Director of People Operations

Allocate•Palo Alto, CA

22d•$175,000 - $215,000•Onsite

About The Position

Allocate is excited to hire a Director of People Operations & Talent to build and lead the next chapter of our people strategy. This role is ideal for a proactive, resourceful, and high performance people leader who can operate independently, anticipate needs, and design a scalable HR foundation for a fast-growing, high-performance organization. As Allocate’s Director of People Operations, you will be the architect and operator behind our full employee experience—from talent acquisition and onboarding to performance, development, and engagement. You’ll partner closely with our executive team and fractional people operations partners to build the systems, programs, and cultural infrastructure that enable every employee to thrive. This is a hands-on, high-impact leadership role where you will balance strategic thinking with operational excellence to shape how we work and grow together.

Requirements

7+ years of People/HR experience in high-growth tech, finance, or fintech environments
Experience building or scaling a People function from early to growth stage
Expertise across core HR areas: talent, performance, compensation, benefits, compliance, and employee relations
Strong command of HRIS, ATS, and people analytics tools with specific experience owning PEO transitions (Rippling, Justworks, etc.)
Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills
A people-first, high-judgment approach to decision-making
A builder’s mindset—you enjoy creating clarity, structure, and systems in fast-moving environments

Nice To Haves

SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR certifications

Responsibilities

Building and leading our People function: Own daily HR operations, establish foundational systems, and partner with leadership to operationalize our people strategy.
Tactical Execution and Strategic Thinker: As the only in-house HR person, you must be able to balance time between tactical execution of day to day HR Operations and also be a strategic thinker and implement overarching Company HR strategy.
Partnering with leaders: Help shape organizational design, anticipate hiring needs, and support managers in building healthy, high-performing teams.
Designing the full employee experience: Create onboarding programs, define clear expectations, and build programs that support employees from pre-hire to offboarding.
Performance management & engagement: Oversee and manage, talent reviews (including 9-box), feedback processes, and engagement programs informed by employee insights.
Compensation, leveling & benefits: Review titles and pay practices, build a leveling framework, and lead compensation/equity benchmarking. Manage benefits, vendors, and evaluate HRIS/PEO solutions (including a potential transition from TriNet).
HR compliance, policies & employee relations: Own handbook updates, manager guidelines, investigations, multi-state compliance, and sensitive employee relations issues.
Standing up scalable systems & analytics: Implement HR tools, documentation, dashboards, and reporting (headcount, attrition, recruiting metrics, compensation, etc.). Implement new HRIS to move off current system. Stand up and implement PEO for international hires.
Driving hiring, recruiting operations, and workforce planning: Partner with external resources to build structured hiring processes, job templates, compensation benchmarks, and a consistent candidate experience. Support managers through each step of the hiring lifecycle.