Head of HR

Canela Media is the fastest-growing diverse-owned media & entertainment company. This technology-focused & innovation-driven company is based in the United States and Latin America. Canela.TV is it's standalone AVOD platform, with various content verticals across Original Series & Movies, Music, Kids, Sports and News. The company was founded in 2019 and Canela.TV launched in 2020 reaching significant growth and innovation milestones in its first five years of being in business achieving industry-wide recognition.

Overview:

Canela is excited to announce an opening for a Head of Human Resources to lead the People function across its U.S. and LATAM operations.

Reporting directly to the Global President, you’ll be responsible for building operational excellence across our U.S. and LATAM operations (based in Mexico), leading all aspects of the people function, from talent acquisition, onboarding, performance management, organizational effectiveness, compliance, people analytics, total rewards, and employee relations. You will partner closely with the senior leadership team to drive talent strategy, strengthen core people programs, and maintain a consistent and high-quality employee experience at every stage.

Our ideal candidate combines operational rigor with strong people instincts. You bring structure to start-up organizations, strengthening HR foundations to ensure that people operations run seamlessly and efficiently – enabling the business to perform at its best.

Responsibilities:

HR Operations & Compliance

• Oversee all day-to-day HR operations, including talent acquisition, onboarding, HRIS, compensation and benefits administration, compliance, performance management, and employee relations.
• Maintain HR systems integrity and reporting dashboards for headcount, turnover, engagement, and compliance.
• Manage annual headcount and budget for the team and partner with the CFO to develop annual strategic priorities for the business and drives results against established priorities.
• Partner with Legal (internal and external counsel) and Finance to ensure compliance with employment laws, audits, and policy governance across all locations; research and review new legislation to maintain compliance as well as ensure proper employee notices are updated and posted; maintain various employee legal documentation from hire letters, job change letters and departure documentation for all locations.
• Responsible for global policy creation and revisions as well as annual acknowledgements for the country-specific offices based on cultural and business alignment and to ensure compliance.
• Partner with the CFO in overseeing payroll, year-end reporting activities, and payroll tax matters
• Oversee the HR team to ensure accurate benefit and payroll administration related to employee changes, including onboarding & offboarding processes, job changes/ promotions, accurate employee data/record management
• Responsible for data accuracy and regular audits to ensure alignment with established guidelines.

Business Partnership & Talent Management

• Partner with the Global President and senior leaders to ensure organizational structures, staffing plans, and workforce data align with business objectives and budgets.
• Deliver insights through HR metrics and analytics to guide decision-making on headcount, retention, and organizational effectiveness.
• Manage employee relations matters with professionalism, confidentiality, and balanced judgment; support the HR team in responding to employee questions; evolve self-service and materials to proactively address common questions
• Responsible for developing and driving talent acquisition and management strategies and processes including best practices by market (US & LATAM) to source, recruit and retain top talent
• Defines KPI’s to measure and improve effectiveness of the recruitment process
• Drives workforce & succession planning processes
• Support performance management review process – continuously refine performance management strategy to meet the development needs of the growing team; provide analysis to stakeholders on talent performance within their business units

Benefits & Compensation

• Design and execute compensation and benefits plans for U.S. & Mexico, leveraging market insights and analytics to ensure competitiveness and pay equity.
• Evaluate plans and make data driven recommendations (job analysis & descriptions, market trends, benchmarks, local industry insights and practice improvements).
• Oversee annual review processes; evaluate promotion recommendations to ensure they are within the appropriate benchmarks and consistent with company policy.
• Manage programs and initiatives promoting health, work-life balance, and overall well-being.

Employee Experience & Culture

• Ensure that policies and practices are both compliant and reflective of the company’s values and culture – setting the tone for a culture of trust and performance.
• Drive engagement, development, and recognition programs that enhance connection and retention; assess and promote team culture by identifying desired goals and creating programs (including offsites) to drive progress.

Team Management

• Oversee a team of three professionals in Mexico for HR and Office Management
• Hiring and developing the team on best practices and new capabilities

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years progressive HR experience; at least five years of HR management experience with demonstrated strength in HR operations, compliance, HRIS, employee relations, and HR program design and execution.
• Bilingual Spanish and English
• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field; advanced degree and/or HR certification a plus.
• Experience in media/entertainment (ideally digital media) including experience working in companies with entities in U.S. and Latin America; understanding of multicultural markets and talent needs.
• Strong business acumen, with the ability to influence senior leadership and develop strong working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders
• Outstanding customer service orientation, interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven track record of designing and implementing compensation & benefits programs in multi-country environments; strong foundation in U.S. & LATAM compensation & benefit design and administration (job analysis, market trends, benchmarks, local industry insights and practice improvements)
• Critical thinking capabilities and broad knowledge and enthusiasm for evolving Human Resource trends: ability to understand the business and internal processes to recommend, communicate, and implement new processes, approaches, policies, practices and procedures across all areas to drive continuous improvement while ensuring effectiveness to the overall employee experience.
• Skilled in HRIS management (Gusto experience preferred), reporting, and data-driven decision-making.
• A hands-on, results-oriented and highly collaborative people leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment, leads with clarity and empathy, and views HR not as a back-office function, but as a core partner and business enabler.
• Experience implementing and managing Talent Management programs & initiatives.
• Experience in full-cycle recruiting with a proven track record of successful recruitment in a fast-paced environment / start-ups.
• Experience in creating and implementing Learning & Development programs.
• Experience establishing surveys and other feedback mechanisms to assess effectiveness of programs/process.

Compensation Range: $140,000-$160,000 per year (base salary only). Actual base salary within this range will be determined based on skills, experience, and qualifications. Additional compensation includes discretionary bonus opportunities aligned with objectives.

The functions listed are not fixed or unique and may vary according to the needs of the company.