People Operations Lead

About the role

You are the foundational architect of our HR function, building it from the ground up alongside our founders. This role demands a high-touch partner who will own the end-to-end employee experience with discretion and judgment. You will be the trusted confidant employees turn to, ensuring every interaction protects both the individual and the company. This position requires operational rigor to own complex programs from start to finish without dropping critical details. You will shape culture by defining how we develop, retain, and assess world-class talent at scale. The role requires a proactive mindset to manage sensitive life events and transitions with empathy and compliance. You will act as the central hub for policy, process, and people data, translating complexity into clarity. Ultimately, you will ensure Reducto becomes an exceptional place to work through consistent execution and thoughtful enforcement.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Be the trusted person employees come to. Build genuine relationships across the company and keep a real pulse on what people are happy about, what they're not, and what we can do better, then act on it.
• Own employee relations. Guide people and managers through the moments that matter (leaves, life events, hard conversations, exits...) with discretion and judgment that protect both our people and the company.
• Run the employee lifecycle end to end. Own a seamless onboarding and offboarding experience and every change in between, including coordinating things like immigration processes with outside counsel.
• Support our managers. Coordinate enablement for our many first-time managers and partner with them on feedback, development, and retention so employees feel they're progressing and fairly assessed at Reducto.
• Make it easy to know how we work. Maintain clear, accessible documentation and policies so people can easily find what they need, and enforce and disseminate those policies consistently and fairly.
• Support our performance process. Help operationalize performance cycles and, over time, support calibration across managers, partnering closely on the design.
• Help keep the trains running. Manage payroll inputs and benefits administration and partner with vendors and look for ways to streamline workflows with modern tooling and AI.
• Own internal communications for people initiatives. Craft messages that explain changes, updates, and programs clearly and consistently to drive understanding and adoption.
• Partner with Finance and Recruiting to plan headcount, budget, and hiring strategies aligned with business priorities and employee needs.
• Measure and improve employee sentiment. Design feedback loops, surveys, and listening posts and translate insights into concrete actions and policies.
• Maintain compliance and risk management for people programs. Ensure all employment practices adhere to legal standards and company values in every jurisdiction where we operate.
• Drive continuous improvement across all HR operations. Identify bottlenecks, automate manual work where possible, and set up systems that scale without degrading the employee experience.

Requirements

• Have employee relations experience. You've handled sensitive, high-stakes people situations correctly before.
• Have High EQ and warmth. People naturally feel comfortable coming to you; you build trust quickly and at every level.
• Have Operational rigor. You can take a program: onboarding, immigration, a leave process, and run it cleanly from beginning to end without dropping details. You like building from scratch.
• Handle confidential information thoughtfully and know what to share, with whom, and when.
• Comfortable enforcing and disseminating policy. You can operate, communicate, and uphold policies and programs.
• Have 5+ years of People Operations / HR experience, ideally including some exposure to first-time-manager support and programs for managers.
• Be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role.
• Be located in the San Francisco Bay Area or be willing to relocate to the San Francisco Office.
• Demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Have a proven track record of collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders in fast-paced environments.

Nice to have

• Experience designing performance cycles and facilitating calibration meetings.
• Compensation and leveling knowledge.
• HR systems / HRIS implementation experience.
• Familiarity with immigration processes (H-1B, green cards, TN visas)
• Learning & development instincts.
• Experience scaling a startup through rapid growth, and comfort using AI tools to streamline HR workflows.

Practical notes

• This is an in-person role based in our San Francisco office.
• Full-time commitment is required.
• Please apply only if that excites you.