Head of People
About The Position
About Goodfire Goodfire is a research company using interpretability to understand, learn from, and design AI systems. Our mission is to build the next generation of safe and powerful AI—not by scaling alone, but by understanding the intelligence we're building. Scaling has proven powerful, but today's approach is fundamentally limited: we can't meaningfully understand, debug, or shape what models learn. Every engineering discipline has been gated by fundamental science and AI is at that inflection point now. We're advancing the science of how AI systems actually work. Treating models as black boxes is an unnecessary handicap—we have access to the structures inside them, and understanding those structures lets us steer what models learn, make them safer and more useful, and extract the vast knowledge they contain. Our goal is to make AI that can be understood, debugged, and shaped like software. Goodfire is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a team of the world’s top interpretability researchers and engineers from organizations like OpenAI and DeepMind. We're backed by over $200M from B Capital, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, Eric Schmidt, and others. About the role At Goodfire, talent is our competitive advantage. We’re hiring a Head of People to help scale the highest-performing AI research organization in the world so that we can achieve our mission. You’ll lead the strategy behind how we hire, develop, and retain exceptional talent while building the systems, processes, and culture that help us tackle the biggest and most ambitious problems. We’re scaling fast, and we’re looking for someone who refuses to lower the hiring bar just to fill headcount objectives when the pressure is on. You find intensity exhilarating, move with urgency, and thrive when faced with challenges. You’re someone we can lean on to make exceptional judgment calls, and you go out of your way to make sure our people feel genuinely cared for and supported. You’ll be the secret weapon behind our ability to attract and build a world-class team, creating an organization that gives us a lasting competitive edge.
Requirements
- 8+ years in People/Talent roles, including experience building or scaling a People function at a high-growth startup
- Track record of hiring for technical/research roles under intense pressure without compromising quality
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and building processes from scratch
- Strong judgment on sensitive, high-stakes people situations
Responsibilities
- Own Goodfire’s hiring strategy and execution across all functions
- Own compensation, leveling, and equity philosophy to ensure we attract and retain world-class talent
- Own the end-to-end employee experience, from offer through onboarding, development, performance, and offboarding
- Shape and reinforce a high-performance, mission-driven culture as the company scales while preserving trust, intensity, and high standards
- Build scalable People systems, processes, and infrastructure that enable rapid growth
- Partner closely with founders and leaders on organizational design, workforce planning, succession planning, and leadership development
- Lead employee relations and navigate sensitive, high-stakes people situations with sound judgment, discretion, and empathy
- Hire, develop, and lead a high-performing People team
Benefits
- market competitive salary
- equity
- competitive benefits
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
