Vice President of People

What is Coast

Coast is re-imagining the trillion-dollar U.S. B2B card payments infrastructure, with a focus on the country's 500,000 commercial fleets, 40 million commercial vehicles, and many millions of commercial drivers. Our customers include plumbing and HVAC contractors, trucking companies, and last-mile delivery businesses. The incumbent technologies that cater to these customers are decades old, and businesses with fleets increasingly demand modern digital experiences and transparent financial services products. Coast's mission is to deliver this at scale, beginning with the Coast Fleet and Fuel Card, built on Coast's spend management platform.

Coast has invested heavily in building a culture of humble, collaborative, talented, and hardworking people, across every function and level of seniority, who believe in the company's mission and enjoy working with one another. That culture has been the foundation of Coast's success so far - see our Glassdoor - and protecting it through the next stage of growth, as Coast adds new functions and new leaders, is a central part of this role.

About the Role

Coast hired its first people operations lead two years ago to stand up the basics: benefits, onboarding, policies, and the day-to-day experience of the Coast offices. Since then, Coast has grown its total funding to $135 million and its team to about 130 people across two offices: our New York City headquarters, home to roughly two thirds of the team, and our sales and operations office in Utah. The People function now needs to grow with the company.

You'll be Coast's first VP, People, the company's senior people leader, building and running the function end to end: People Operations, Total Rewards, Talent (recruiting, performance, and career development), and Culture. You'll partner directly with the executive team on org design, leadership development, and the people decisions that shape how Coast scales, while making sure the fundamentals (comp, performance, compliance, onboarding) are run well.

This is a build role: you'll inherit a foundation and turn it into a people strategy that keeps pace with the business. You'll report to Stephen Rosen, Coast's SVP of Operations, and lead a team that includes our Head of Talent, People Ops Lead and a growing people team.

What You'll Do

Build and lead the People function

• Take People Operations from a foundational function to a full People org: design the team, the roadmap, and the systems (HRIS, payroll, benefits administration) that scale with headcount.
• Own the People budget and the tooling decisions that come with it.
• Hire, develop, and lead the People team as it grows.

Partner with the executive team and managers

• Work with leadership and the CEO on organizational design, headcount planning, and the People implications of major business decisions.
• Coach managers through hiring, performance, promotions, and difficult conversations, and build the manager enablement program Coast doesn't have yet.
• Be the person leaders and teammates trust with hard people problems.

Own recruiting, performance, and career development

• Design and run the performance review and promotion cycles, and the career frameworks that make "what good looks like" clear at every level.
• Build the systems that catch performance and engagement issues early, while there is still time to address them.
• Lead recruiting through our Head of Talent, owning hiring plans, process, and the candidate experience for both offices, including sales and operations hiring in Utah.
• Partner with hiring managers to keep the hiring bar high as Coast grows.

Drive compensation, equity, and benefits strategy

• Design Coast's compensation philosophy and pay bands, and partner with Finance on the equity strategy that keeps offers competitive.
• Source and manage the benefits, perks, and platforms that make Coast a place people want to build their careers.
• Run comp cycles with the rigor and fairness a growing company needs.
• Partner with Finance, Sales, and Revenue Operations leadership on sales compensation plans for account executives, BDRs, and other commissioned roles.

Shape culture, engagement, and employee experience

• Keep Coast's culture intact as headcount grows past the size where culture happens by accident.
• Lead team events, office experience, and company traditions in both New York and Utah, so the Utah team has the same access to leadership, information, and career paths as the headquarters team.
• Run engagement surveys and other feedback loops, and turn what you hear into action.

Own compliance and risk

• Make sure Coast's policies, records, and practices comply with employment law in New York, Utah, and anywhere else Coast employs people.
• Build the HR infrastructure (records, policies, and processes) that holds up under scrutiny as Coast scales and potentially expands into new states or geographies.
• Own worker classification and wage-and-hour compliance, including timekeeping and overtime for salaried non-exempt roles such as customer service representatives and BDRs, and written commission agreements for commissioned sales roles.

What Success Looks Like

By 90 days

• You've met every person at Coast, including time on the ground with the Utah team, and you have a clear read on where the People function is strong and where it's thin.
• Your review of the current comp, benefits, and performance processes has produced a prioritized plan to fix what's broken.
• Managers know who you are and have brought you at least one real problem.
• You and leadership have agreed on the three People priorities that matter most this year.

By 6 months

• Coast has a documented compensation philosophy and pay bands, and hiring managers use them.
• At least one performance review cycle has run under your design, and managers and employees trust the process.
• The People team, including recruiting, has clear ownership of onboarding, benefits, hiring, and employee support, and a plan for the roles it needs next.
• Coast's HR policies and records are compliant and audit-ready across every state and location Coast operates in.

By 12 months

• Coast's people strategy is a direct input to the company's growth and headcount plans.
• Engagement and retention are measurably better, and you can point to what you changed.
• The People function runs on infrastructure and playbooks, and the team handles day-to-day issues without you in the room.
• Leaders in both New York and Utah bring the People team into major decisions early.

Requirements

• 10+ years in People/HR roles, including experience leading a People function at a high-growth startup that has successfully scaled beyond Coast's current stage of maturity.
• Track record designing compensation philosophy, pay bands, and equity strategy, and running comp cycles that scale with headcount.
• Experience coaching managers through performance, promotion, and org design decisions, and building manager enablement programs where none existed.
• Recruiting leadership: you've managed a recruiting team and built hiring processes that hold the bar as hiring volume grows.
• Deep knowledge of employment law and HR compliance across multiple U.S. states, including New York.
• Experience supporting a multi-site workforce that includes non-exempt and commissioned sales and operations teams based outside headquarters, including sales compensation design.
• Comfortable operating at the executive table: strong judgment, discretion, and the ability to influence without formal authority.
• Strong analytical instincts: comfortable working in HRIS and comp data and turning it into a recommendation.
• High ownership mindset: when a process doesn't exist yet, you build it.
• Experience in fintech, payments, or B2B SaaS preferred.
• New York City based; able to be in-office 3–4 days per week and to travel to our Utah office at least once a quarter.

Compensation and Benefits

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of our total compensation package that also includes benefits and equity. Pay decisions are based on a number of factors, including scope and qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to other Coast employees. We expect the majority of candidates who are offered roles at Coast to fall within the range based on these factors.

Salary range: $250,000 – $280,000

Equity Grant: Meaningful potential upside given Coast's stage and growth

Benefits Overview:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Flexible paid time off (vacation, personal well-being, paid holidays)
• Tools to help manage your financial wellness, including webinars, access to an equity tax advisory service, and company-sponsored 401(k)
• Paid parental leave
• $400 accessories allowance (a keyboard, mouse, headphones, etc.)
• Education stipend
• Free lunch every Friday

Coast is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are building a diverse and inclusive environment, so we encourage people of all backgrounds to apply. We're an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, disability, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.Check out a podcast interview on Fintech Layer Cake with Coast Founder Daniel Simon