Welcome Sonja, our new Head of People Operations

Our company culture has always revolved around the exceptional talent of our employees. UpCloud is currently accelerating its growth, and the key in this development is people. Therefore, we’re excited to welcome Sonja Semmelmayr as the new Head of People Operations at UpCloud!

Sonja is a highly skilled HR professional with a broad experience across many positions and comes to UpCloud from SSH Communications Security.

100 new UpCloudians joining us this year

The launch of our new HR department is part of our growth strategy fueled by an €18 million investment announced earlier this year. Over the next 24 months, UpCloud plans to recruit more than 100 new employees in Helsinki, London, Seattle, and Singapore offices.

“We’ve been meticulous in our focus on our culture as we grow the company, and we believe our experienced employees are a testament to this work. We’re delighted to have Sonja join us, and help us take the growth to another level in coming months and years,” says UpCloud’s CEO Antti Vilpponen.

Cultivating UpCloud’s unique culture

As Head of People Operations, Sonja is responsible for boosting our staff growth and wellbeing, as well as setting up the face of UpCloud’s recruitment for the future. What is she most excited about her job? We asked Sonja a couple of questions.

What new processes or changes would you like to launch at UpCloud?

Of course, there are necessary HR processes that need to be implemented and reviewed. But the most important thing is to cultivate UpCloud’s unique culture and align it in all regions. With accelerated growth comes a chance for all of us to develop it further together.

What are you looking forward to at UpCloud? What do you think might be challenging?

It will surely be challenging to learn all the names by heart! But to be a little more serious, the People Operations team’s first challenge is to hire all the new talent that we will need this year. It is both exciting and scary because we get to onboard many new colleagues!

What are UpCloud’s plans for this year in the field of HR?

We are going to double our staff this year, so at the moment, we’re looking for a Talent Acquisition Manager to help managers in their recruitment needs. I’m sure we’ll fill this role with a capable professional who will bring our recruitment to a whole new level.

I have had my fair share of my own unpleasant candidate experiences in the past. Therefore, I want everyone who applies for a job at UpCloud to be happy about our recruitment process.

What achievements do you feel good about in your job?

Empowering employees and giving them tools for success. I always aim to support and help people to be better at what they do.  

I am also very happy when I manage to handle a difficult case with a positive outcome. They might vary from uncomfortable discussions to complicated labour law issues. The most important thing is that the people involved feel respected and valued in the process. I’ve always been a warrior for equal treatment and fairness, so being really into law and HR is no surprise.

Launching new Careers page

Together with appointing the Head of People Operations, we are also launching our brand new Careers page. There you can find what talent we’re currently looking for as well as read insightful interviews with our people.