Founding HR Generalist — Scale People Ops at a Startup

TerraFirma, Inc.; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

TerraFirma, Inc. is seeking its first dedicated HR hire to build the people function as we scale across engineering, field operations, and manufacturing. You’ll shape policies, processes, and practices to support rapid growth while handling immediate HR needs in a fast-moving environment.

You will partner with leadership to align workforce planning, compensation, and development with TerraFirma’s ambitious mission, ensuring legal compliance and a strong culture.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of HR experience, including employee relations, compliance, and HR program ownership.
• Experience building or shaping HR processes and infrastructure, not just using existing systems.
• Strong understanding of employment law and HR compliance in Texas.
• Excellent communication across diverse teams from engineering to field operations.

Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of TerraFirma's HR function and build processes around Rippling.
• Serve as primary contact for employee relations, benefits administration, and day-to-day HR support.
• Partner with leadership on workforce planning, org design, and compensation as the company scales.
• Ensure compliance with employment law, safety regulations, and labor requirements across all sites.
• Design and rollout performance management, career development, and employee engagement programs.
• Manage leaves, workers' comp, and field-operations HR needs unique to a hardware/construction environment.
• Support recruiting on offer structuring, compensation benchmarking, and candidate closures.
• Foster a people-first culture reflecting TerraFirma's mission from office to job site.

Skills

HR experience

Employee relations

Compliance

HR program ownership

Communication skills

Texas employment law

Startup HR

Tools

Rippling

Job description

TerraFirma, Inc. is seeking its first dedicated HR hire to build the people function as we scale across engineering, field operations, and manufacturing. You’ll shape policies, processes, and practices to support rapid growth while handling immediate HR needs in a fast-moving environment.

You will partner with leadership to align workforce planning, compensation, and development with TerraFirma’s ambitious mission, ensuring legal compliance and a strong culture.