Nextdoor Promotes Tony Castellanos to Executive Vice President, People as AI-Driven People Strategy Becomes Core to Business Growth

Business Wire

Thu, March 19, 2026 at 6:30 AM EDT 3 min read

Castellanos will lead the People organization with AI at the center, driving the talent and organizational strategy behind the company's next phase of growth

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NXDR), the essential neighborhood network, today announced the promotion of Tony Castellanos to Executive Vice President, People. Castellanos will lead Nextdoor's People organization — including talent acquisition, compensation, HR business partnering, and benefits — as the company deepens its investment in AI-enabled People operations and continues to scale its workforce strategy.

Castellanos has risen through the ranks at Nextdoor for the past six years, most recently serving as Head of Compensation and Talent, where he built and led the teams responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining world-class talent. Bringing nearly two decades of experience across compensation, talent acquisition, and HR business partnering, he has spent his career embedding the People function as a true strategic advisor to the business. Under his leadership, Nextdoor's People function evolved from a traditional HR organization into a strategic advisory body embedded across the business — partnering directly with senior leaders to drive the company's most critical talent and organizational decisions.

Prior to Nextdoor, Castellanos held recruiting and people roles at Google and Square, where he developed the foundation in talent strategy and business partnership that has defined his career. A former competitor and coach in sports, Castellanos has spent his career bringing people together to accomplish shared goals.

Castellanos has spent the past several years building Nextdoor's AI-forward approach to HR from the ground up, designing systems that give employees faster, more consistent support while freeing his team to focus on work that actually requires human judgment. He's guided by a straightforward conviction: technology should make space for authentic human connection, not crowd it out. Under his leadership, Nextdoor has deployed AI across three core areas:

• Recruiting: Hiring managers are positioned as true owners of team growth, with the People team providing strategic direction, real-time insights, and talent guidance at scale.

• Compensation and Benefits: AI agents deliver faster, more consistent employee support, giving the People team room to focus on strategic design and planning.

• People Business Partnering: Deeply integrated into Nextdoor's business units, ensuring people strategy is as dynamic and data-informed as the company's product and revenue work.