Job description
Who are we?
UpGuard’s mission is to protect the world’s data. We obsessively seek out elegant, robust ways to enable our customers to find, acknowledge, and remediate cyber risk. With UpGuard, organizations leverage our security expertise and software to automate what was once laborious, spreadsheet-driven processes–whether it’s monitoring the attack surface of hundreds of vendors or assessing the security of their own infrastructure. UpGuard is used by some of the world’s largest, fastest-growing, and most innovative companies.
Our People team consists of the Talent Acquisition and People Partnering team. At UpGuard, we all deserve to work in an environment where we are treated with dignity and respect. Our People team is committed to creating such an environment, where everyone has the opportunity to be themselves and reach their full potential. Our Talent Acquisition team is committed to finding individuals who embody our values and are passionate about the work they do to help UpGuard continue to grow. Our People Partnering team provides structure for UpGuard, maximizing employee productivity and protecting the company from any issues that may arise within the workforce. TMX responsibilities include people management, employee benefits and wellness, and developing competencies that enhance individual and organizational performance
Where does this role fit in?
UpGuard is a category-defining Cybersecurity company that is at a pivotal moment in our growth journey. With a team of nearly 300 passionate team members distributed across the globe and products loved by thousands of customers, we are poised for exponential growth. We are seeking a visionary Chief People Officer to be the architect of our people strategy as we scale from 300 team members and beyond.
As our Chief People Officer and a key member of the executive leadership team, you will be the strategic driver behind building a world-class, future-focused, and scalable people function. You will not just manage HR; you will build the engine that powers our global growth. This role requires a leader who has seen the hyper-growth journey before, thinks from first principles, and is passionate about leveraging modern technology, including AI, to create an unparalleled team member experience.
What will you do?
- Architect our scaling strategy: Develop and execute the global people roadmap to support the company’s growth from 300 team members and beyond, ensuring our culture, talent, and organisational design evolve effectively.
- Be a strategic partner to the COO & Exec team: Act as a trusted advisor and coach to the executive team on all people-related matters, from organisational design and leadership development to succession planning and M&A integration.
- Champion a global, remote-first culture: Nurture and evolve our culture, ensuring it remains a competitive advantage as we scale. Implement programs and rituals that foster connection, inclusivity, and high performance across a globally distributed workforce.
- Build a future-forward People function: Reimagine and modernise our core people processes. Pioneer the use of AI, automation and data analytics to drive efficiency, predictability, and insights across all People activities.
- Oversee the full People & Talent lifecycle: Provide leadership across all facets of the People function, including Talent Acquisition, HR Business Partnering, Learning & Development, Compensation & Benefits, and People Operations.
- Drive Organisational Effectiveness: Implement and refine systems for performance management, career pathways, and leadership enablement that empower our team members to do their best work.
- Ensure Global Compliance & Governance: Oversee our global employment policies, ensuring compliance and mitigating risk across all jurisdictions where we operate.
What will you bring?
- Proven hyper-growth experience: You have been a senior people leader (e.g., CPO, VP of People) and have successfully scaled a technology company from a similar stage to 500+ team members.
- Global workforce expertise: Deep, hands-on experience building and managing a globally distributed, remote-first or hybrid workforce across key regions (e.g., APAC, North America, EMEA and India).
- Comprehensive HR mastery: You are a master of your craft with a strong foundation in core HR disciplines, including compensation philosophy, benefits design, employee relations, and international employment law.
- Strategic M&A experience: You have demonstrably led the People function through at least one significant merger or acquisition, from due diligence through to post-close integration.
- Executive presence & influence: Exceptional communication skills and the emotional intelligence to operate as a credible, influential leader at the executive and board level.
- Data-driven & commercially minded: A business-first mindset, with the ability to use data to inform decisions and connect our people strategy directly to business outcomes.
- A builder’s mentality: You thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a track record of building teams, systems, and processes from the ground up.
- AI & automation vision: You possess a strong, forward-thinking perspective on how AI and automation will transform the People function, and you have practical ideas or experience implementing these technologies.
What will give you an edge?
- Australian Tech scene pedigree: You were part of the early journey at one of Australia’s iconic, high-growth tech companies (e.g., Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, etc.) and have seen firsthand what a world-class scaling operation looks like from the inside.
- Deep SaaS industry experience: You understand the unique talent landscape, metrics, and organisational challenges specific to B2B SaaS companies.
- Experience in a player-coach capacity: You are comfortable rolling up your sleeves and being hands-on while simultaneously leading and developing a high-performing team.
What’s in it for you?
- Stock options: Participate in our ESOP plan
- Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: use this for financial, physical and mental wellbeing (all regions)
- WFH set-up allowance: to ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set-up within your first 3 months at UpGuard (all regions)
- $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: to support your career development all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance (all regions)
- Generous Annual Leave/PTO allowances: time to recharge your batteries (all regions)
- 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: irrespective of parenting role (all regions)
- Personal Leave allowance: this includes sick & carer’s leave (all regions)
- Fully remote working environment: whilst we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance (all regions)
- Top spec hardware: all team members will be provided with top-spec laptops for their role (all regions)
- Generative AI & Automation tooling: UpGuard provides industry leading generative AI and automation tools to support all team members with their work (all regions)
