People Director
First People hire at Series B AI fintech company. Build and own full people function including recruiting, compensation frameworks, performance processes, HR ops, culture programs, and infrastructure from scratch. Hands-on builder with 5+ years high-growth startup HR experience who will partner with leadership on talent strategy.
About the job
What You’ll Do
People Strategy
- Be a thought partner to the C Suite and Leadership Team on the people calls that matter at this stage.
- Translate company strategy and growth plans into a clear People roadmap.
- Partner on organizational design, headcount planning, leveling, and talent decisions.
- Embed AI tools and agents sensibly across hiring, onboarding, performance, and people ops where relevant, using AI to generate efficiencies and help us move faster.
Recruiting & Talent
- Own our talent acquisition strategy end-to-end: deciding whether to use vendors, process design, candidate experience, and closing.
- Partner with hiring managers to define roles, build structured interview processes, and make fast, high-quality hiring decisions.
- Utilize the Leadership Team to build the employer brand and talent pipeline that lets us compete for exceptional people against larger, better-known companies.
Performance & Development
- Build a manager training program consistent with our size of business and speed of execution.
- Design and run our performance cycle: goal setting, reviews, calibration, leveling and career frameworks.
- Coach managers on performance management, PIPs, and difficult conversations, aligned to our values.
Compensation & Benefits
- Design and lead our compensation strategy, including leveling, equity best practices, and total rewards that are fair, transparent, and defensible as we grow.
- Review and update our benefits package and communicate changes clearly to the team.
People Operations & HR Infrastructure
- Own HRIS, payroll, employee data, handbook, and policies; make build/buy/PEO calls on our people stack.
- Own HR operations: onboarding/offboarding, employee records and compliance (including SOC 2-aligned offboarding).
- Stand up or improve the tools and systems that underpin People ops (HRIS, ATS, handbook tooling, etc.).
Culture & Employee Experience
- Design and run our team rhythms: All Hands (in-person and remote), quarterly events, and our annual offsite.
- Continue to develop how we make remote employees feel embedded as part of the team, including office AV infrastructure and the appropriate regular team rhythms.
- Be the connective tissue between leadership and the team, surfacing what people need and helping the company respond well.
- Own the Employee Handbook and keep it alive: policies people can actually find, understand, and trust.
What We’re Looking For
Must-Haves
- 5+ years in People/HR roles at a high-growth startup (Series B+).
- Recruitment experience - you’ve personally sourced and closed hard-to-fill roles and you know what good hiring looks like in practice.
- Proven experience building People infrastructure from scratch: comp frameworks, onboarding programs, policies, handbooks.
- Operationally sharp: you can design a process, document it, implement it, and make it stick without a team behind you.
- High EQ and sound judgment - people trust you with hard things.
- Based in San Francisco (or willingness to relocate).
Bonus Points
- Experience in fintech, regtech, or other compliance-adjacent environments.
- Familiarity with SOC 2 requirements as they relate to HR ops and offboarding.
- Experience running distributed team programs like remote All Hands and offsites.
- Comfort with tools like Rippling, Ashby, Notion, or similar People/HR platforms.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive base salary + meaningful equity
- Comprehensive healthcare, 401k matching, commuter benefits
- Unlimited PTO + holidays, unlimited sick days
- Flexible leave options
- Working late? We’ve got you covered with DoorDash and an Uber home
Skills
Recruiting, Talent Acquisition, Compensation Strategy, HRIS, Performance Management, Organizational Design, Hr Operations, Employee Onboarding, SOC 2, Rippling, Ashby, Notion
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