Head of People

Dfns • Full-time • Paris • €80k - €100k / year • 17h ago

Join a stellar team of leaders and experts in blockchain technology, cryptography, infrastructure, and security to build the backbone of blockchain wallet infrastructure for the next financial era. We’re hiring a Head of People to own and lead all HR functions at Dfns. Reporting to the CEO, you’ll shape the full employee journey: hiring, onboarding, retention, offboarding, and culture. You’ll be our first dedicated HR lead, working closely with our Head of Administration and Legal Counsel, and ensuring the team grows, performs, and stays true to our values as we scale. This role is both strategic and hands-on. You’ll design policies, set up processes, and run programs to boost engagement, measure satisfaction, and foster a high-performance, security-minded culture. You’ll also oversee compensation, employee relations, and company-wide initiatives like retreats, workshops, and events.

Preferred Experience

Responsibilities

Own the full HR lifecycle: hiring, onboarding, performance, and offboarding.
Help build and manage recruitment strategies to attract top talent across all teams.
Design onboarding programs that ensure new hires ramp quickly and feel connected.
Manage payroll, benefits administration, and employee records across regions.
Handle day-to-day HR operations: contracts, amendments, certificates, and compliance.
Oversee offboarding processes, exit interviews, equipment returns, and final payments.
Track and improve employee satisfaction, retention, and eNPS.
Organize company retreats, team offsites, and internal events to foster culture.
Partner with leadership to define compensation, benefits, and career development.
Support people with conflict resolution, employee relations, and policy questions.
Maintain compliance with labor laws, internal policies, and coordinate with legal.
Ensure HR systems, processes, and tools are up to date and running smoothly.
Promote a strong company culture built on transparency, collaboration, and trust.

Requirements

8+ years of HR or People Operations experience, including leadership roles.
Proven success building HR processes in fast-growing, international scale-ups.
Strong knowledge of hiring, onboarding, employee relations, payroll, and performance.
Experience driving employee engagement programs, including eNPS and retention.
Skilled in organizing retreats, offsites, and company-wide events.
Familiarity with EU and US labor laws; experience working in multiple regions is a plus.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
Organized, pragmatic, resourceful, and comfortable being a “one-person team” for HR.
Fluency in English; additional languages are a plus.

Recruitment Process

Process

Intro call with Co-CEO (30 min)
Personality and cognitive tests (45 min)
Focus interview with full panel (120 min)
- Hiring fundamentals
- Employee retention
- On & offboarding
- Culture fit check
Final interview with CEO (30 min)
Reference calls and background checks

Terms

Title: Head of People
Salary: €80,000–100,000 per year (full-time)
Equity: 50–150 stock options vested over 4 years
Benefits: Healthcare, pension plan, and travel expenses
Location: European Union (remote-first, office optional)
Equipment: MacBook Pro + essentials

Additional Information

Contract Type:Full-Time
Location:Paris
Experience:> 7 years
Possible full remote
Salary:between 80000€ and 100000€ / year

About

Dfns is the leading Wallets-as-a-Service (WaaS) platform, helping fintechs, institutions, and enterprises simplify digital asset management and securely onboard users onchain.

Its API-first wallet platform unifies transaction management, workflow governance, key deployment, and third-party integrations into one secure operating system for blockchains. Built on advanced security and cryptography, Dfns is trusted by over 200 financial institutions and applications—including ABN AMRO, Broadridge, Fidelity, Zodia Custody, Banca Sella, Stripe, Moonpay, Circle, IBM, Deblock, and Gemini—and secures over $3 billion in monthly transactions.

Founded in 2020, Dfns has raised $30 million from global investors such as White Star Capital, Motive Partners, Bpifrance, Coinbase, Wintermute, and Susquehanna. Originally incubated by Techstars and Station F in Paris, Dfns now operates globally with teams across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.