Head of People, North America

Magma Math•New York, NY

15h•$175,000 - $225,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Magma Math is a rapidly growing edtech company focused on transforming math education using AI. The platform converts handwritten solutions into digital insights, enabling teachers to concentrate on creativity and deeper learning while providing real-time visibility into student progress. This approach aims to create more inclusive, engaging, and effective math classrooms. The company is addressing the global challenge of math underperformance, with a significant opportunity to improve outcomes at scale. Magma Math is already widely adopted in schools and is expanding across the U.S. and Europe, seeking an ambitious team to support its mission. This role is for a Head of People in North America who can adapt to a fast-paced startup environment and manage multiple responsibilities. The individual will be responsible for building and overseeing the people function in North America, ensuring the smooth and compliant operation of a growing team, and driving the company's culture during its scaling phase. This is a foundational, hands-on position, being the first dedicated People hire in the U.S. The role encompasses the entire employee lifecycle, including hiring, onboarding, professional growth, and daily culture. Key areas of responsibility include culture building, onboarding/offboarding, employee relations, HR policy development, employment law compliance, benefits administration, and HR systems management. As a European-rooted company expanding rapidly in North America with a NYC hub and remote employees nationwide, this role is crucial for connecting these diverse workforces. The ideal candidate will embrace ownership, thrive in ambiguity, and prefer building foundational processes and culture from the ground up.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in HR, with significant experience in both recruiting and generalist functions.
Demonstrated experience shaping culture and engagement in a scaling company, including defining the employee experience.
Comfort operating with limited structure and building processes from the ground up.
Strong working knowledge of employment law and HR compliance fundamentals.
Experience working with a PEO.
Experience owning or administering an HRIS (e.g., HiBob, Rippling, Gusto, BambooHR).
Demonstrated experience managing multi-state employment compliance (wage/hour, leave laws, classification) in a startup or lean HR environment.
Excellent judgment and discretion in handling sensitive employee matters.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
A bias toward action and comfort with ambiguity, typical of early-stage startup environments.

Responsibilities

Partner with leadership to define, embed, and protect company culture and values as the US team grows.
Own the full employee experience, from onboarding to everyday rituals, ensuring employees feel connected, supported, and set up for success.
Design and implement engagement initiatives, feedback loops, and surveys, and translate learnings into actionable steps.
Coach managers to build strong, healthy, high-trust teams through effective people practices.
Foster connection across a distributed US team, ensuring remote employees feel as integrated into the culture as those in the NYC hub.
Bridge European and US cultures to unite the US team under one company and shared mission.
Manage onboarding and offboarding processes for all US employees, including administration, tech/systems setup, benefits enrollment, and cross-team coordination.
Serve as a primary contact for employee inquiries regarding policies, benefits, and general HR matters.
Drive initiatives to build a strong culture across the North American team, with a focus on remote culture development.
Support and manage employee relations, including investigations, conflict resolution, and coaching managers on people-related issues.
Assist in planning and executing HR programs such as engagement initiatives, performance review cycles, and policy updates.
Contribute to building and maintaining a strong employer brand across various platforms.
Manage the day-to-day relationship with the PEO, including escalations, payroll and benefits administration, and compliance updates.
Own and maintain the HRIS (HiBob), ensuring data accuracy, workflow efficiency, and effective reporting.
Maintain HR records and ensure compliance with employment laws and company policies, including the employee handbook.
Partner with business leaders to develop and enhance HR infrastructure, including policies, processes, and systems.
Collaborate with leadership on ad hoc People team projects.
Manage full-cycle recruiting for assigned roles, from intake calls to offer management.
Maintain relationships with external agencies and build a candidate pipeline through proactive sourcing.
Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements and establish effective, unbiased interview processes.