Summary:
We are seeking a hands-on and experienced Director of People & Talent to own the employee experience, from recruiting and onboarding through development, compensation, performance, and retention. This role will lead our recruiting efforts, manage day-to-day People operations, help employees and managers grow, and build practical systems that allow us to attract and retain exceptional talent as the company continues to scale.
This is a highly hands-on role. The Director of People & Talent will personally manage recruiting, payroll and benefits administration, employee programs, and many of the day-to-day activities of the People function while also serving as a trusted advisor to company leadership. They will help create a culture where expectations are clear, feedback is productive, strong performance is recognized, employees have opportunities to grow, and people enjoy working together.
Key Duties:
- Lead recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding across the company.
- Own day-to-day People operations, including payroll, benefits, employee records, policies, and employee lifecycle administration.
- Build and improve career development, compensation, performance management, and employee development practices.
- Serve as a trusted resource to employees and managers while helping strengthen engagement, retention, teamwork, and company culture.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead full-cycle recruiting across technical, operational, sales, and other roles, working directly with hiring managers to define needs, source candidates, conduct interviews, and make strong hiring decisions.
- Develop and maintain a consistent recruiting and interview process, including job descriptions, interview plans, candidate evaluation, reference checks, offers, and candidate communication.
- Represent the company at career fairs, university events, community events, and other opportunities to develop relationships with prospective employees.
- Own the employee onboarding process and continuously improve how new employees are introduced to the company, their teams, expectations, and responsibilities.
- Manage payroll, benefits administration, employee records, HR systems, and relationships with relevant People and benefits vendors.
- Maintain employment policies, employee documentation, and People processes, coordinating with outside advisors and employment counsel when specialized guidance is required.
- Partner with leadership on headcount planning and hiring priorities, helping determine what roles the company needs and when.
- Develop and maintain practical career ladders, role levels, competencies, compensation bands, and promotion criteria that give employees greater clarity around expectations and advancement.
- Advise leadership on employee compensation and executive compensation packages using market data, performance, and company needs.
- Own the company's performance review and feedback processes and help managers establish clear expectations, provide constructive feedback, recognize strong performance, and address performance concerns.
- Work directly with employees on professional development opportunities, including effective verbal and written communication, meeting leadership, giving and receiving feedback, organization, and other foundational workplace skills.
- Coach managers on becoming stronger people leaders, including setting expectations, providing feedback, having difficult conversations, developing employees, and creating accountability within their teams.
- Serve as an approachable, trusted, and discreet resource for employees who need guidance, want to raise concerns, or would benefit from support navigating workplace situations.
- Help managers and leadership navigate employee relations matters, performance concerns, corrective action, conflict resolution, and other sensitive employee situations.
- Develop practical initiatives to improve employee retention and identify emerging retention risks before they become departures.
- Conduct exit interviews and use employee feedback and turnover patterns to identify opportunities to improve the employee experience.
- Plan and coordinate company outings, team-building activities, recognition efforts, and other initiatives that create stronger relationships and a greater sense of connection across the company.
- Help leadership identify employees ready for additional responsibility and work with managers and employees to create meaningful advancement and development opportunities.
- Gather and monitor a focused set of People metrics, including hiring activity, retention, compensation, employee feedback, and other indicators useful to company leadership.
- Continuously improve People practices as the company grows while avoiding unnecessary process, bureaucracy, or complexity.
Key Qualifications:
- 5+ years of progressive experience across Human Resources, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, People Partnership, or related functions.
- Experience working in a growing organization where the People function requires both strategic thinking and hands-on execution.
- Strong recruiting experience with the ability to source, evaluate, attract, and close high-quality candidates across a variety of roles.
- Experience managing or supporting payroll, benefits administration, HR systems, employee records, and other core People operations.
- Experience with performance management, employee development, compensation, career development, or related People programs.
- Ability to coach employees and managers on communication, feedback, performance, professional development, and leadership.
- Sound judgment and discretion when handling sensitive employee matters and confidential information.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to build trust with employees at all levels of the company.
- Practical, organized, and comfortable personally owning the details rather than relying on a large supporting HR team.
- Ability to balance employee advocacy with the needs, expectations, and performance standards of the business.
- Experience in a technology, SaaS, professional services, or similarly fast-moving organization is preferred.
- Experience supporting distributed or international employees is a plus.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience. SHRM, PHR, or comparable professional certification is a plus.
Benefits:
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person