People Ops Lead

Rune; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity plan

Health benefits

Job summary

Rune is hiring a People Ops Lead to own recruiting, people operations, and people compliance. You will run full-cycle hiring across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, field operations, and commercial roles.

You will manage HRIS, payroll, benefits, onboarding, and performance practices sized for our stage, and oversee state-by-state compliance including visa processes. You’ll define screening criteria, own ATS operations, and build strong sourcing channels across functions.

Qualifications

• Experience filling engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, field technician, or energy-side roles.
• Experience at hardware/energy/manufacturing startup that grew to 150+ employees.
• Hands-on ownership of ATS including configuration, pipeline hygiene, and reporting (Polymer).
• Experience supporting immigration filings for technical staff.
• Working knowledge of multi-state employment compliance, including California-specific requirements.
• Ownership of HRIS, payroll, benefits, onboarding, and compensation benchmarking.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting across engineering, site operations, deployment, supply chain, manufacturing, compute sales, power and project finance, and corporate.
• Define screening and interview processes to ensure consistent evaluation criteria.
• Own recruiting operations across the ATS, pipeline reporting, interviewing, and weekly hiring reviews.
• Own the HRIS stack, payroll, and benefits, including open enrollment and migrations as we scale.
• Administer the equity program in partnership with Finance and outside counsel.
• Partner with function leads to develop onboarding plans and performance cycles.
• Own employment compliance in every state we operate: payroll tax, wage-and-hour, leave, postings, training.
• Manage immigration program with outside counsel.
• Maintain personnel records and access provisioning in line with SOC 2 controls.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

People operations

Compliance awareness

Immigration filings

Multi-state employment knowledge

Tools

Polymer ATS

Payroll systems

Job description

Every solar and wind power plant is a latent data center. Rune connects wasted power to the compute that needs it. Solar plants generate electricity the grid can't take: clipped by inverters, curtailed by operators, gone before it ever reaches a meter. Meanwhile, AI needs more power than new construction can deliver in time.

Rune deploys hardware, software, and financial solutions to put this power to work. We build modular micro data centers that install directly at solar sites, bypassing the traditional grid entirely and turning stranded power into compute. We're backed by Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Lowercarbon Capital.

The Role:

Rune is hiring a People Ops Lead to own recruiting, people operations, and people compliance.

You will run full-cycle hiring across all functions, including manufacturing, supply chain, field operations, engineering, and commercial roles. Our ideal candidate brings a clear point of view on how fast-growing startups attract and close exceptional, in-demand talent. You will own the people operations foundation: HRIS and payroll stack, benefits, onboarding, and performance practices sized for our stage. You will also own compliance state by state, along with managing visa and immigration processes for our team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own full-cycle recruiting across engineering, site operations, deployment, supply chain and manufacturing, compute sales, power and project finance, and corporate.


• Identify and build strong sourcing channels for each function - this may include outreach to trade schools, apprenticeship programs, contract manufacturers, utilities, EPCs, IPPs, OEMs, and adjacent sectors including traditional data centers, EV, aerospace, and semiconductor fab.


• Define the screening and interview process for each role we hire, to ensure a process where every candidate is evaluated against consistent criteria and each decision reflects a fair, well-rounded view of the candidate.


• Own recruiting operations across the ATS, pipeline reporting, interviewing, and a weekly hiring review.

People Operations

• Own the HRIS stack, payroll, and benefits, including open enrollment and any selection or migration as we outgrow our current setup.


• Administer the equity program in partnership with Finance and outside counsel - grants, refreshes, board approvals, and employee education.


• Partner with function leads to develop onboarding plans to get new hires integrated quickly


• Design and run performance and feedback cycles aligned with the stage of the company

People Compliance

• Own employment compliance in every state where we operate: entity and payroll tax registration, wage-and-hour rules for non-exempt field staff, state requirements, overtime and travel-time treatment, leave administration, and required postings and training.


• Own the immigration program in partnership with outside counsel.


• Administer workers' compensation coverage and claims in partnership with our broker.


• Maintain personnel records, I-9s, training and certification records, and access provisioning and deprovisioning in a way that satisfies our SOC 2 controls

Ideal Qualifications:

• You have personally filled engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, field technician, and/or energy-side roles.


• Experience at a hardware, energy, or manufacturing startup that scaled from roughly a small team to 150+ employees.


• Hands-on ownership of an ATS, including configuration, pipeline hygiene, and reporting. We use Polymer; direct experience with it is a plus.


• Experience supporting immigration filings for technical staff.


• Working command of multi-state employment compliance, including wage-and-hour rules for non-exempt workers and California-specific requirements.


• Direct experience owning HRIS and payroll administration, benefits, and compensation benchmarking.

What We Offer: Competitive base and strategic ownership in what we believe will be one of the largest infrastructure build-outs of the decade.

Rune is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.