For one of our clients, we’re looking for a VP HR who can build the people foundation of a fast-scaling company.
Amsterdam, 4 days in the office
Full-time
Permanent contract
This is not a job for someone looking for a next role. It’s for someone looking for the thing they’ll be known for.
They are building a multi-country platform at a pace that most companies never experience: new markets, new teams, every quarter. It’s demanding, complex, and at times relentless. It’s also one of the rare chances to build the human foundation of a company from the ground up, with the CEO as your direct partner.
They need someone who will make this their first priority. Not one of several. The first. Someone who is in, fully, because building this is what they actually want to do with the next chapter of their life. If that sentence makes you hesitate, this isn’t the role. If it makes you lean in, keep reading.
They are building a company that develops individuals and communities together: a place where people come to act, create, and grow, not to keep a seat. Ideas outrank hierarchy. Departments work as one team, not as silos. Excellence is personal, and it’s expected. And the culture is deliberately not corporate: sharp in thinking, liberal in spirit, serious about results.
Your mandate You report directly to the CEO and sit with the senior leadership team as the company expands into new markets. You own the human system: how they hire, how they onboard, how they develop leaders, how they keep one culture intact across markets that are very different from each other.
This is a build-from-scratch mandate. Concretely, you will:
Set the HR roadmap that lets the company scale sustainably across many sites and countries
Embed one culture across every location, so growth doesn’t dilute who they are
Plan workforce needs around peak moments: recruitment, onboarding, and compliance readiness synced to launch dates in new markets
Build one compensation and benefits architecture: competitive locally, consistent in logic across markets
Develop a leadership pipeline: identify and grow manager-track talent internally, not just hire it externally
Define an employee experience that keeps talent engaged in a high-turnover industry, working with local legal counsel market by market
Professionalise the HR function itself: build the team and processes that keep pace with the business, with the mandate to grow the team as the company scales
You start with a small HR Business Partner team supporting leadership on payroll, employee relations, and people operations. The rest is yours to build.
Who you are
You’ve scaled HR inside real hypergrowth, and you have the scars and the systems to prove it
You think strategically and execute pragmatically, in a reality that’s still forming around you
You’ve worked hands-on across multiple European markets: real time on the ground, not remote oversight
You’ve built one culture across distributed locations, and made it stick
You know the EU labour landscape well enough to lead local counsel, and to challenge them
You coach and partner with senior leaders as a peer, not a service function
You prioritise ruthlessly when everything feels urgent, and stay calm doing it
And above all: you want this. Not as a job. As the thing you build.
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VP Human Resources in Amsterdam werkgever: 7people
Bij 7people bieden we een dynamische en ondersteunende werkomgeving waar je als People Operations & Payroll Lead de kans krijgt om je vaardigheden te ontwikkelen en impact te maken. Met een focus op samenwerking en innovatie, stimuleren we persoonlijke groei en bieden we flexibele werkopties in een hybride model. Onze cultuur is open en inclusief, waardoor je je snel thuis voelt en bijdraagt aan het succes van ons team in Nederland.
