Head of People Operations

Role Overview

The Senior Vice President of People Operations will own the company’s people strategy, systems, and governance while providing leadership and alignment across benefits and operations, U.S. talent acquisition, and overseas talent acquisition. This role is responsible for creating structure, consistency, and scalability across all people-related functions without replacing the operational ownership of existing leaders.

The Senior Vice President of People Operations partners closely with executive leadership to ensure the company’s workforce is compliant, well-supported, and positioned for sustainable growth.

Core Responsibilities

People Strategy & Leadership

• Owns the overall people strategy aligned with company goals
• Provides leadership and direction across benefits and office operations, U.S. talent acquisition, and overseas talent acquisition
• Ensures clear ownership, accountability, and collaboration across people-related functions
• Acts as the senior escalation point for people-related issues, risk, and decision-making

Team Leadership & Alignment

• Directly manages and develops leaders across people operations and talent acquisition
• Aligns priorities and workflows between U.S. recruiting, overseas recruiting, and people operations
• Establishes clear roles, responsibilities, and success metrics across teams
• Supports leadership development and performance accountability for people leaders

Talent Acquisition Oversight (U.S. & Overseas)

• Oversees all talent acquisition strategy across domestic and international hiring
• Ensures recruiting efforts align with headcount plans, budgets, and growth priorities
• Partners with U.S. and overseas recruiting leaders to maintain hiring quality and consistency
• Establishes standardized hiring processes, interview frameworks, and decision criteria

HR Operations, Benefits & Compliance

• Oversees benefits administration, onboarding processes, and office operations at a strategic level
• Ensures compliance with applicable labor laws across U.S. and international jurisdictions
• Partners with legal, finance, and external vendors to manage HR risk and governance
• Maintains and evolves employee policies, handbooks, and internal documentation

Employee Relations, Performance & Governance

• Owns employee relations, investigations, and escalation management
• Advises leadership on performance issues, disciplinary actions, and terminations
• Establishes performance management frameworks, review cycles, and documentation standards
• Oversees compensation structure, job architecture, leveling, and promotion processes
• Ensures consistent and defensible people decisions across the organization

Global Workforce Governance

• Defines standards for contractor, EOR, and employee hiring models
• Oversees global workforce structure and compliance strategy
• Partners with overseas talent leadership to mitigate international hiring risk
• Ensures offshore hiring practices align with company policies and risk tolerance

Workforce Planning & Scaling

• Partners with executive leadership on workforce planning and organizational design
• Forecasts hiring needs and supports long-term headcount planning
• Evaluates workforce mix and hiring models as the company scales
• Ensures people systems and processes evolve with growth

Systems, Metrics & Continuous Improvement

• Owns HRIS, ATS, benefits, and people-related systems
• Establishes KPIs and reporting across HR and talent acquisition functions
• Ensures data accuracy, audit readiness, and system integrity
• Identifies operational gaps and drives continuous process improvement

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Clear ownership and alignment across all People Operations teams
• Consistent, compliant, and scalable people processes
• Reduced people-related risk and operational friction
• Strong partnership between leadership, People Ops, and Recruiting
• People systems that support growth without unnecessary complexity

Minimum Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in human resources, people operations, or talent leadership
• Experience leading both HR operations and talent acquisition functions
• Strong knowledge of U.S. labor law with exposure to international workforce models
• Proven ability to scale people processes in a growing organization
• Experience managing managers and senior individual contributors
• Practical, execution-focused leadership style