Head of People Operations

Notion; United States; Remote; USD 270,000 - 310,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive cash compensation

Flexible work schedule

Job summary

Notion is seeking a Head of People Operations to lead a growing team in San Francisco and build the systems behind an excellent employee experience.

You will shape strategy across People Operations and Total Rewards, balancing hands-on work with automation, and scale workflows for onboarding, lifecycle events, and compensation management.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading a high-performing People Operations team.
• Hands-on leadership with ability to scale processes in a growing org.
• Strong knowledge of compensation administration and benefits.

Responsibilities

• Lead the People Operations and Total Rewards teams and set roadmaps.
• Design scalable onboarding, changes, leaves, and offboarding processes.
• Own compensation and benefits operations and data integrity.
• Partner with Finance, Payroll, Legal, IT, and BizTech to drive adoption.
• Leverage AI/automation while ensuring privacy and oversight.

Skills

People operations leadership

Workday experience

AI automation

Systems/process design

Tools

HRIS tools

Job description

Who We AreNotion is the collaborative AI workspace where teams and agents think together. 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 the company.

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:We’re looking for a Head of People Operations to lead our team and build the systems behind a great employee experience. 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: develop the team, set direction, and stay hands‑on—especially as you learn the company. You’ll combine operational craft with thoughtful automation, keeping care and human judgment at the center of sensitive decisions.

This role is based in San Francisco. 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.

• Put agents to work thoughtfully. Prototype, test, and scale useful workflows, with trusted information, appropriate access, validation, and human review built in.

• Lead the team and set the roadmap. Coach and develop team, establish clear ownership, and prioritize improvements across service delivery, systems, and automation.

• Build reliable lifecycle and support workflows. Design and improve People Operations processes that support the company as it grows, including onboarding, employee changes, leaves, and offboarding, with clear intake, ownership, documentation, service standards, and escalation paths.

• Lead Total Rewards operations. Develop and evolve scalable operating frameworks across Total Rewards—including clear ownership, decision rights, controls, and cross‑functional handoffs—to improve consistency and enable specialists to focus on strategic work. Own routine compensation and benefits operations and the processes behind them—from cycle readiness and data changes to Payroll handoffs. Partner with specialists on policy, program design, and complex exceptions.

• Measure and strengthen operations. Use service, quality, and adoption data to improve performance and service delivery while maintaining data integrity, controls, and audit readiness.

• Make change stick. Partner across People, Finance, Payroll, Legal, IT, and BizTech to resolve handoffs, align decisions, and drive adoption.

Skills You’ll Need to Bring: Experience leading a high performing People Operations team in a shared services capacity, building scalable processes in a growing organization, while remaining effective hands‑on.

• Demonstrated success building scalable People programs, infrastructure, and operational processes from the ground up

• Operational depth in compensation administration and benefits, with sound judgment around accuracy, approvals, and exceptions.

• Strong systems and process‑design skills across HRIS, case management, and lifecycle workflows. Workday and global operations experience are a plus.

• Practical experience using AI and automation to improve work, with privacy, quality, and human oversight built into the approach.

• Clear communication, strong judgment, and the ability to lead a team and cross‑functional partners through change.

the company 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.

A Note on AIYou 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 & AccommodationsWe 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. the company 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. the company provides reasonable accommodations during the application process; if you need one, please let your recruiter know.

the company 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. the company considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. the company 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.