Founding People Operations Leader

Quiet Capital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership in Mach9

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401k

Unlimited PTO and 8 paid holidays

Lunch and snacks

Cursor/ChatGPT/Claude credits

Monthly team offsites

Job summary

Mach9, a civil-engineering AI CAD software company, is seeking a Founding People Operations Lead to own the employee experience from offer to offboarding. With ~30 employees now and growth to ~75, you will shape onboarding, compensation, benefits, governance, and external vendor relationships, reporting to the Head of Business Operations and Finance.

You will build scalable People systems, partner with recruiting, and create a productive culture that moves quickly while maintaining strong

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience across People Operations, HR, talent, or related function in high-growth startups.
• Strong knowledge of onboarding, compensation, benefits, employee relations, performance management, immigration, and HR operations.
• Excellent judgment and practical approach to HR; know what is truly required vs. convention.
• Bias toward simple, useful systems over bureaucracy; avoid unnecessary policies.
• Ability to build trust, maintain confidentiality, and advise managers and executives.
• Interest in helping managers become better leaders and building aPeople function that strengthens the company.
• Owning the People function is not 9-to-5; you step in when the team or company needs it.

Responsibilities

• Build the People systems and infrastructure to scale from 30 to 75+ employees and beyond.
• Own compensation, offer letters, onboarding, benefits administration, governance, and external vendors.
• Collaborate with the Founding Recruiting Lead to create a magical candidate experience.
• Own employee experience programs, rituals, feedback, and internal communications.
• Partner with managers to develop leaders, address performance, and handle difficult conversations.
• Manage employee relations and HR issues with sound judgment and discretion.
• Own immigration strategy and execution with outside counsel and partners.
• Oversee offboarding, terminations, and the end-to-employment experience.

Skills

People Operations

HR operations

Onboarding

Compensation

Benefits administration

Immigration

Employee relations

Job description

Mach9, a civil-engineering AI CAD software company, is seeking a Founding People Operations Lead to own the employee experience from offer to offboarding. With ~30 employees now and growth to ~75, you will shape onboarding, compensation, benefits, governance, and external vendor relationships, reporting to the Head of Business Operations and Finance.

You will build scalable People systems, partner with recruiting, and create a productive culture that moves quickly while maintaining strong