Director, Global Human Resources
Percona · Remote (Worldwide) · HR
About the role
Director, Global Human Resources
MANAGER: SVP, Global HR
DIRECT REPORTS: HR Manager India, Learning & HR Business Partner, HR Business Partner
Position Charter:
At Percona, people are at the heart of everything we do. The Director of Global HR ensures our core HR functions operate seamlessly across a globally distributed workforce. From onboarding through offboarding, and every stage in between, this role serves as a trusted advisor to staff, contractors, and managers throughout the organization.
This is a truly unique opportunity to support fewer than 400 staff working across approximately 50 countries, making this a genuinely global role. You will navigate complex and varied people matters while working alongside an exceptional Global HR team.
Reporting to the SVP of Global HR and partnering closely with Talent Acquisition and Learning & Development, the Director brings a proactive, adaptable, and solutions-oriented business partner mindset. Success requires curiosity – the instinct to understand what is driving an issue and what we can do about it, along with the confidence to navigate ambiguity, embrace complexity, and continually improve the HR experience for staff around the world.
What You Will Do:
Stay current on emerging HR trends and evolving workforce expectations, bringing forward relevant insights and identifying implications for workforce planning, leadership capability, team effectiveness, and organizational design.
Approach people and workplace challenges with intellectual curiosity – looking beyond presenting behaviors to understand the “why” behind them and continually deepening their knowledge of diversity, neurodiversity, communication and conflict styles, interpersonal and team dynamics, and global cultural differences to provide thoughtful, informed guidance.
Lead the day-to-day operations of Core HR, managing and developing a small global team while balancing empowerment with accountability.
Build trusted relationships and serve as a senior HR business partner to directors and executive leaders, meeting managers and teams where they are and applying sound judgment and HR expertise to build alignment and guide sustainable change.
Guide managers through sensitive staff relations matters, workplace concerns, conflict, performance issues, and investigations with fairness, sound judgment, and appropriate discretion.
Navigate the complexities of a global workforce comprising employees and long-term contractors, fostering a consistent and equitable staff experience while addressing varying employment requirements and engaging local expertise when appropriate.
Anticipate organizational needs and continually refine Global HR programs and ways of working to support a growing and scaling organization – identifying what should be improved, simplified, automated, delegated, or discontinued while partnering across teams to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
Oversee the staff lifecycle, from onboarding through offboarding, and partner with Talent Acquisition to ensure an effective transition from candidate to staff member and a strong onboarding experience.
Lead core HR programs and operations, including compensation and bonus administration, policies, leaves, HR communications, and other essential staff programs.
On occasion, facilitate immigration and relocation matters, coordinating with staff, managers, external counsel, and service providers to support compliant and well-managed transitions.
Oversee the Leadership and Citizenship camps of Percona’s Learning & Development program while partnering closely with the SVP of Global HR and relevant stakeholders to support the Product and Skills & Certification camps.
Manage global benefits and well-being programs, including broker and provider relationships, renewals, enrollment, staff education, and participant support, while facilitating Percona’s U.S. 401(k) investment committee and managing the relationship with the plan provider.
Lead the performance management program and ensure it is integrated with compensation and Learning & Development initiatives.
Oversee HR systems, workflows, data integrity, reporting, and people analytics, using technology, automation, and organizational insights to simplify processes, identify trends and risks, and improve decision-making.
Serve as a change agent by identifying needs and opportunities across individuals, teams, and the organization, and partner with the SVP of Global HR to translate emerging organizational issues, global events, and staff needs into practical strategies, thoughtful communications, and coordinated action.
Champion Percona’s culture and values and help strengthen its reputation as an exceptional place to work.
Your Experience:
8-12 years of progressive HR experience, including at least five years in an HR leadership role and meaningful experience supporting a global workforce.
Experience working in a globally distributed organization with a significant staff population in the United States.
Broad HR generalist experience across staff relations, benefits, compensation, performance management, compliance, HR operations, and the staff lifecycle.
Broad experience as a global employment practices generalist, with exposure to employment requirements across multiple countries and the ability to apply that foundation with sound judgment, informed intuition, and an understanding of when local expertise is needed.
Experience leading and developing HR staff.
Experience overseeing or contributing to Learning & Development programs, particularly leadership and culture-focused initiatives.
Strong HR systems, reporting, and process-improvement experience.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to listen carefully, synthesize complex issues, and provide clear recommendations.
Sound judgment, strong organizational skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a changing environment.
Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
What Will Make You Stand Out:
SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CIPD or equivalent HR certification.
Experience supporting a fully remote workforce.
Experience supporting staff in Canada, India, the UK, and multiple European countries.
Experience working with a workforce comprising both employees and contractors.
Experience improving HR operations through technology, automation, and people analytics.
Experience designing or facilitating leadership and organizational citizenship development programs.
How You Work
You bring global awareness, sound judgment, curiosity, and a strong sense of ownership. You are analytical yet creative, organized yet adaptable, and confident operating through ambiguity. You communicate with diplomacy and candor, follow through on commitments, and continually look for clearer and more effective ways to work.
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Why Percona?
At Percona, we believe an open world is a better world. Our mission is to enable everyone to innovate freely, by providing the best open source database software, support, and services. We make databases and applications run better through a unique combination of expertise and open source software built with the community for you. Our technical teams are experts in MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB.
Percona is proud to be a remote-only and globally dispersed workforce – we have colleagues in more than 50 countries! We offer a collaborative, highly-engaged culture where your ideas are welcome and your voice is heard.
Our staff receives generous benefits including flexible work hours and various paid time off programs, all your equipment for your remote office, funds for career development (external training, certifications, conferences), ongoing connectivity allowances, and the opportunity to participate in our equity incentive plan. We also have benefits that support a healthy work/life balance such as The Percona Adventure Team, Work-from-Anywhere, FlowDays, FryDays, and overall flexibility. We also support being socially responsible through our PAVE volunteering program and Women Transforming Technology.
If you love the idea of working with a high-growth tech company that is one of the best in the business and known globally as a leader in the open-source database space, let’s talk!
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