---
title: 'Head of People at Substack'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-people-substack-san-francisco-ej54dzqhv1pb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Head of People at Substack

- **Company:** Substack
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack/9d457a8f-971a-4d85-9b6a-f73f85d9ffe4

## Job description

Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. Substack empowers independent writers, artists, videographers, podcasters, and creators of all types to create, share, and make a living off their work through subscriptions, while offering them creative freedom, ownership, and a direct connection to their audiences.

## About the Role

Substack is looking for a Head of People to build and scale our People function at a pivotal stage of growth. You'll own the strategy, systems, and programs that shape how we hire, develop, reward, and support our team. That spans benefits, compensation, leveling, review and promotion cycles, learning and development, employee experience, and recruiting. This role is both strategic and hands-on. You'll build the infrastructure, processes, and leadership practices that let us grow without losing the speed and ambition that define Substack. You'll advise company leadership on org design, talent strategy, and workforce planning, and you'll also get into the day-to-day: improving how things work and supporting employees and managers directly. You're a self-starter who sets a high bar and pushes the team to meet it. You're resourceful, equally comfortable getting hands on and delegating to others. You've seen what excellent People organizations look like at strong companies, and you know how to adapt those practices to a company that's ready to mature and evolve its practices. Responsibilities:

- Partner with leadership to develop and execute a people strategy that supports Substack's mission, values, and business goals
- Lead and scale the People function across recruiting, onboarding, compensation, benefits, employee experience, performance management, and talent development
- Own our compensation, benefits, and leveling frameworks, and run the feedback, review, and promotion cycles
- Build and run training, learning and development, and leadership coaching programs
- Shape the employee experience, including office culture, people surveys, orientation, and onboarding
- Lead recruiting strategy and make sure we hire exceptional people
- Advise leadership on organizational design, workforce planning, and succession planning
- Build and continuously improve the people systems, policies, and programs that help employees do their best work
- Coach managers and leaders on performance, team effectiveness, and organizational challenges
- Oversee employee relations and ensure issues are resolved thoughtfully and consistently
- Use people analytics, reporting, and workforce insights to guide decisions
- Ensure compliance with applicable employment laws and regulations
- Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing People team

About You:

- 8+ years of progressive experience in People or HR, with multi-functional expertise and leadership across:
- Benefits, compensation, leveling, and feedback, promotion, and review cycles
- Training, L&D, and leadership coaching
- Employee experience, including office culture, people surveys, orientation, and onboarding
- Recruiting
- Startup or growth-stage experience (required)
- A track record of excellence and best practices from strong, well-regarded companies
- A self-starter who sets the pace and pushes the team
- Resourceful: hands on and delegating to others
- Range: demonstrated understanding, empathy, and familiarity with multiple company building disciplines (e.g., engineering, product, business, etc.) is a plus.
- Proven ability to influence and advise executive leadership, with excellent communication and coaching skills
- Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to inform People decisions
- Nice to have: experience building a People team from scratch; knowledge of employment law and compliance across the regions we hire in

Substack’s compensation package includes a market-competitive salary, equity for all full-time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $250,000- $295,000. Multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, determine final offer amounts and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you. Please see our Privacy Notice for details regarding Substack's collection and use of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UjmY1acxnd27iIde83PxR7XdecR29aIyfkkmEOwAMGY/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.a0wuzmt3mjmm).

## About Substack

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Substack provides a platform for independent writers, podcasters, and creators to publish, build audiences, and earn revenue directly through paid subscriptions.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (with a new office in New York City)
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Chris Best (CEO), Jairaj Sethi (CTO), Hamish McKenzie (CWO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Media, Publishing, Creator Economy, SaaS
- Target customers: Individual writers, podcasters, video creators, independent publishers, media companies, experts, and educators (B2C and B2B)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To build a new economic engine for culture — empowering writers, creators, and publishers to own their work, own their audience, and earn directly from their ideas."

## Products & Services
- **Publishing Platform**: A full-featured CMS and writing tool designed for longform content, with support for posts, newsletters, scheduling, and media embedding.
- **Substack App**: A mobile and web app that connects readers with creators, featuring discovery tools like recommendations, Notes, trending topics, and leaderboards.
- **Native Podcasting**: Built-in recording studio and live video capabilities, with automatic distribution to Substack, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, including premium episode options.
- **Payments & Subscription Management**: Handles all billing, subscriber management, and revenue tools (welcome sequences, win-back campaigns, analytics). Creators keep 90% of revenue minus credit card fees.
- **Community Tools**: Subscriber chats, comment threads, and moderation features to turn publications into communities.
- **Substack Defender**: Legal support program providing publishers access to legal fees, advice, and pre-publication review for defamation, trademark, and copyright issues.
- **Network Discovery**: Built-in growth engine where more than half of new subscribers come from within Substack’s network, including recommendations and collaborations.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (last raised $100M in Series C in July 2025)
- **Key Metric**: Over 5 million paid subscriptions across the network; more than 30% of paid subscriptions come from within Substack’s network; tens of millions of posts discovered daily in the app.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, The Chernin Group (TCG); part of Y Combinator’s winter 2018 batch.
- **Growth Signals**: Raised $100M Series C in July 2025; team has grown to over 100 people across the US, Canada, and UK; opened a new New York City office; top writers earn millions annually.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Creator-first economic model**: Writers keep 90% of revenue, own their audience and content, and can leave anytime with no platform fees or contracts.
- **Built-in network effects**: More than half of new subscribers come from within the platform’s discovery tools, reducing the need for creators to build audiences from scratch.
- **All-in-one platform**: Combines publishing, payments, growth tools, analytics, podcasting, video, and community management — no technical expertise required.
- **Legal support**: Substack Defender provides unique legal protection that reduces risk for independent publishers.
- **Brand trust and ecosystem**: A recognized leader in the creator economy with a strong network of high-profile writers and millions of paying subscribers.

## Strategic Focus
- Expanding the platform beyond newsletters into a full "media app" for all creator formats (writing, podcasting, video, live content).
- Growing the network effect through recommendations, Notes, and app-driven discovery to reduce customer acquisition costs for creators.
- Scaling the enterprise offering for media companies and full newsrooms.
- Deepening community features to increase subscriber engagement and retention.
- Building out the New York City office to expand talent and presence on the East Coast.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Small but growing team (100+ people) with a strong mission-driven focus on empowering creators and independent culture. Every employee participates in customer support to build empathy with users.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Hybrid model; employees can work from San Francisco HQ, the new New York office, or remotely across the US, Canada, and UK.
- **Benefits**: 100% premium coverage for employees and dependents (health care), fully funded HRA plans, generous parental leave, monthly internet/phone stipend, flexible vacation, 12 paid holidays, and a winter office shutdown between Christmas Eve and New Year’s.
- **Engineering Culture**: Pragmatic approach to problem-solving, shipping high-quality products; team works on a platform that directly impacts millions of creators and subscribers.
- **Perks**: Home office customization allowance, internet stipends, and a strong emphasis on work-life balance with flexible time off.

## Sources
1. [substack.com/about](https://substack.com/about)
2. [substack.com/jobs](https://substack.com/jobs)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack)
4. [builtin.com/company/substack](https://builtin.com/company/substack)
5. [linkedin.com/company/substack](https://www.linkedin.com/company/substack)

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