Head of People

Remote; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 240,000 - 340,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Health benefits

401K

Stock options

Generous paid holidays

Unlimited vacation

Parental leave

Job summary

VRChat seeks a Head of People to lead a lean, high-impact People function, partnering with the CEO and leaders to drive performance, development, and culture. You will coach managers, shape people programs, and manage globally distributed teams across remote environments.

The role emphasizes strategic judgment with hands-on delivery, focusing on fairness, privacy, and practical processes that support growth and inclusivity. A strong, adaptable leader with a track record in tech is ideal.

Qualifications

• Led lean People functions or broad People remit in a growing tech company
• Built and executed people programs with measurable impact
• Guided People functions through inflection points such as performance changes or culture initiatives
• Delivers rapid v1 solutions and iterates quickly with stakeholders
• Automated or applied AI to People workflows with privacy considerations
• Communicates People insights and trade-offs clearly to senior leadership
• Managed globally distributed, fully remote teams across multiple employment models
• Empathetic, decisive leadership; comfortable with ambiguity and pragmatic decisions
• Aligned with bold, collaborative and outcome-focused ways of working

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders to strengthen leadership alignment, decision rights, and accountability
• Translate People priorities into actionable deliverables with clear owners and milestones
• Lead and grow the People team with priorities, support, and tools
• Build trust as a People partner for employees and managers, with reliable core operations
• Run performance calibration and manager accountability processes; support fair decisions
• Coach managers through feedback, ER issues, and organizational changes
• Use engagement and performance insights to surface risks and capability gaps
• Lead leveling and compensation practices in collaboration with Finance and executives
• Incorporate automation/AI where it meaningfully improves People operations
• Partner with recruiting on workforce planning, onboarding, and candidate experience
• Sustain an inclusive, remote-first culture across a global workforce

Skills

People leadership

Performance practices

Coaching managers

Employee relations

People operations

Automation/AI in People

Remote/global teams

Communication to leadership

Change management

Job description

Join the VRChat Team

VRChat offers a first-of-its-kind, game-changing platform that provides an endless collection of social VR experiences and gives the power of creation to its robust community. With over 250,000 worlds and growing, VRChat’s vision is to allow users to bring their imaginations to life and help shape the metaverse anywhere in the world on any device. VRChat has raised $100M to date with the support of investors, Makers Fund, Anthos Capital and HTC.

We have a great team which includes people from: Netflix, Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, Google, Amazon, Unity, Spotify, Discord, Uber, eBay, Robinhood, Twitch, Zynga and TikTok. Come and join the mission!

Job Overview

Help VRChat build and sustain a small, exceptionally strong team. You'll lead a focused People function and work directly with leaders and managers to turn clear expectations into effective performance, development, and accountability practices. This is a hands‑on leadership role: you'll build on existing infrastructure and partner closely with the recruiting lead.

We’re looking for a builder who combines strategic judgment with practical delivery, moves comfortably between strategy and hands‑on work, and builds only the process the business needs. If you’re energized by leading high-impact environments and care deeply about building inclusive, community‑aligned cultures, this role was built for you.

Job & Team Impact

As Head of People, you’ll shape how VRChat attracts, develops, and retains the talent that makes our mission possible. You’ll be a trusted partner to the CEO and business leaders, a coach to managers, and a champion for the people and culture that make VRChat distinct.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders to strengthen leadership alignment, decision‑making, and accountability. Challenge constructively, clarify decision rights, and move decisively once alignment is reached

• Translate People priorities into practical deliverables with clear owners, milestones, and proactive communication of risks and trade‑offs

• Lead and develop the People team with clear priorities, support, and tools. Model calm, respectful leadership under pressure and handle sensitive matters with discretion, impartiality, and evidence‑based judgment

• Build trust in People as an approachable, reliable partner to employees and managers, with dependable core operations and onboarding

• Run a practical performance‑calibration and manager‑accountability process that helps leaders recognize strong performance, identify gaps, support development, and address persistent underperformance promptly and fairly. Leaders own performance decisions; People equips, coaches, and challenges them

• Coach managers through difficult feedback, employee relations issues, and organizational changes, balancing clear business expectations with fairness, sound judgment, and employee dignity

• Use engagement, attrition, and performance insights to surface emerging organizational risks and capability gaps proactively, with practical recommendations and clear decisions for leadership

• Lead the development and operation of leveling and compensation practices, including equity philosophy and communication to candidates and employees, in partnership with executive leadership and Finance

• Use automation and AI where they demonstrably improve People operations, reduce manual work, or improve employee experience, with appropriate safeguards for sensitive employee data and human judgment

• Partner closely with the recruiting lead on workforce planning, quality of hire, leveling, and candidate experience. Own the ongoing onboarding and employee lifecycle, using recruiting‑to‑ramp feedback to improve handoffs

• Sustain and evolve VRChat's inclusive, remote‑first culture across a globally distributed and diverse workforce

What Success Looks Like in Your First Year

• Clearer expectations, consistent performance calibration, and managers better equipped to give feedback and address issues.

• Strengthen talent density through growth and support. Managers consistently recognize and develop exceptional performers, identify performance gaps early, and provide clear expectations, actionable feedback, and meaningful support to help people improve with fair, timely decisions when progress falls short.

• Reliable onboarding and core People operations, with clear owners, milestones, and early communication of risks.

• A trusted, approachable People function that improves employee and manager experience with minimal unnecessary process.

• Stronger leadership alignment and timely identification of organizational risks and capability gaps.

Experience, Skills & Qualifications

• Demonstrated success leading a lean People function or a comparably broad People remit at a growing technology company, with direct ownership of performance practices, manager coaching, employee relations, and People operations

• Demonstrated track record of building and executing people programs with measurable impact

• Has guided a People function through meaningful inflection points, whether that's evolving how performance works, supporting the team through organizational change, investing in culture, or scaling through growth

• Fast and iterative. Gets a v1 in front of stakeholders quickly and improves from there

• Practical experience improving People workflows through automation or AI, with evidence of impact and sound judgment about privacy and human oversight

• Able to communicate People insights, trade‑offs, and recommendations clearly to senior leadership and turn discussion into decisions and action

• Experience managing globally distributed, fully remote teams across multiple employment models

• Empathetic and decisive; comfortable operating in ambiguity and making pragmatic calls with imperfect information

• Aligned with how we work: bold enough to experiment, willing to engage in healthy debate and then commit fully, collaborative by default, and motivated by outcomes

Bonus Points

• Background in tech, gaming, social platforms, or community‑driven products; bonus if you understand that the product IS the community

• Has worked at a company where the product is also a space the workforce inhabits (gaming, social platforms, creator tools) and understands the specific HR dynamics that come with that

• Experience presenting People insights and recommendations to a board

• A genuine track record of fostering belonging across a diverse, global workforce

• You've spent time in VRChat, or you're curious about social VR and what it means for how people connect

Benefits

• Work from anywhere! VRChat is a 100% remote company offering flexible working hours in combination with core hours supporting real‑time collaboration

• Health Benefits

• 401K for US & Group RRSP for Canadian Employees

• Stock Options

• Generous paid holiday schedule

• Unlimited/flexible vacation time

• Paid parental leave benefits