Head of People

About the role

We are hiring a Head of People to build the systems, team, and culture that will carry FAR.AI from 40 people to 75+ over the next 12 months, across multiple geographies and entities.

• Own and build the People function across the following areas:
  • People operations and infrastructure.
    • HRIS, payroll coordination, employee lifecycle (onboarding through offboarding), ATS, immigration, and the systems and policies that make day-to-day people operations smooth and consistent across geographies.
  • Talent acquisition.
    • Pipeline strategy, sourcing, employer brand, candidate experience, interview design, and offer process.
    • Partner with hiring managers to scope roles tightly and fill empty seats with top talent.
    • Analyze recruitment data and market trends to inform future hiring strategies.
  • Performance and management systems.
    • Build and maintain the practices that make managers effective, including quarterly performance reviews, professional development, and a no-surprises approach to underperformance.
  • Compensation and benefits.
    • Own compensation philosophy, leveling, benchmarking, and benefits administration across the US and other geographies, including EOR.
  • People compliance.
    • Own employment compliance across jurisdictions, including federal and state requirements in the US and other countries where FAR.AI employs staff.
  • Culture and employee experience.
    • Steward the practices, rituals, and feedback processes that keep FAR.AI a place where talented people do their best work.
    • Help us stay connected by coordinating quarterly team events, including offsites, team-building activities, and social gatherings.
• A People partner to the organization.
  • Resolve people ops inquiries and issues with empathy and efficiency.
  • Be a trusted advisor to the CEO, President, and COO on org design, compensation, leveling, succession, and sensitive personnel decisions.
• Team leadership.
  • Hire, develop, and manage the People team as it grows.
  • Model the management standard you expect of others.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive experience in HR or People, including at least 3 years leading a People team or a major sub-function.
• Proven results filling difficult seats with top talent in full-cycle recruiting, preferably with technical roles.
• Has employed innovative strategies for sourcing and building an employer brand.
• Demonstrated experience scaling a people function through significant headcount growth. The organization is doubling year-on-year.
• Hands-on experience owning or substantially building at least three of: HRIS implementation, performance management systems, compensation frameworks, hiring infrastructure, or international employment via EOR.
• Operator mindset and comfortable building out systems, processes, and teams.
• Biased toward simple solutions over heavy process.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and can independently drive the people function.
• Strong judgment on sensitive personnel matters, with a default toward direct, candid, and respectful communication.
• Natural relationship builder with strong interpersonal skills.
• The ability to build trust and collaborate effectively with candidates and internal stakeholders.
• Crafts thoughtful and effective messages that pitches FAR.AI’s mission and opportunities compellingly.

Nice-to-have Qualifications

• Experience in fast-paced environments. You've worked in startups, nimble nonprofits, or high-growth teams before and can adapt to change quickly.
• Technical acumen or familiarity with AI or related technical fields, allowing you to engage credibly with candidates and work effectively with technical staff and leadership.
• Direct experience employing staff internationally, including via EOR.
• Experience building or running a global compensation philosophy across countries.
• Experience building systems, processes, and culture in a hybrid or remote environment.
• Experience contributing to an impact-driven organization or passionate about AI safety.

Logistics

• You will be a full-time employee of FAR.AI, a 501(c)(3) research non-profit.
• Location: Berkeley, CA (onsite/hybrid) or Remote, based in the US.
• Hiring process: A phone screen, a hiring manager interview, a task test, in-depth interviews with the team, followed by reference checks.