About the position
As the Director of People Operations, you will be responsible for managing Varda's corporate culture, recruiting strategies, company growth, performance management, and keeping our team happy and healthy. You will build and lead people operations at Varda including Human Resources and Recruiting. You will oversee organization design and compensation including equity and cap table management to ensure our recruiting and employee retention initiatives are always ahead of the market. This is the ideal opportunity for someone who has scaled a People Operations and Human Resources organization and is eager to shape the people function in a fast-paced, data-driven, and creative environment. You and your team will coordinate Varda personnel to support all disciplines of the company including engineering, corporate operations, business development, and pharmaceutical scientists. This is a strong emphasis on cultivating and retaining internal talent. Your experience will drive the company growth beyond an early-stage startup and into an industry leader. This is a full-time, exempt position located in our El Segundo headquarters.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute a strategic people roadmap aligned with Varda's growth and focused on talent retention and internal mobility
- Coach and advise managers and leadership on organizational design, workforce planning, and strategies for retaining top talent through performance management and development initiatives
- Build, mentor, and manage a growing team of HR and talent professionals
- Continue to design and implement Varda's compensation philosophies, structures, and practices, including the management of employee compensation structures, with a strong understanding of cap tables and equity
- Design and drive transparent and effective performance management processes and outcomes that align with our culture, identify high-potential employees, and facilitate internal promotions
- Create a learning and development program to support our managers and teams
- Facilitate internal transfers, oversee and facilitate promotion opportunities, conduct exit interviews, and identify trends to support retention, career development and to minimize risk for the business
- Respond to employee inquiries, questions and complaints, and provide information, guidance and direction on employee relations issues, performance management, and other core HR functions
- Design and develop software tools and automations to link recruiting, HR, and finance
- Work with finance teams to ensure headcount planning and recruiting goals are in-line with company financial modeling and planning
- Lead job evaluation processes, salary survey strategy, pay budgeting, and equity analysis to maintain market competitiveness and internal equity
Requirements
- Minimum of 8+ years in HR, People Operations, or related fields, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management capacity
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field
- Prior experience scaling People functions at a high-growth (tech-focused) startup
- Tenure at a hardware tech company is a plus
- Strong understanding of cap tables and equity compensation structures, as well as broader compensation design and pay philosophy, with experience in aligning compensation with performance and retention goals
- Strong knowledge of employment laws, including wage and hour, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, and EEO regulations
- Experience in talent management at both manager and individual contributor levels, with a deep understanding of performance improvement planning, career development frameworks, and succession planning
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the organization
- Comfortable building (and leveraging) HRIS, ATS, and data analytics tools
- Strong analytical, mathematical, statistical, and conceptual skills; Excel expertise is required
- Exceptional analytical, problem solving, and organizational skills
- A proactive and empathetic communication style
- U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S. to conform with U.S Government space technology export regulations under ITAR
Nice-to-haves
- Tenure at a hardware tech company is a plus
Benefits
- Exciting team of professionals at the top of their field working by your side
- Equity in a fully funded space startup with potential for significant growth (interns excluded)
- 401(k) matching (interns excluded)
- Unlimited PTO (interns excluded)
- Health insurance, including Vision and Dental
- Lunch and snacks provided on site every day. Dinners provided twice a week.
- Maternity / Paternity leave (interns excluded)
