People Programs Lead
About AfterQuery
AfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development. We serve every frontier AI lab with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. In doing so, we can make expertise that once took a lifetime to build available to anyone who needs it. Our customers are the ones building the foundation models themselves and our work sits directly in the loop of how those systems improve.
About the Role
This is our first dedicated People Programs hire, reporting to the Head of Business Operations & People. You will own the systems that turn AfterQuery from a fast-growing team into a durable institution. Join to help build comp philosophy and bands, leveling and career pathways, performance management, learning & development, and retention. You will partner directly with the founders and functional leaders to design programs that fit a company supporting a lean, talent-dense team and a broader expert workforce, both held to a high quality bar.
What you'll do
Design AfterQuery’s total compensation strategy — philosophy, bands, leveling, refresh cadence, and equity framework — and refresh it annually against benchmarks and market signals.
Build the career pathways and leveling rubric that operators see, in writing, what excellence at the next level looks like and how to get there.
Stand up a performance management cycle that is fast, written, and useful to calibrate across the company without becoming a tax.
Design learning & development programs for a high-agency, early-career workforce — onboarding, manager training, technical depth, and feedback culture.
Own retention as a measurable outcome: define the leading indicators, build the sensing systems, and run programs that move the metric.
Partner with leadership and finance on org design, headcount planning, and comp/burn tradeoffs that shape the next phase of our growth.
Treat People programs as products — instrument them, measure adoption and outcomes, and iterate.
Bring the same analytical rigor you would to a P&L.
Qualifications
7-10+ years of experience across a combination of top-tier strategy consulting, analytical or strategy & operations roles, and core People / HR programs work.
Time at companies known for strong People programs (e.g., Stripe, Block/Square, Netflix, Airbnb, Bridgewater), or industry peers such as Mercor, Surge, or ScaleAI.
You have seen what excellent looks like and have built (not just managed) at least one program end-to-end.
Quantitative rigor that goes beyond comp benchmarks: you can model leveling decisions, attrition, comp band overlap, and equity refresh tradeoffs, and you reach for the spreadsheet before the slide.
A point of view. You can debate with founders about decisions, and bring the data and the company’s values to back it up.
Demonstrated ability to design programs from 0→ 1. Bonus points if you have done this through a strategy shift.
A genuine interest in the AfterQuery thesis: that the future of AI is bottlenecked on human data, and that the workforce generating that data is the most important product decision the company makes.
High agency, low ego, written-first. Comfortable in a 5-day in-office SF environment that prizes speed and direct feedback.
Why AfterQuery
You’ll build the People function for a fast growing company in the AI training-data category. A real seat at the strategy table — comp, leveling, and org design will shape product velocity and burn, and you’ll own that. A small, dense team with high standards. We hire people we’d be sad to lose, and we work hard to keep them.
Equal Opportunity
AfterQuery is an equal opportunity employer. We hire on merit and evaluate everyone against the same bar.
Compensation Range
$190K - $230K