Director - People Operations

Salary Range: 166000 to 200000 (Currency: USD) (Pay period: per-year-salary)

Responsibilities

Be the steady HR business partner in the moments that matter: coach managers through performance and team dynamics, navigate employee relations with care, and handle sensitive issues with consistency and sound judgment.
Partner with the CEO to translate AI strategy into cultural change: design an industry-best program to upskill our employee base and drive positive cultural change around AI adoption.
Contribute to workforce planning and hiring discipline: maintain headcount plans and scenarios, surface tradeoffs, and bring recommendations to the CEO & VP Finance for decisions.
Serve as an internal “emcee”, culture carrier, and steward of employee experience: partner with the CEO and leaders to shape and support key internal moments—bringing a clear, high-energy voice to energize and motivate our employee base. Build cultural programs that maintain our track record of strong employee retention.
Run high-trust people programs end-to-end: deliver people initiatives ranging from performance cycles, offsite get-togethers, to benefits renewals. Ensure the initiatives are clear, fair, and lightweight so managers and teams know what “good” looks like.
Ensure operational excellence and compliance: keep payroll, benefits/leave, and policies accurate and on time; own QA and escalation paths with vendors/legal.
Lead recruiting operations and employee experience through the People team: manage our in-house recruiter, holding yourself accountable for talent outcomes. When times are busy, step in as talent partner for select roles, owning full-cycle recruiting: from sourcing, to recruiter screens, offer issuance, to overall pipeline movement.
Own the SF in-office experience (2 days/week): run office operations and logistics so in-person time is consistent, productive, and genuinely worth showing up for.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role looks like balancing the business's needs with cultivating strong employee experience. You bring real discipline to workforce management, giving leadership & managers decision-ready options and keeping the company aligned on priorities and tradeoffs. You're on top of the latest workforce trends around AI adoption, and you're passionate about driving positive cultural change that benefits both employees and the company. And you help set an energizing, human company voice in key moments, building confidence that the organization is moving forward together.

TL;DR: We're a tight-knit, low-ego, mission-oriented team that cares not only about what impact we make, but how we make it. Your role is critical in supporting the company to reach its mission, while also creating the opportunity for our employees to have a career-defining experience working at Osmind.

In Your First 30/60/90 Days…

First 30 Days

Build relationships + context: align tightly with the CEO, Finance, and key managers on priorities, decision rights, and what “good” looks like. Build a relationship with your direct report, our in-house Recruiter.

Stabilize the essentials: ensure People Ops/compliance, employee relations coverage, recruiting cadence, and SF office ops are running smoothly with no surprises.

Start driving execution: take stock of current cross-functional People initiatives, prioritize them based on business need, and start driving plans forward.

First 60 Days

Make planning + hiring disciplined: stand up a reliable workforce planning rhythm with Finance and keep recruiting running smoothly.

Equip managers for consistency: establish lightweight manager enablement in the areas that matter most (expectations, feedback, and performance conversations).

Embed AI enablement into the org: move from “push” to sustained adoption via expectations & performance accountability, learning & development programs, and other positive cultural change.

First 90 Days

Demonstrate measurable traction: improve planning/hiring flow, increase manager confidence, and show early wins in people-side AI enablement.

Own the People operating cadence: durable rhythms and a practical roadmap that keeps the company aligned and moving.

What we're looking for

7+ years in People Ops / HRBP / HR roles, including meaningful ownership in a high-growth environment (startup, ideally Series A through C, or similarly fast-changing org).
Strong HR generalist foundation: performance management, employee relations, investigations, policy/handbook work, and manager coaching.
Based in San Francisco and able to go into the office 2+ days per week
Experience with hybrid & distributed teams, ideally in multiple geographic jurisdictions
Autonomous and reliable: you are self-guided in setting your priorities, proactively identifying issues, and putting them into action with a high-quality work product.
People person: you derive energy from supporting the team. You are highly collaborative and enjoy building relationships across the company.
Led change management for a major shift (AI/tool adoption, new operating model, re-org).
Excellent written and verbal communication: can draft crisp comms and toolkits, and can run high-quality all-hands / internal moments with a clear, high-energy voice.
Hands-on, scrappy operator: willing to own SF office management and day-to-day logistics for a 2-day/week in-person cadence.
Judgment + discretion: demonstrated ability to handle sensitive information, navigate conflict, and build trust with both employees and executives.
Values alignment: commitment to fairness, clarity, and a strong employee experience while balancing business constraints. And, you have a passion for our mission to serve mental health patients, providers, and researchers!
AI fluency: you've experimented with AI tools to automate your workflows and approach them with curiosity.
Bonus points
Manager-of-one experience (or equivalent): experience leading and developing a direct report and operating through others to deliver outcomes.
Hybrid and distributed workplace experience: You’ve worked in environments with both physical offices and remote teams; you’ve even worked with teams in multiple geographic jurisdictions.
Founder and/or CEO right-hand experience in a fast-changing startup environment.
People analytics fluency: comfortable using metrics to spot risk and drive decisions (headcount, hiring funnel, attrition, ER themes, performance cycle health).