Head of People Strategy & Ops

Front Door Defense; New York (NY); On-site; USD 275,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Cape is seeking a Head of People to scale the organization from 100 to 300+ employees while preserving culture. Location preferences include New York, NY, with DC travel. You will own recruiting and HR strategy, build the team, and design programs that attract top talent and maintain engagement.

You will report to the founder/CEO and join the leadership team to shape company-wide decisions, aiming to optimize performance and growth across the People function.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive People experience, including leadership in Recruiting.
• Experience building People processes and teams in a high-growth startup.
• Strong capabilities across talent acquisition, compensation, performance management and daily operations.

Responsibilities

• Hire: build a recruiting engine and optimize capacity, tooling, and partnerships.
• Retain: elevate employee experience with total rewards and career progression.
• Grow People: formalize career paths and succession planning for 300+ staff.
• Scale the team: professionalize management and establish clear leadership paths.

Skills

People leadership

Recruiting

Talent acquisition

Compensation

Performance management

Employee relations

Executive collaboration

Job description

Head of People

Scale Cape's People organization from 100 to 300+ employees while preserving culture

Location: New York, New York, Washington, District of Columbia

Compensation: $275,000 - 350,000 USD / year

About The Role

Cape's Head Of People

Cape's Head Of People owns the talent strategy and human engine behind our growth. Our team is technical, creative, and relentless. Your job is to guide us through one of a company's toughest inflection points: scaling from 100 to 300+ people without diluting talent or slowing execution.

You will immediately take ownership of our People org—spanning Recruiting and HR—and build out the team, starting with hiring a Head Of Recruiting. You will own the design and execution of the department's roadmap, ensuring that the team builds best in class programs that makes Cape a top talent magnet.

The right leader naturally stays close to the floor—sourcing key talent, staying plugged into employee sentiment, and keeping feedback loops tight across every level of the company.

Reporting directly to founder and CEO John Doyle, you will sit on the leadership team and bring a key POV to company-level decisions.

Key Objectives

• Hire: Build a recruiting engine that attracts top talent. This includes optimizing capacity and tooling, elevating business partnerships, improving process efficiency, and nailing planning.

• Retain: Elevate the employee experience to achieve above industry retention, viral referrals, and continuous engagement. This includes making clear investments in total rewards, people systems, and career progression.

• Grow People: Plan and execute our transition from a team of 100 Swiss Army Knives defined by Herculean individual efforts to a company of 300+. This includes refining organization structure, formalizing career advancement, and retooling performance reviews and succession planning.

• Scale the Team: Professionalize our approach to management to maintain Cape's culture, execute at scale, and develop extraordinary talent. This includes automating where possible, establishing clear career paths and associated expectations, hiring top-notch leaders, and formalizing a management training program.

Location

• NY (preferred)

• DC (with frequent NY travel)

What You Bring

• 10+ years of progressive People experience, including 3-5 years in a leadership role, and direct participation in Recruiting.

• Significant experience in a high-growth startup where you built People processes and teams from the early stages.

• Strong command of core People functions: talent acquisition, compensation, performance management, and daily operations.

• Cross-functional depth: experience in working with executive and business unit leaders across the organization.

Salary Range

• $275,000-350,000