Yana Maeva

Chief of Staff @Omnilex

Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

About

My professional expertise and passion span three domains: HR leadership, training and coaching. ✔️ With 12+ years of HR leadership experience in tech startups and SMEs, I specialize in building and scaling balanced, high-performing teams. My philosophy is centred around fostering a productive yet human-centric culture. My expertise covers the entire HR cycle, with a particular passion for driving organisational change and people development. Proven track record in building HR processes from the ground up, scaling teams, and executing post-merger integrations. ✔️ Created a free 3-month training program (Weiterbildung) funded by Agentur für Arbeit for those who want to enter the People field with a modern mindset and strong connection to business. ✔️ As a certified transformational coach with over 1000 hours of coaching experience, I help individuals to navigate career transitions, leadership, and business challenges with increased self-trust, confidence, and awareness. -- 🌱 I'm always happy to connect with new people, feel free to get in touch: [email protected] or book a call here - https://calendly.com/yana_maeva/intro

Experience

  • Chief of Staff at Omnilex
    Feb 2026 - Present · 6 mos

    Building the systems, hiring the people, and keeping Omnilex running as we grow.

  • Founder, Learning Designer & Trainer at from HR to People
    Jan 2025 - Present · 1 yr 7 mos

  • Growth Navigator at NBT (Next Big Thing)
    Jul 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 1 mo

    Supporting startups' growth through NBT's accelerator programs by providing workshops, keynotes, and coaching.

  • Career and Founder Coach at Fired Up Space
    Nov 2023 - Feb 2026 · 2 yrs 4 mos

  • Head of People at Embea
    Oct 2022 - Jan 2025 · 2 yrs 4 mos

    • Hired as a founding team member, reporting to the co-founder/CEO, to establish and lead the People function from scratch. • Partnered with founders on organizational design, leadership enablement, and early company-building. • Built scalable people processes across recruitment, onboarding, performance, and engagement. • Selected, negotiated, and managed external vendors (recruitment, payroll, legal, EOR). • Hired 15+ domain experts across engineering, product, and sales, scaling the team from 5 to 20 within 4 months and reducing external hiring costs by 40%. • Designed and implemented competitive compensation structures and salary bands; supported ESOP allocation and communication. • Delivered compliance training (anti-money laundering, data protection) and introduced structured feedback frameworks.