Head of HR

Launch Potato

5d•$170,000 - $190,000•Remote

About The Position

Launch Potato is hiring a Head of HR to own and improve its performance management, total rewards, and HR compliance functions. The company has about 200 people and is profitable, growing, remote-first, and distributed across 18 countries. This role inherits an existing performance management system—including a levels framework, rating scale, and calibration process—and is responsible for deciding what to retain or change and helping the organization adopt it. The position has executive reach, presents work to the C-suite, and reports within the Talent function. It is a player-coach role: the Head of HR leads a team while also personally delivering work. The role owns the mid-year and annual performance cycles from design through retrospectives; compensation bands, benchmarking, benefits renewals, and the annual compensation cycle; and compliance work including multi-state registration, I-9, handbook, worker classification, and postings. It also enables managers through preparation, calibration, playbooks, and self-service resources, and builds or improves tools and automation that reduce administrative time while strengthening performance conversations. The role manages an HR Business Partner and a Total Rewards and People Analytics lead, establishing their decision-making authority and supporting their growth. Success in the first year includes shipping the annual cycle on the role holder’s timeline, calibrating managers before the cycle, improving the quality of check-in conversations, closing and maintaining the compliance backlog, reducing the time managers spend on the cycle, and increasing the decision authority of the two direct reports. Base salary is $170,000–$190,000, plus an annual bonus paid as a flat amount rather than as a percentage of base.

Requirements

Have owned a full performance cycle end to end more than once at an organization with at least 150 people, including design, timeline, manager preparation, calibration, rollout, and retrospective.
Have owned compensation and benefits, including band design, benchmarking methodology, benefits renewals, and the annual compensation cycle, and be able to defend a compensation decision to a CFO.
Have ongoing responsibility for HR compliance, including multi-state registration, I-9, handbook, worker classification, and postings, and have inherited and cleared a compliance backlog.
Have built a people system that was adopted and remained recognizable two cycles later.
Have automated or rebuilt a people process so it ran faster, maintained or improved quality, and was adopted by the people expected to use it.
Have experience taking a company of approximately this size to materially greater headcount or revenue more than once, with understanding of what breaks during the next stage of growth.
Have clear examples of coaching, mentoring, and growing a team to produce extraordinary outcomes.
Be able to lead a team and personally deliver work in a player-coach role.

Nice To Haves

Have informed opinions about what performance management gets wrong and specific examples of changes made.
Be able to distinguish a process problem from a manager-capability problem and address the appropriate one.
Be willing to raise uncomfortable issues in calibration discussions.

Responsibilities

Own the mid-year and annual performance management cycles end to end, including design, timelines, communication, execution, and retrospectives.
Decide what the performance cycle needs to accomplish, what to retain or change, and when changes are warranted.
Design compensation bands and the benchmarking methodology behind them.
Own benefits renewals, their underlying economics, and the annual compensation cycle while keeping leveling and pay connected.
Manage HR compliance, including multi-state registration, I-9, handbook, worker classification, postings, and the related backlog and escalation and coverage protocols.
Prepare managers for performance conversations and facilitate calibration, including addressing inconsistent application of rating standards.
Create manager playbooks and self-service resources and provide ongoing support to front-line managers.
Identify and automate or rebuild people processes, developing tools that managers will use and that reduce time without compromising quality.
Lead and develop an HR Business Partner and a Total Rewards and People Analytics lead, setting their decision rights and helping them grow.
Personally deliver work while leading the HR team.