.
Build the experience behind the experience. Every hire, change, leave, and farewell runs through the systems you design.
Lead a team that wears many hats. You'll coach, set the roadmap, and still get your hands dirty. No boredom guaranteed.
Join at a moment of growth. Notion is scaling, and there's a real green field to build something simple and lasting.
Work across the whole company. Partner with People, Finance, Payroll, Legal, IT, and BizTech to make handoffs smooth and change stick.
Put agents to work, thoughtfully. Test and scale useful workflows with validation and human review. (Automate the busy work, never the judgment.)
Lead the team and set the roadmap. Clear ownership, clear priorities, and room for people to grow.
Build reliable lifecycle workflows. Onboarding, employee changes, leaves, and offboarding, with clear intake, service standards, and escalation paths.
Run Total Rewards operations. Own routine compensation and benefits operations, from cycle readiness and data changes to Payroll handoffs, with accuracy and good judgment on exceptions.
Measure what matters. Use service, quality, and adoption data to keep improving, with data integrity and audit readiness built in.
Make change stick. Align partners across the company and drive adoption.
You've led a People Operations team in a shared services model and built scalable processes in a growing company, while staying hands-on.
You've built People programs and operational processes from the ground up.
You know compensation administration and benefits well, with sound judgment on approvals and exceptions.
You've used AI and automation to improve real work, with privacy, quality, and oversight in mind.
You communicate clearly, hold strong beliefs loosely, and lead people through change with kindness and directness.

Nice-to-haves

You design great systems and processes across HRIS, case management, and lifecycle workflows. (Workday and global experience are a plus.)

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick

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