Director People & Culture (m/w/d) - 70-100% - remote DE or CH

About our client

Our client is an established software company in the field of IT security. For more than two decades, it has been developing solutions for secure digital communication – technology that reliably protects content and identities and keeps unwanted messages and malware at bay, without putting technical hurdles in the way of its users. Several thousand customers from regulated industries such as healthcare, energy, finance and insurance, public administration, pharmaceuticals and law rely on this technology.

The company is rooted in the German-speaking market and is currently growing internationally. Precision, reliability and high standards of quality shape its products just as much as the way people work together. Its core values – openness, reliability, appreciation and competence – apply within the team as much as in dealings with customers and partners.

We are happy to share our client’s name in a personal conversation.

Your mission

You will shape how several companies become one organisation.

Our client is growing – through acquisitions, through internationalisation and through building new structures across Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and further locations. This phase will not be decided by strategy, but by whether the people in our companies come along.

That is exactly what we need you for. As Director People & Culture, you will make sure the upcoming consolidation and integration steps are accepted and consistently implemented across the entire group: structures, roles, leadership, communication and the retention of the people we want to keep. You will report directly to our CEO and work closely with him.

The role is strategic and hands-on at the same time. There is no large HR apparatus behind you – you design the solution and then implement it yourself.

Your tasks and responsibilities

• You develop the target picture of our organisation together with the CEO and the managing directors, and keep it moving forward
• You integrate acquired companies from a people perspective: organisational structure, roles, leadership levels, compensation logic and culture
• You build a group-wide role and job architecture and harmonise structures across borders – without overriding local realities
• You enable our managers for phases of change, from structured performance conversations to the difficult ones
• You own internal communication around change initiatives and advise the CEO on it
• You develop and implement a retention strategy for key people
• You prepare workforce adjustments and see them through in a legally sound way across all jurisdictions involved
• You develop our HR processes and systems further, with Personio as the leading system, and build reliable reporting for the management team and the advisory board

Your profile

• You have held responsibility as Head of HR, HR Director or in a comparable role in an internationally structured company for several years
• You have accompanied acquisitions and post-merger integration from a people perspective – not in theory, but in execution
• You have owned restructuring and workforce adjustments and conduct separation conversations with composure and integrity
• You know Swiss and German employment law and are happy to work your way into further jurisdictions
• You think in processes – and you actually get them running
• You constantly communicate proactively and solutions oriented
• You are technically minded, work confidently with an HRIS and enjoy automating things rather than administering them
• You like making decisions, take responsibility for uncomfortable topics as well, and raise issues before they become problems
• You want to think strategically and roll up your sleeves at the same time
• You communicate fluently in German and English – further languages are a plus, Danish especially so

What our client offers

You work on solutions for secure communication and become part of an international, predominantly remote team. In this role, you will build the people function of a growing group from the ground up.

• A role with real scope, reporting directly to the CEO, with short decision-making paths
• The chance to build a people function in an international group rather than administer an existing one
• High flexibility: predominantly remote, a workload between 70 and 100 per cent, based in Switzerland or Germany
• Breadth of content, from strategic organisational development to hands-on implementation
• The position is initially limited to two years, with the option of an extension
• An environment where decisions are made quickly and results become visible immediately

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