Director of Global People Operations

About the Director of Global People Operations role

This is not a traditional HR role. IDinsight is lean, non-hierarchical, innovative, and fast-moving, and we need someone who can set people strategy and execute on it with the same spirit and speed. IDinsight is entering its next phase of growth (expecting to grow 35-50% over the next 12-18 months) and the Global People Operations team is central to making that happen. We are investing heavily on two fronts at once: bringing in best-in-class talent to deliver our most ambitious work, and building the retention strategy, culture, and learning systems that keep our existing team growing with us. The Director of Global People Operations leads a team of 12+ and owns making IDinsight the workplace of choice in global development. This role reports to the Chief Financial and Operations Officer (CFOO).

Responsibilities

Strategy and Organizational Leadership

Co-develop and lead the implementation of IDinsight’s global People Strategy, alongside the CFOO and senior leadership.

Work with leadership on org design and change management to keep the org high-performing, motivated, and impactful.

Lead 1–2 organization-changing initiatives a year (e.g., a new performance system, a comp overhaul, a leadership pipeline).

Build and maintain strong collaborative working relationships across several regions and functions, and amongst key leaders in all teams.

Serve as the CFOO’s primary advisor on org design, workforce planning, and the tradeoffs behind the big people calls.

Team Leadership

Lead IDinsight’s Global People Operations team of 12+ people across multiple regions, and own their performance, growth, and career development.

Run the team efficiently: manage workload, hit deadlines, and keep day-to-day operations strong, while leading with care.

We are in a growth phase where the biggest constraint on IDinsight’s impact is whether we can hire, develop, and retain the right people fast enough. Lead the Global People Operations team through this moment.

Culture

Steward how IDinsight’s values show up operationally as it scales, through policies, recognition, and systems.

Champion the parts of IDinsight’s culture that make us who we are (non-hierarchical, innovative, scrappy, ambitious, fast), and make sure they don’t get lost as we scale.

People Development

Own our compensation philosophy; benchmark pay and benefits every two years to ensure IDinsight is able to attract the best talent in the development sector while remaining fair and transparent internally.

Track retention and attrition by region and build targeted fixes wherever needed.

Diagnose skill gaps across the org with leadership and design L&D programs that reach teammates across all 7+ countries and meet the needs of IDinsight’s rapidly evolving portfolio.

Build manager-development programs for IDinsight’s many first-time and newer managers.

Be a trusted advisor to the senior leaders and invest in their development through internal and external coaches.

People Enablement

Lead the team in building and strengthening IDinsight’s recruitment pipeline across its countries of operation, with direct ownership of senior and leadership hires.

Own IDinsight’s employer brand and candidate experience, and streamline hiring to cut time-to-hire without compromising rigor.

Own payroll accuracy and timeliness across every country we pay people in.

Business Operations

Keep IDinsight compliant with local labor law and employment requirements across every country we operate in, including global mobility and employer-of-record arrangements.

Own and keep IDinsight’s people policies current and consistent across ~20 countries (leave, parental leave, expenses).

Lead a revamp of our policies and benefits: find efficiencies without cutting corners, stay generous and competitive within what a non-profit can offer, and make sure every policy reflects that we care about our people while staying compliant.

Own core people systems (BambooHR, Airtable, Ashby, and others), improve data quality, and use people data to inform strategy and report to leadership.

Own risk assessment and mitigation for people-related and workplace-safety risks, and maintain data security and privacy practices for people systems. Duty of care across 20+ countries that IDinsight works in is a core part of the role.

AI and Innovation

Make the People Ops team AI-first: champion AI-native ways of working within the team and ensure AI tools are embedded in how the team works day to day.

Own how the rest of the org interacts with People Ops through AI, identifying where AI tools can make people processes like recruiting screens, policy drafting, data analysis, onboarding content better or faster.

Set the standard for AI fluency in people ops at IDinsight and bring the rest of the team up with you.

Qualifications

Required

12+ years of experience in a people-facing leadership role, with direct experience building or substantially improving people systems and programs from the ground up.

Proven experience leading and developing managers across multiple countries or regions, in a non-hierarchical, fast-moving environment.

IDinsight is a unique workplace, and this is not a traditional HR role -- we need someone who is low ego, high innovation, non-bureaucratic, non-hierarchical, and is excited to own IDinsight’s people strategy in this exciting moment.

Comfortable rolling up their sleeves. We are a lean organization and recognize that small gestures often shape culture as much as big decisions

Comfortable going from raw people data to a clear, defensible recommendation for leadership.

Ability to navigate people and policy decisions with nuance and discretion -- IDinsight teammates live in more than 20 countries and people decisions often require striking a balance between multiple cultural and legal realities of different places.

Familiarity with BambooHR, Airtable, Ashby, Lattice, or comparable HRIS/ATS/LMS tools.

Strong written and verbal communication skills (clear, yet tactful).

Familiarity with MS Office, Google Docs, and other relevant systems.

Deep, hands-on fluency with AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT) in daily work – drafting, research, analysis. You will be expected to use them well yourself, and to identify where they can make people processes better or faster.

Passion for improving lives through evidence-informed policy.

Preferred

Experience in a lean or fast-growing global nonprofit, social enterprise, or similarly mission-driven organization.

Lived or professional experience in one of IDinsight’s countries of operation.

Interest in and familiarity with research on organizational design, behavioral economics, or management best practices.

Minimum qualifications

BA/BSc/HND

How to apply

Interested and qualified? Go to IDinsight on jobs.ashbyhq.com to apply

Similar open roles

• HR Operations AssociateBasiGo · Nairobi
• Talent Acquisition Quality AnalystSolvo Global · Nairobi
• HR OfficersAfrica Inuka Hospital · Nairobi
• HR Specialist, RecruitmentWorld Bank Group · Nairobi
• HR & Administration Officer at Bayinah AcademyBayinah Academy · Nairobi
• Human Resource Officer at Freedom AirlineFreedom Airline · Nairobi