Zekeriya Çağrı Saban
Head of People @Kitup
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WORK HISTORY
Head of People @Kitup
Norwich, GB
First dedicated people hire at kitUP. Built the entire people and operations function from scratch — covering HR, internal systems, cross-country admin, and the tooling that ties it all together.People & Talent– Hired 30+ people across two years; reviewed thousands of CVs and conducted hundreds of interviews across technical, creative, and operational roles– Designed and iterated onboarding journeys, welcome kits, and team events that made new joiners feel genuinely welcomed– Managed employee relations, performance processes, and day-to-day people ops for a remote-first teamSystems & Automation– Built internal tooling using Airtable, Slack, n8n, Make, Zapier, Gumloop and Claude Code– Delivered: ATS, HRIS, company directory, document management system, invoice processor, notification system, expense management, leave management, procurement management — all integrated into a single Airtable/Slack ecosystem– Built Slack bots that reduced admin back-and-forth and gave the team a single place to work and communicateCross-Country Operations– Managed administrative and compliance operations across countries and entities– Coordinated multi-currency financial flows (GBP, USD, TRY) and cross-entity invoicing
EDUCATION
University of Duisburg-Essen
Global and Transnational Sociology
Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi / Middle East Technical University
Bachelor of Science - BS, Psychology
Ankara Atatürk Lisesi
High School Diploma, Social Sciences
ABOUT ZEKERIYA ÇAĞRI SABAN
Most companies don\'t have a people problem. They have a systems problem dressed up as a people problem.I\'m Çağrı, a People & Operations professional with a psychology background and a builder\'s mindset. I work at the intersection of HR, operations, and automation: designing the infrastructure that lets teams focus on actual work instead of managing chaos.Over the last few years, I\'ve worn a lot of hats across countries like Turkey and the UK and I\'ve learned that the unsexy work (clear processes, good tooling, consistent communication) is usually what separates teams that thrive from teams that quietly burn out.What I do—HR & People Ops Full-cycle recruitment, onboarding design, performance frameworks, employee relations. Hired 30+ people in under two years, reviewed thousands of CVs, and built HR functions from scratch in early-stage companies—AI-Augmented Systems I build practical internal tools using Airtable, Slack, n8n, Make, Zapier, Gumloop and Claude Code. ATS, HRIS, document management, invoice processors, expense & leave systems, procurement bots, Slack automations — things that used to require a team of admins now run quietly in the background—Cross-Country Admin & Compliance Multi-entity operations across UK/TR/US/CY. SEIS/EIS, R&D Tax Relief, Turkish Technopark & TÜBİTAK project admin, Ministry of Trade export incentive programs, multi-currency financial coordination—Recruitment & Talent Hiring pipelines, interview process design, and helping founders think through what kind of people their organisation actually needs — not just who\'s available.What I believe:Work takes up a third of our lives. That\'s not a footnote. It\'s the whole point. A company that runs its people into the ground isn\'t efficient; it\'s borrowing against a debt it will eventually have to pay. Sustainable orgs are built with intentional systems, clear expectations, and genuine respect for the people inside them.I\'m not a fan of hustle culture. I am a fan of good structure, thoughtful automation, and teams that carry the load the way a well-designed building does: distributed, balanced, and built to last.AI is a tool I use to build those systems. It is not a trend I chase.Psychology graduate (METU, High Honours).Published researcher in relationship science3+ years fully remote. Based in Norwich, UK.
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