Head of People

At Poki, our mission is to create the ultimate online playground - a place where over 90 million players worldwide enjoy the best web games from a vibrant global community of 500+ game developer teams. We believe play is how we learn, and we’re looking for Head of People to join our team and help grow our mobile game portfolio and help it thrive across genres.

As Head of People, you’ll lead our People team (HR, Recruitment, Office) and act as a key advisor to our leadership team. This role is more than managing HR operations: you’ll set the vision for how we attract, develop, and retain the best talent in a scalable, values-aligned way. You’ll report directly to our CEO and sit in our Company Circle (MT).

You’ll play a key role in preserving, communicating, and strengthening Poki’s culture, one that’s built on healthy performance, fast delivery (unstuckness), and a high quality bar.

Your challenge:

• Lead and represent the People function
• Be the strategic HR voice in the leadership team
• Manage and grow a cross-functional People team (5 FTE)
• Coach managers and guide leadership on people-related topics
• Help embed and champion our cultural values in day-to-day practices, rituals, and systems.

• Own personnel planning and organisational design
• Create and execute a forward-looking hiring and talent plan
• Maintain visibility on team structure, development needs, and hiring forecasts
• Co-shape our organisational design together with the CEO, contributing your people and culture perspective.

• Shape our People roadmap
• Drive a clear and prioritized 2025–2027 People Plan
• Lead high-impact programs (hiring, onboarding, performance, learning & development, compensation, DEIB, sick leave, leadership development and exits)
• Track progress using agile rituals (sprints, retros, etc.)
• Focus on preventing and getting ahead of issues instead of day-to-day fire-fighting

• Optimize People as a product
• Use data to drive decisions and translate insights into actionable improvements
• Apply a product and project mindset to people processes
• Ensure all HR programs reflect our values and support growth for our users (the colleagues).

You:

• We’re looking for someone proactive, strategic, with a hands-on mentality. Someone who can lead at both the people and product level. You’ll bring:
• 10+ years of experience in HR, including leadership roles in scale-ups
• A hands-on mentality and bias for action
• Strong project & product management skills (Agile mindset)
• Experience building scalable HR processes from the ground up
• Excellent communication skills in both Dutch and English
• Strong knowledge of Dutch labor law and HR systems (sick leave process, Humaans, Nmbrs, Lever)
• A natural leadership presence and ability to coach at all levels

Why work at Poki?

• The dynamics of a fast-growing scale-up: personal responsibility, freedom, and the opportunity to work with a diverse, international, and highly motivated team
• A full-time contract and the chance to join our Employee Participation Plan
• While we’re hiring for a full-time role, we’re absolutely open to a 32-hour work week – we care more about your impact than the number of hours you work
• A hybrid work environment, flexible hours, and a work-from-home budget
• A generous training and development budget – we believe play is how we learn
• Access to wellbeing programs including retreats, check-ins, and more
• Office in central Amsterdam (Spui) with daily lunches, team activities, and more

Team & Collaboration:

You’ll report to Erik (CEO) and collaborate closely with Anne-Marije (Culture Lead) to align people strategy with company culture. You’ll also work with senior leaders like Bas (Co-founder), Michiel (Co-founder / CFO), and Robert (VP of Growth), and partner with our Workplace and Talent Acquisition teams.

Why you’ll love this role:

Impact: Shape the future of one of Europe’s most successful gaming website

Ownership: Lead a function that directly influences every part of our business

Ready to shape how we build and grow our team, and help make Poki the best playground to work and play? Hit apply and let us know!

Poki is an English speaking company, please ensure your CV and application are submitted in English only.