Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. Substack empowers independent writers, artists, videographers, podcasters, and creators of all types to create, share, and make a living off their work through subscriptions, while offering them creative freedom, ownership, and a direct connection to their audiences.
About the Role
Substack is looking for a Head of People to build and scale our People function at a pivotal stage of growth. You'll own the strategy, systems, and programs that shape how we hire, develop, reward, and support our team. That spans benefits, compensation, leveling, review and promotion cycles, learning and development, employee experience, and recruiting.
This role is both strategic and hands-on. You'll build the infrastructure, processes, and leadership practices that let us grow without losing the speed and ambition that define Substack. You'll advise company leadership on org design, talent strategy, and workforce planning, and you'll also get into the day-to-day: improving how things work and supporting employees and managers directly.
You're a self-starter who sets a high bar and pushes the team to meet it. You're resourceful, equally comfortable getting hands on and delegating to others. You've seen what excellent People organizations look like at strong companies, and you know how to adapt those practices to a company that's ready to mature and evolve its practices.
Responsibilities:
Partner with leadership to develop and execute a people strategy that supports Substack's mission, values, and business goals
Lead and scale the People function across recruiting, onboarding, compensation, benefits, employee experience, performance management, and talent development
Own our compensation, benefits, and leveling frameworks, and run the feedback, review, and promotion cycles
Build and run training, learning and development, and leadership coaching programs
Shape the employee experience, including office culture, people surveys, orientation, and onboarding
Lead recruiting strategy and make sure we hire exceptional people
Advise leadership on organizational design, workforce planning, and succession planning
Build and continuously improve the people systems, policies, and programs that help employees do their best work
Coach managers and leaders on performance, team effectiveness, and organizational challenges
Oversee employee relations and ensure issues are resolved thoughtfully and consistently
Use people analytics, reporting, and workforce insights to guide decisions
Ensure compliance with applicable employment laws and regulations
Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing People team
About You:
8+ years of progressive experience in People or HR, with multi-functional expertise and leadership across:
Benefits, compensation, leveling, and feedback, promotion, and review cycles
Training, L&D, and leadership coaching
Employee experience, including office culture, people surveys, orientation, and onboarding
Recruiting
Startup or growth-stage experience (required)
A track record of excellence and best practices from strong, well-regarded companies
A self-starter who sets the pace and pushes the team
Resourceful: hands on and delegating to others
Range: demonstrated understanding, empathy, and familiarity with multiple company building disciplines (e.g., engineering, product, business, etc.) is a plus.
Proven ability to influence and advise executive leadership, with excellent communication and coaching skills
Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to inform People decisions
Nice to have: experience building a People team from scratch; knowledge of employment law and compliance across the regions we hire in
Substack’s compensation package includes a market-competitive salary, equity for all full-time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $250,000- $295,000. Multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, determine final offer amounts and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.
Please see our Privacy Notice for details regarding Substack's collection and use of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking here.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of progressive experience in People or HR
- Multi-functional expertise across benefits, compensation, leveling, feedback, promotion, and review cycles
- Experience with training, learning and development, and leadership coaching
- Experience with employee experience, office culture, people surveys, orientation, and onboarding
- Experience with recruiting
- Startup or growth-stage experience
- Track record of excellence and best practices from strong, well-regarded companies
- Ability to influence and advise executive leadership
- Excellent communication and coaching skills
- Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to inform People decisions
- Understanding, empathy, and familiarity with multiple company-building disciplines such as engineering, product, and business
- Experience building a People team from scratch
- Knowledge of employment law and compliance across hiring regions
What We Do
Substack lets writers connect with their audience on their own terms and earn money doing it. We make it simple for writers to publish to an email list that they own, get discovered on the web, and charge for subscriptions. More than 500,000 people pay to subscribe to writers across the Substack network, and the top writers make millions of dollars a year. Substack’s model depends on the success of writers using Substack – we only make money when they do. “Substack makes it dead simple to start a newsletter and get paid for it.” – Judd Legum, author of Popular Information "Substack gives me a way to connect with my audience on my own terms.” – Lyz Lenz, author of God Land and Men Yell At Me Make something that matters Great writing is valuable. It respects readers' time, their intelligence, and their trust. It helps us make sense of and change the culture we live in. At Substack, we're building a business model that enables great writing to thrive. Learn more about our opportunity and mission. We are a small but growing team, and there is more to build than we could ever imagine. That’s why we need you. We aim to take pragmatic approaches to problem solving while shipping high-quality products that allow the writing on Substack to take the spotlight. Every person at the company participates in customer support. We do this to build empathy with our users and enable us to build better products. We believe that a diverse team will help us build a product that best serves the needs of a wildly diverse ecosystem of writers. So whatever your background or perspective, we’d welcome your input to help build the best possible version of Substack.
