Popo Ventures is one of Bengaluru's leading F&B groups, operating three gourmet brands: The Pizza Bakery, Paris Panini, and Smash Guys. The company operates 40+ outlets across Bangalore, including 21 dine-in restaurants and 19 cloud kitchens, supported by a team of 1,000+ people.
The Head of HR will build and lead the HR function end-to-end. This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced HR professional who can operate independently and strategically while managing day-to-day people challenges including recruitment bottlenecks, employee retention, operational HR processes, and workforce planning.
The role involves overseeing the complete employee lifecycle including onboarding, payroll, attendance, HRIS, and exit processes. The selected candidate will ensure compliance with labour laws, statutory requirements, and internal HR policies while standardising and improving HR processes, SOPs, and governance.
Key responsibilities include leading end-to-end recruitment across all functions and levels, developing workforce plans aligned with business growth and new store expansion, building talent pipelines, improving hiring efficiency through data-driven recruitment strategies, and monitoring hiring metrics such as time-to-fill, joining ratio, and recruitment costs.
The Head of HR will design and implement learning and development initiatives, leadership development programmes, succession planning, structured induction processes, and capability-building programmes across all levels. The role will focus on creating a culture of continuous learning and internal career progression.
The candidate will lead performance management frameworks including goal setting, appraisals, promotions, and talent reviews. Responsibilities also include driving employee engagement, retention, recognition programmes, culture-building initiatives, employee relations, grievance handling, and conflict resolution.
The role will also involve developing compensation structures, salary benchmarks, incentive programmes, managing HR budgets, monitoring manpower costs, and partnering with Finance teams for manpower planning, payroll governance, and HR cost management.
The Head of HR will partner with business leaders to align people strategy with organisational objectives, build HR dashboards, analyse workforce metrics including attrition, productivity, training effectiveness, and manpower costs. The role will lead organisational development, change management, and strategic HR initiatives while building, mentoring, and leading the HR team to deliver operational excellence.
Industry: Food & Beverage
Requirements:
8–12+ years of progressive HR experience, including 3–5 years in a leadership role as Head of HR or CHRO functions. Proven experience managing full-cycle recruitment, especially in high-volume or fast-paced hiring environments. Experience in building HR functions and processes from the ground up is preferred.
Candidates with hospitality experience and experience managing high-volume hiring across multiple brands will be preferred. Strong knowledge of labour laws and statutory compliance is required along with hands-on experience with HRIS, ATS tools, and HR analytics. Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills are essential. The candidate should be able to balance strategic thinking with operational execution.
Education: Bachelor’s degree required. MBA/PGDM in HR or related field preferred.
Popo Ventures offers a leadership role with high ownership and visibility, an opportunity to shape HR strategy and systems at an early stage, and competitive compensation aligned with industry-standard experience.
