--- title: 'APAC People Ops Generalist - Korea at Speak' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/apac-people-ops-generalist-korea-speak-seoul-szdk183da091' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-13' --- # APAC People Ops Generalist - Korea at Speak - **Company:** Speak - **Location:** Seoul, South Korea - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-05-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/speak/bcb8f98d-03dd-4c82-bea4-4a155c8377f9/application **Skills:** HRIS, Employee Lifecycle Management, Multi-market Compliance, Process Documentation, Workflow Optimization, AI and Automation, Experience with multiple legal entities, HR Process Improvement, Startup Experience > The People Ops Generalist manages employee lifecycle operations, compliance, and HRIS across APAC markets. This role involves documenting processes, improving efficiency through AI and automation, and supporting global HR initiatives while ensuring accurate data and regulatory adherence. ## Job description ## About us Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language. Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages. Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana. ## About this role Speak is scaling fast across APAC. We've more than doubled our team across Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in just over a year, with continued hiring through 2026. Our People Ops team runs lean, and we're adding a Generalist to strengthen our operational capacity across all three markets. You'll manage key aspects of the employee lifecycle (onboarding, offboarding, contracts, HRIS, and multi-market compliance), improve and document the processes that support it, and over time help the team turn what works into scalable infrastructure. We're at the stage where the processes that supported a smaller team need to become the systems that scale across three markets, and you'll be a key part of making that happen alongside the rest of the team. This role is meaningful and hands-on. You'll work across three legal entities, solve real problems that affect how people experience Speak in APAC, and contribute to building something that grows with the company. If you care about getting details right and want to do impactful work at a company that's still early enough to shape, this is a strong fit. ## What you'll be doing Employee lifecycle operations and management - Run the full FTE lifecycle across KR, JP, and TW: onboarding, contracts, probation, offboarding, HRIS, and more - maintaining accurate employee data across the three entities with by conducting audits and resolving gaps - Track multi-market compliance across the region: flag regulatory changes with a recommended action, and keep the handbook up-to-date - Be the go-to resource for employees across the region on lifecycle and People Ops questions - Partner closely with the Global People Ops team to keep global processes aligned while reflecting local nuance across APAC markets ## Benefits and program support - Administer local & market-specific benefits and perks (e.g., health checkups, insurance enrollment, local perks) - Help run People programs operationally: engagement surveys, performance review cycles, and other recurring processes Process improvement and documentation - Map existing workflows across the three markets, identify where they break or slow down, and propose improvements together with the team - Help build and maintain the APAC People Ops SOP and playbook library. The team sets direction together; you build, document, and keep them current - Help design and implement workflow improvements using AI and automation (contract generation, onboarding triggers, data entry, intake systems) to reduce manual load and increase team capacity - Collect feedback from employees and partner teams to make sure improvements focus on areas that drive the most impact ## What we're looking for If you don't think you meet all of the criteria below but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone excited to join the team. - 4~6 years of experience in people operations, HR, or related field - You break down ambiguous problems, build a plan, and see it through. You manage projects, not just tasks - You're a strong communicator with high EQ. You navigate sensitive conversations, align multiple stakeholders, and adapt your style to the audience - You prioritize well and make trade-offs confidently, especially when resources are limited and everything feels urgent - People trust you with sensitive information and know you'll follow through - You're curious about AI and automation, and you pick up new tools quickly - You can operate without clear direction in a fast-moving environment - You're comfortable communicating in English for day-to-day collaboration and basic business writing, as you'll work closely with our global team - You're based in Seoul and available for hybrid in-office work ## Who you are - You care about getting the details right, but you don't lose sight of what actually matters - You're energized by building things that don't exist yet - You stay calm when things get busy and bring clarity to ambiguous situations - You enjoy working across cultures and contexts, and you adapt your approach rather than defaulting to one-size-fits-all - You notice when something is broken and fix it without being asked Bonus points: - You have experience working across multiple legal entities or countries - You've built or significantly improved an HR process or SOP from scratch - You've worked at a startup or high-growth company before ## Why work at Speak - Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company. - Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply. - Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel. - Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives. Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. ## About Speak ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Speak is an AI-powered language learning app that focuses on teaching conversational fluency through real-time speaking practice and instant feedback, without needing a human tutor. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C; $1B valuation as of December 2024) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (with offices in Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana) - **Founded**: 2016 - **Founders**: Connor Zwick (CEO) and Andrew Hsu (CTO) ## Core Business - **Industry**: Language learning / EdTech - **Target Customers**: B2C (individual language learners) and B2B (Speak for Business – over 200 enterprise customers) - **Mission/Purpose**: “To reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.” The goal is to make conversational practice radically accessible so that hundreds of millions of people can gain fluency. ## Products & Services - **Speak App**: A subscription-based mobile and web application (iOS, Android, Web) that uses a proprietary “Speak Method” – learn useful phrases, practice them out loud with AI-driven drills, then apply them in simulated real-world conversations. Supports English learning from eight source languages; plans to add Spanish and French. - **Speak for Business**: A B2B tier for companies that want to provide English conversation training to their employees, currently serving 200+ corporate clients. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: $1 billion (December 2024, Series C led by Accel) - **Key Metric**: Total funding of $171.3 million across six rounds; annual revenue estimated at $7.0 million (LinkedIn data) - **Notable Investors**: Accel, OpenAI Startup Fund, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Lachy Groom, Buckley Ventures; individual angels include Sam Altman and Peter Thiel. - **Growth Signals**: - 10M+ app downloads, #1 English learning app in South Korea - Available in over 30 countries - Headcount grew 30.9% YoY to 166 employees (LinkedIn, May 2026) - B2B segment has 200+ customers - Average user engagement of 10–20 minutes per day ## Competitive Advantages - **Conversation-first approach**: Unlike grammar/vocab apps, Speak teaches by making users speak out loud, using proprietary speech recognition and generative AI to provide immediate feedback. - **AI tutor that scales**: Replicates natural conversation without needing a live human, making high-quality practice affordable ($20/month or $99/year). - **Deep OpenAI partnership**: Early access to the latest speech AI from OpenAI (also an investor), giving a technological edge in voice interaction. - **Strong product-market fit in Asia**: Proven adoption in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and expanding to other markets. ## Strategic Focus - Expand target languages (Spanish and French are next) - Scale Speak for Business globally - Develop a standardized, accurate English fluency assessment (an AI-powered test) - Continue to invest in AI research and engineering to improve tutoring effectiveness ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Mission-driven team passionate about language learning and AI; values efficacy over gamification. - **Team & talent**: 166 people from companies like Meta, Google, DoorDash, Block, Dropbox, and Duolingo. Engineering office in Ljubljana, product and design hubs in San Francisco, operations in Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei. - **Flexibility**: Hybrid/office-based across locations; employees encouraged to travel between offices; annual company offsite. - **Perks**: Competitive salary and equity, comprehensive medical/dental/vision, unlimited PTO, parental leave, 401(k), monthly wellness and language learning stipends, pet-friendly office (official company dog). - **Growth**: Rapidly scaling headcount (+30% YoY) with active roles in engineering, product, marketing, sales, and design. ## Sources 1. [speak.com/careers](https://www.speak.com/careers) 2. [speak.com](https://speak.com/) 3. [linkedin.com/company/usespeak](https://www.linkedin.com/company/usespeak) 4. [TechCrunch: OpenAI-backed Speak raises $78M at $1B valuation](https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/10/openai-backed-speak-raises-78m-at-1b-valuation-to-help-users-learn-languages-by-talking-out-loud/) 5. [Y Combinator: Speak](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/speak) ## Other roles at Speak - [Product Lead, Enterprise](https://feeny.ai/job/product-lead-enterprise-speak-san-francisco-pv45a3bsw3js) — San Francisco, CA - [Content Localization Specialist (Chinese - Traditional / Japanese)](https://feeny.ai/job/content-localization-specialist-chinese-traditional-japanese-speak-south-korea-9c7ckjwm39cd) — South Korea - [Assessment Design Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/assessment-design-lead-speak-united-states-w55yxvzn27x2) — United States - [Full-stack Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-engineer-speak-san-francisco-z8ecxdk1xw63) — San Francisco, CA - [B2B Sales Lead - Korea](https://feeny.ai/job/b2b-sales-lead-korea-speak-seoul-k7qx1kfghnya) — Seoul, South Korea - [People Ops Specialist (Contract) - Korea](https://feeny.ai/job/people-ops-specialist-contract-korea-speak-seoul-wrbbd36m9z8c) — Seoul, South Korea - [Content Localization Specialist (Japanese / Korean)](https://feeny.ai/job/content-localization-specialist-japanese-korean-speak-south-korea-kenmfgqkdwrf) — South Korea - [Content Localization Specialist (Korean / Chinese - Simplified)](https://feeny.ai/job/content-localization-specialist-korean-chinese-simplified-speak-south-korea-9qvr499kdcq7) — South Korea - [Lead Business Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-business-analyst-speak-san-francisco-dzkeyxkp1096) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-speak-san-francisco-h4wye00jhcc6) — San Francisco, CA