Build a company where exceptional people do the best work of their careers, even as we scale.

At Dunia, we are transforming materials innovation to build a utopian future of abundance. That only works if we build an exceptional people organization around it.

As our Head of People, you will work directly with the leadership team to design and scale the human engine behind Dunia. You will shape how we hire, grow, evaluate, and retain top talent in a highly technical, fast-scaling deep tech environment.

Your mandate is simple but high-stakes: ensure that Dunia consistently attracts the best people in their field, helps them do the best work of their careers, and scales without losing speed, rigor, nor culture

Your tasks will include:
Build a world-class hiring engine

• Design and run scalable technical and non-technical hiring processes
• Partner closely with leadership to continuously refine the org and hiring priorities
• Define methods tomaintaina high hiring bar without slowing the company down

People as force multipliers

• Build onboarding that accelerates productivity, ownership, and context
• Design andoperateperformance/feedback systems that reward impact

Be a true partner to talent

• Coach leadersandhigh-potentialson team design, feedback,and people systems
• Provide the thought-leadership aroundculture, incentives, and long-term talent strategy

Own the operational backbone of People

• Oversee HR operations includingcontracts,payroll, benefits, visas, and compliance (with Finance and external partners)
• Ensure alignment with German labor law while keeping processes pragmatic and startup-friendly
• Anticipate people-related risks before they become bottlenecks

Protect and evolve company culture

• Translate values into everyday behaviors, rituals, and decisions
• Design offsites and culture initiatives thatactually matter
• Build retention strategies focused on top performers and critical talent

You are a senior People leader who has already helped scale a company through real growth, complexity, and tradeoffs.

Proven experience building and scaling People functions in fast-growing startups. You have had lear ownership over hiring, performance, and org design (typically 5+ years, but we care more about scope and impact than titles or timelines)

Knowledge of German labor law, paired with the judgment to apply it pragmatically in a startup environment

Credibility with senior leaders and highly technical talent. You can challenge, coach, and support founders, managers, and ICs with equal clarity

Strong systems thinker who knows when to introduce structure and when to stay out of the way

High bar for talent and performance, combined with empathy and fairness in how decisions are made

Comfortable operating in ambiguity, setting direction where no playbook exists yet

Clear communicator who can turn complex people topics into simple, actionable decisions

Fluent in English and German

Most importantly, you believe that

• Great companies are built through people,

• The bar for high performance should constantly increase, and

• Bureaucracy is a failure of imagination, not a necessity of scale.

Dunia, meaning “world” in over 20 languages, reflects our global mission: to drive clean energy innovation in the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors. With cutting-edge physics AI technology, we’re accelerating breakthroughs in materials science to help reduce global CO2 emissions by billions of tons annually. Join us and make a real difference in a dynamic, impact-driven environment.


We strive to create a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcome and safe to be their authentic self. Non-traditional career paths are welcome and valued. If you share our vision, you can be certain that we want you to succeed. You might be just the right candidate for this or for other roles that have not opened yet. Reach out!