Director of People

We are one of the most promising startups of 2025 with headquarters in Spain. We were founded in Barcelona, and since then, we've expanded to include offices in Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris. This is only the beginning as we've got our sights set on spreading to the rest of Europe and later to include other continents as well 🚀.

Ukio's mission is to empower individuals to live where they want, when they want 🌎. We do this by disrupting the traditional residential real estate market, providing fully furnished and artfully designed apartments for stays starting at one month. We remove all the hassle around finding a rental with no long-term contracts, security deposits, broker fees, moving/buying furniture, etc., giving choice and flexibility to allow people to plant their roots anywhere 💥.

Backed by Europe's best Venture Capital firms, this year will be vital in our growth as we look to further build out our team, further establish ourselves in our current markets, and expand our reach into multiple new markets 🔥. We are currently ranked in the top 10 startups in Spain by Linkedin, and we have successfully raised a Series A investment round of €27 million that will help propel our growth throughout Western Europe and bring us closer to reaching our goals🥇.

We honor diversity, compassion, and honesty above all else in our team. We’ve already got a great mix of dedicated, collaborative, and results-driven people and are looking for more like minded folks to join our team. In true startup fashion, we always embrace the unknown and grant full autonomy to our team members to act as the owners of their projects and tasks. We are creators who embrace dynamic environments and take on and build up projects from scratch.

Our team is composed of everyone from foodies to athletes, adventure seekers to art buffs. We know fun, and we always have a team event on our calendars, so are you ready to join us?

We are looking for a strategic, hands-on and inspirational Director of People to lead and scale our People function.

This role will define and execute a forward-thinking People strategy aligned with business objectives, while leading and developing a team across three verticals:

• Talent Acquisition
• Office Management & Employee Experience
• People Operations

As a key member of the leadership ecosystem, the Head of People will shape company culture, strengthen leadership capability, and drive high levels of engagement and performance across the organization.

This position reports directly to the Executive Team and acts as a trusted advisor to business leaders.

• →Define and execute a scalable People strategy aligned with business goals.
• →Partner with leadership on organizational design, talent planning, and culture.
• →Lead and develop managers across TA, OMEV, and POps, ensuring alignment and impact.
• →Oversee hiring strategy, workforce planning, and employer branding.
• →Drive performance, engagement, and retention frameworks.
• →Ensure efficient, compliant, and scalable People Operations.
• →Monitor People metrics to enable data-driven decision-making.
  

• 6+ years as a Head/Director of People managing direct reports.
• Experience in startups or scale-ups (Series B–C preferred).
• Proven ability to build and execute People strategies.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and stakeholder management skills.
• Solid knowledge across TA, Employee Experience, and People Operations.
• Fluent in English and Spanish.
• Strategic, data-driven, and comfortable in fast-paced environments.

For more information about Ukio, visit us at www.ukio.com and to keep up to date with UKIO’s news, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram!