Director, People

About the role

Formation Bio is seeking a Director, People to join our dynamic team. Reporting to the SVP, Head of People, this role is critical to driving operational excellence, leading strategic people programs, and partnering with leaders to solve complex organizational challenges.

This is a high-impact role for someone who is comfortable thinking strategically, diving into the details, and operating with a high degree of autonomy. Our People Team operates as business-first partners, setting a high bar for talent, culture, and execution while embracing AI and technology to rethink how People Teams create value.

Responsibilities

• Drive AI-native operations across the People Team, identifying opportunities to leverage technology and fundamentally redesign workflows while maintaining the human elements of our work.
• Ensure operational excellence and compliance and continuously evolve our people processes as the business scales.
• Lead complex, cross-functional processes and partner with internal stakeholders including Legal, Finance, Tech Ops, and Quality Assurance to deliver business outcomes.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex people operations, benefits, and compensation matters.
• Manage external vendor relationships and consultant partnerships while continuously evaluating opportunities to improve quality, cost, and effectiveness.
• Elevate and own our performance, promotion, and compensation review programs to ensure quality, consistency, and scalability as we grow.
• Own our compensation strategy and execution for Formation's unique business model, including framework design, market positioning, and equity programs.
• Lead benefits strategy, vendor selection, and plan design, ensuring our total rewards package is competitive and supports our culture and business needs.
• Anticipate future people program needs based on business priorities and organizational growth.
• Serve as a strategic People partner for designated leaders and functions.
• Develop a deep understanding of the business and build trusted relationships with leaders to anticipate business needs, identify organizational risks, and develop solutions.
• Coach managers through complex people situations while balancing employee experience, business outcomes, and long-term organizational health.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in people operations, people business partnering, total rewards, and/or HR leadership roles.
• Proven track record leveraging AI and automation to improve people operations.
• Strong operational background. Ownership of people systems, benefits, compliance, and scalable people operations infrastructure.
• Experience designing and scaling people programs while balancing quality, consistency, and operational efficiency.
• Ability to make independent, complex decisions. Strong judgment, evaluation of tradeoffs with a company-wide perspective, and anticipation of long-term implications.
• Strong ownership mentality and high accountability. Proactive identification of opportunities and drive work to completion.
• People management experience. Development and elevation of individuals and teams, setting a high bar for performance, and caring deeply about career development.
• Strong cross-functional partnership skills. Building trusted relationships with leaders, internal teams, and external vendors.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, high-growth environments. Thriving in ambiguity and seamless shift between strategic thinking and hands-on execution.
• Compensation expertise is a plus. Designing compensation frameworks, conducting market analyses, and thinking strategically about equity and total rewards.
• Experience in biotech, pharma, or other technical or regulated industries is a plus but not required.