Head of People

About the Role

The will build the systems, team, and culture required to scale the organization from 40 to 75+ staff over the next 12 months across multiple geographies and entities. You will own the design, execution, and scaling of all people operations and culture initiatives, establishing the foundational infrastructure that enables a distributed, multi-entity workforce to operate smoothly and consistently.

You will report to the COO and work closely with the leadership team to bring structure to all people-related functions. This role requires ownership of the full employee lifecycle, from talent acquisition and onboarding to engagement, retention, and offboarding. If you are an impact-driven leader who has built and scaled People functions in fast-moving organizations, this is an opportunity to shape the institutional backbone of a growing field.

What You'll Do

Develop and own the full people operations roadmap, defining priorities and execution plans across recruitment, onboarding, compliance, compensation, and culture initiatives.

Own and optimize the HRIS and supporting systems, ensuring payroll coordination, employee lifecycle management, and data integrity across all entities and geographies.

Lead end-to-end talent acquisition, including pipeline strategy, sourcing, employer brand development, candidate experience design, interview structures, and offer management in partnership with hiring managers.

Analyze recruitment metrics and market trends to inform hiring strategies, identify bottlenecks, and continuously improve time-to-fill and quality-of-hire.

Build and sustain performance management practices, including quarterly reviews, professional development frameworks, and a no-surprises approach to managing underperformance.

Design and administer compensation, leveling, and benefits strategies, conducting benchmarking and ensuring competitive positioning across the US and other jurisdictions.

Own employment compliance for all US federal and state requirements, as well as other countries where FAR.AI employs staff, working closely with EOR providers as needed.

Manage immigration and workforce documentation processes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance across all entities and employee types.

Collaborate with department leads to scope roles tightly, translate business needs into people strategies, and support cross-functional initiatives that drive organizational alignment.

Support the design and delivery of employee engagement and culture programs, including events, recognition, and internal communications that reinforce FAR.AI's values and mission.

Partner with leadership to plan for growth scenarios, conducting workforce planning and capacity analysis to support strategic hiring and reskilling decisions.

Oversee learning and development initiatives, creating structures for continuous feedback, coaching, and career pathing for staff at all levels.

Champion data-driven decision-making in people operations, establishing key metrics and dashboards to track health, engagement, and retention.

Act as a key point of contact for employees at all levels, providing guidance, escalation handling, and consistent application of policies across the organization.

Represent FAR.AI in external people operations communities and networks, bringing back insights and best practices to continuously refine programs and processes.

Requirements

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship, as the role is fully remote and based within the US.

Must have extensive experience building and scaling people operations functions in fast-growth technology or research organizations.

Must be highly proficient in managing HRIS, ATS, payroll systems, and related people data platforms across multiple entities.

Must have deep expertise in employment law and compliance specific to US federal and state regulations, with the ability to extend into international jurisdictions as needed.

Must have hands-on experience with compensation benchmarking, benefits administration, and designing competitive total rewards packages.

Must have demonstrated ability to manage full-cycle recruiting, including sourcing, interview design, and offer negotiation in competitive talent markets.

Must be comfortable working with senior leadership, including C-suite executives, policymakers, and technical experts in a high-impact, mission-driven setting.

Must have strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex policies into clear, actionable guidance for employees and managers.

Must be proactive, organized, and able to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment while maintaining attention to detail and consistency.

Nice to Have

Experience working with AI research, safety, or policy organizations, or deep familiarity with the AI safety ecosystem and its operational challenges.

Experience supporting distributed, cross-geography teams and navigating employment regulations in multiple countries.

Familiarity with community programs, grants management, and event operations common to mission-driven research institutes.

Experience partnering with EOR providers and managing global workforce compliance outside the US.

Practical Notes

Hours: Full-time during standard US business hours.

Travel: None required; this is a fully remote position.

Visa: This role does not sponsor visas; candidates must already have authorization to work in the United States.

Deadlines: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.