Last updated 10 October 2026

Head of HR

One opening.

Apply for this role. Reading the page is not applying. The application is the only way to be considered, and it is the whole first step.

Why this role exists

We need someone to oversee these items:

• Everybody on the team is paid the right amount on the right day, every month. You are the person who runs that payment once the Interim CEO approves it.
• You know what we pay for each role in each country, so every offer we make fits the place the person lives in.
• Every person can open their own pay page and read what they earn and how the bonus works. It is right because you keep it right.
• Every person gets a performance review on a set date, and you are the reason the date holds.
• This role is four hours a day on purpose. A strong person at four hours a day gives us better work for less money than a full time mid level person, so the role was built for somebody good.

Logistics

• Company stage: Small firm, growing, thin at the top.
• Start: As soon as possible.
• Location: Remote, hired from Eastern Europe. Croatia, Poland, North Macedonia, Serbia, and the wider Balkans.
• Hours: Fractional. Four hours a day.
• Reports to: the Interim CEO.
• Direct reports: None.
• Video: On, every internal meeting.
• Equipment: Yours. You'll reach our systems through a remote desktop we set up.
• One hard requirement: you have no history with anybody already on the team. There is more on this under What we need from you.
• Contract: Contractor. The template agreement shows every term before you get to the end.

Work hours

• Part time is four hours a day. Two of those four are 12 pm to 2 pm Austin time, which is 7 pm to 9 pm in Warsaw, Belgrade, and Skopje. The other two are yours to choose.
• Monday through Friday, year round.
• The fixed hours are when the Interim CEO and the team are online with you, so that is when anything needing a person gets settled.
• The gap is seven hours all year, so the fixed hours hold through both daylight saving changes.

Who we want here

• Women. We want more of them here.
• Autistic people. The rules are written down. Nobody has to read a room.
• Direct communicators.
• People who think in systems. When something breaks, they look for what caused it instead of fixing only the part they can see.
• People who are optimistic about the outcome when they are under stress or facing a challenge.
• People who move fast and get a lot done.
• People who are all in.
• People who want the company to grow and are excited to help make that happen.
• People who, when they are stressed, notice what they are feeling, then say what they need and write it down. Stopping at the feeling, with nothing written down, is not a fit here.

Who should not apply

This is not the role for you if you:

1. Wait for somebody else to pick a thing up, or need the work handed to you tidy and already decided.
2. Report a problem and stop there.
3. Try somebody once, get no answer, and give up.
4. Go quiet when something needs raising, or find telling the truth consistently hard.
5. Read hidden meanings and office politics instead of the plain words.
6. Overstate what you can do, or are different before you are hired and after.
7. Have changed jobs every year or two, or want short projects and a work whenever schedule.

The technology you need to work here

The setup is the same for every role here. The technology you need to work here lists the computer, the internet, the power backup, the audio and the workspace.

How your results are measured

• Every person is paid on the day the payment is set to run, for the amount their signed agreement says.
• The pay structure for every country we hire in is written down and current, so an offer can be built from it the same day it is asked for.
• Every person's pay page matches their signed agreement, checked on a set date each month.
• Every performance review happens in the month it is due.
• Available within 5 minutes on Google Chat during your fixed hours.
• Pay numbers stay between you, the Interim CEO, and the person they belong to.

Role summary

You run the people side of a small firm that hires across several countries. Pay, pay structure, the pay pages people read, and performance reviews all sit with you.

You work four hours a day and the firm is built so that is enough. The work is written down, the Interim CEO approves the money, and you make the whole thing run on time.

What you own

Running the monthly payment

• Preparing the payment for every person each month, with the amount for each one taken from their signed agreement.
• Taking it to the Interim CEO for approval, then running it once she approves.
• Recording what was paid, on what date, for every person, so any month can be looked up later.

The pay structure for each country

• Knowing what we pay for each role in each country we hire in, and why that number fits that country.
• Keeping the structure written down, so an offer can be built from it without asking anybody.
• Telling the Interim CEO when a country's numbers have moved enough that the structure needs a fresh look.

The pay page each person reads

• Reading each person's page against their signed agreement, on a set date each month.
• Fixing anything on the page that no longer matches the agreement.
• Making the page plain enough that somebody reads it once and knows what they earn and how the bonus works.

Performance reviews

• Setting the date for every review and holding it, so no review is late.
• Giving each manager the form and the questions, so every review is run the same way.
• Writing down what came out of each one, and what the person is working on next.

Everything else that is about people

• Onboarding a new person, so their first week is the same good week every time.
• Time off, working hours, and the questions people bring about how we work.
• When the same people question comes up twice, writing the answer down once so it never has to be answered live again.

Your own time entries

• Name the client or the work, and what came out of it, on every entry.
• Five minute increments.
• Do not use increments smaller than five minutes.
• Only logged time counts as work for the firm.

What this role does not do

• Approving a payment. The Interim CEO approves every payment before it runs. You prepare it, and you run it after she says yes.
• Deciding who joins the firm and who leaves.
• Bookkeeping, tax returns, and month end close sit with the delivery team.

How SMB Numbers works

We move fast, and we do not do chaos. We do consistency. We are becoming a firm that runs on systems thinking.

How we work together

• We work at the same hours most of the time, and some of the work is done asynchronously. You will not always have somebody online to ask, so you write things down and you keep going.
• Written, asynchronous communication is modeled as part of the company's culture. Things are read in writing before a live call is requested, and writing is used to prevent the need for calls.
• Trust through Truth. If you do not tell the truth, we do not trust you.
• We are a low context company. Direct talk is how trust gets built here. Vague, high context, or indirect language erodes trust.
• Tell the truth early. If something is late, stuck, or going wrong, say it early and clearly.
• Be proactive.
• Keep records clean enough that someone else can step in, so you can take time off.
• Protect client information and handle sensitive material carefully.
• Track your time correctly and on time.
• When you see a repeat problem, fix the system.

Software we use

• Canopy, for the client record, calls logged against it, and time.
• A hosted remote desktop, which is how you reach our systems.
• Google Workspace, for mail, chat, and documents.
• Our internal site, for the SOPs and daily priorities.
• Zoom phone

What we need from you

• No previous relationship with anybody already on the team. You have not worked with them, studied with them, or known them socially. Pay here is set on the country a person lives in and is not discussed between people, and somebody with no history on the team holds that line without being pulled two ways.
• You have run the monthly payment for a group of people before, and you were the one who ran it.
• You have worked with pay in more than one country, and you know that the right number in one place is the wrong number in another.
• You have run performance reviews, including the ones people were not looking forward to.
• You are a great player and coach.
• English clear enough to hold a hard conversation about somebody's pay or their review.
• All firm work happens in our software. Your own tools stay out of it, with no exceptions.
• No accounting qualification is needed. This is a people role.

Pay

How pay works here. The parts, how each one grows, the coverage bonus and sales commission.

Career growth

• Tell us what you want over the next three years. We will help.
• You book a career conversation with the Interim CEO every quarter. It's your meeting to run, and it's where we plan what you learn next.
• You work straight with the Interim CEO, so you see how every decision about people gets made and you help shape it.
• The firm is hiring across several countries, so the people structure you build now is the one a bigger team runs on.

Every step of our process, in order. Read it before you apply, so you know what is coming and when.

How to apply

Fill in the application. It is the whole first step.

It asks for a web address for a short video recording answering both of these questions. Put the video anywhere we can open without an account, and paste the address into the application.

• What do you do when you get a task/project you do not understand?
• From a logistics standpoint, when is the earliest that you could start full time if you were to be accepted?

Apply now. If you have read this far and it sounds like you, send it. We read every one.

Tax and accounting career levels, the levels used across the firm.