Head of Talent (All Genders)

YOU & AHEAD

At ahead, we're reinventing snacking without the sugar and scaling fast. To achieve this, we need an organization that attracts exceptional talent, fosters growth, and ensures clarity for high performance.

As our Head of Talent , you will build scalable systems for hiring, development, and leadership. This role goes beyond just setting up systems. You will directly influence the company's evolution, coach leaders through critical phases, and witness your decisions directly impact performance, employee retention, and overall culture.

YOUR TASKS

• Talent Engine & Hiring Strategy: Design and lead a scalable talent strategy. Establish hiring standards, scorecards, and competency frameworks. Partner with leadership to translate business goals into workforce plans and role paths.
• Organization Design & Workforce Planning: Work with Founders and Department Heads on team structures, headcount, and capability gaps. Anticipate scaling bottlenecks and design lean organizational models.
• Leadership Enablement & Talent Growth: Build performance frameworks, feedback cycles, and career paths. Coach senior stakeholders through hiring, conflict, succession, and capability development.
• Culture, Retention & Employee Experience: Drive initiatives to strengthen engagement, improve sentiment, and reduce regrettable attrition. Reinforce a culture of ownership, performance, collaboration, and high standards.
• People Operations & Scalability: Own the evolution of People Ops: onboarding, probation, HRIS integrity, contracts, compliance, and policy adoption. Implement automation to reduce operational noise.
• Compensation & Incentives: Design fair, transparent compensation frameworks: leveling, salary bands, bonus, VSOP. Maintain competitiveness and consistency.
• People Insights & Analytics: Build dashboards to measure org health (retention, attrition drivers, capability gaps, sentiment). Turn data into actionable recommendations for leadership.

YOUR SKILLS

• Proven track record in hypergrowth environments (ideally scaling Series A/B or 100→200+ scaling).
• Strong business acumen; understanding how people decisions impact revenue, risk, and culture.
• Experience designing scalable talent systems (recruiting, career paths, leveling, org design).
• Deep knowledge of German labor law & compliance.
• Hands-on experience with ATS/HRIS (Personio or similar).
• Compensation know-how (salary bands, incentives, VSOP basics).
• Leadership partnering - coaching managers, guiding stakeholders through talent decisions.
• Data-driven approach, acting on insights, not opinions.

Where This Role Won’t Be a Fit:

• Your background is primarily administrative HR (payroll, contracts, only People Ops tasks).
• You’ve only worked in very structured corporate environments with established systems.

AND WHY AHEAD?

Working at ahead is more than just a job - it’s your opportunity to develop as a professional and as a person, while shaping the future of snacking. Our mission is to make low sugar the new standard, and we pour that ambition into every product we create. You’ll become part of a team where international talent, startup drive, real impact, and true ownership come together.

• Hypergrowth Environment: If you're looking for greenfield, creative freedom, and real impact, you're in the right place. We're a team that is scaling fast - with purpose
• Great Workspace: A central office in the heart of Hamburg near the Alster, top equipment (MacBook), snacks, drinks, plenty of ahead products - and yes, a ping-pong table. We’re also pet-friendly, so you can always bring your furry friend along
• Amazing Team: Young, international, ambitious - inspiring colleagues who collaborate, support each other, and genuinely enjoy working together
• Career Growth: Develop through cross-functional projects, structured feedback cycles, and a steep learning curve in a dynamic, high growth environment. We offer a fair, attractive salary with role-dependent bonus opportunities
• Great Benefits: Fuel yourself with ahead snacks, drinks, and merch - we’ve got you covered. On top: a €50 monthly allowance to spend as you like - Urban Sports Club, mobility options, or vouchers from your favorite brands (IKEA, MediaMarkt, Lego and more)
• Vacation Days: Enjoy 28 vacation days plus two extra days off on December 24 (Christmas Eve) and December 31 (New Year’s Eve)
• Events & Offsites:  Regular after-work hangouts and legendary annual team offsites you won’t forget

This role is based in Hamburg, with the flexibility of up to 2 home office days per week and the option to work from abroad for agreed upon periods. If this resonates with you, you can dive into the next steps as outlined below!

YOUR NEXT STEPS WITH US

Let’s get started! Here’s what the application process looks like:

Send us your resume and a few reasons why you want to be a part of ahead.

1. We will get back to you as soon as possible to schedule an interview.
2. After our initial meeting, you’ll work on a case study to give you a sense of the tasks you’ll be handling.
3. Meet our team and the founders, Johannes and Philip, during the interview process and case study presentation.
4. If both sides are happy, you can start as soon as possible!

Just reach out to us for a chat!

Disclaimer

ahead GmbH is an equal opportunity workplace and is devoted to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or gender identity.

About us

At ahead, we’re building the snack brand for a new generation – one that loves chocolate, cookies & gummies, but doesn’t love what sugar does to their bodies.
We use cutting-edge food tech to reinvent childhood favorites: no added sugar, no empty carbs – just full taste, better ingredients, and zero compromise.
The result? Everyday indulgence that actually fits your lifestyle.
Let’s make low-sugar the new normal. And fun again.
We’re growing fast, expanding across Europe, and looking for smart, driven, curious minds to join us.
If you’re ready to change how millions of people snack – for good – we’d love to meet you.