Vice President, People & Talent Strategy & Ops

Front Door Defense; Bellevue, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary and equity

Medical, dental, and vision

401(k) and Roth 401(k)

Unlimited PTO

14 paid holidays

Job summary

Armada is seeking a Vice President, People & Talent to own the full People stack, from Talent Acquisition to compliance, with depth in global mobility and compensation design. This is an end-to-end leadership role in a globally distributed company based in Bellevue.

You will drive strategic People initiatives for IPO readiness and hypergrowth, shaping policies, and leading a diverse, distributed team across multiple jurisdictions.

Qualifications

• Proven experience running the full People stack end to end: Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Operations, and Workspaces.
• Expertise in global mobility, employer-of-record versus entity management, and compensation design.
• Built and scaled a People function through high growth, in the range of 250 to 1,000+ employees.

Responsibilities

• Own global recruiting strategy across technical and non-technical functions and run critical searches if needed.
• Design and manage compensation philosophy and band architecture.
• Own the People technology stack (HRIS, ATS, payroll, performance, analytics) and data governance.

Skills

Full People stack

Global mobility

IPO/exit experience

People leadership

Tools

HRIS

ATS

Payroll systems

People analytics

Job description

Vice President, People & Talent

Build Armada’s global People function to scale for IPO-readiness and hypergrowth

Location: Bellevue, Washington

Compensation: $220,300 - 300,000 USD / year

About The Role

Vice President, People & Talent

Bellevue Office, Sunset Corporate Campus

Armada is the hyperscaler for the edge, delivering modular AI infrastructure from first deployment to AI factory with speed, scale and sovereignty. Named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies and to the CNBC Disruptor 50, Armada's solutions are deployed in over 60 countries globally for organizations ranging from energy to defense.

With nearly $500 million in funding to date, Armada is backed by leading investors including Founders Fund, Lux, BlackRock and Microsoft (M12), alongside strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Dell, Palantir, NVIDIA, SpaceX, and Skydio. We are building the infrastructure layer for sovereign and edge AI - rugged, deployable compute for customers that cannot rely on centralized cloud.

Working at Armada means taking ownership, driving autonomy, and delivering impact. You'll tackle challenges that haven't been solved before and help build something transformative from the ground up. What you do here will not only define your career but help further Armada's mission to bridge the digital divide for customers around the world.

About the Role

Armada is hiring a Vice President, People and Talent to own the full People stack and build the infrastructure a globally distributed company needs to scale. This is end-to-end ownership: Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Operations, and Compliance, with real depth expected in global mobility, entity and employer-of-record management, and compensation design.

Roughly two thirds of the role is that operating stack. The remaining third is employee experience and culture: workspace and physical environment strategy, onboarding, and building learning and development programming from the ground up.

This is not an execution-only seat. Our executive team expects the People function to carry a point of view on how talent decisions drive the business, and to bring that perspective into leadership conversations rather than waiting to be handed requirements. You will define the strategy and own the execution.

You are building, not inheriting. Programs, policies, systems, and team headcount are yours to stand up.

What You Will Own

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

• Own global recruiting strategy across technical and non-technical functions, and stay close enough to the work to personally run a critical search if needed
• Implement structured hiring processes that raise talent density and hold hiring managers accountable
• Move time-to-hire and quality-of-hire against defined baselines
• Partner with Finance to align headcount planning, workforce modeling, and geographic expansion with budget forecasting

Total Rewards and Compensation

• Own compensation philosophy and band architecture, mapped to Armada levels and defensible against a named benchmarking source
• Own equity strategy at the pre-IPO stage: new hire grants, refresh and evergreen programs, 409A cadence, and the exception process
• Run the annual compensation and merit cycle in partnership with Finance, including geographic differentials across owned entities and employer-of-record markets
• Design and manage global benefits programs and renewals, balancing cost, competitiveness, and local requirements
• Prepare executive compensation recommendations and materials for the CEO, the Board compensation committee, and Finance

People Operations, Compliance, and Systems

• Design and scale a People Operations framework that holds global consistency while allowing for local nuance
• Own the compliance posture across every operating jurisdiction, partnering with Legal on employment law, immigration, and risk mitigation
• Oversee payroll operations, vendor management, audit readiness, documentation standards, and internal controls
• Own the People technology stack (HRIS, ATS, payroll, performance, analytics) and the data governance that makes workforce reporting trustworthy

International Expansion, Entities, and Mobility

• Own entity strategy: decide where Armada uses an employer of record and where it stands up a local entity, and run the conversion when the answer changes
• Manage employment, labor compliance, and employee relations across international jurisdictions
• Own global mobility, relocation, and immigration programs in partnership with Legal

Employee Experience, Workspaces, and Culture

• Define workspace and physical environment strategy across offices, remote environments, and field deployments
• Own onboarding end to end, so a new hire in any location starts productive and stays connected
• Partner with Finance and Operations on real estate strategy, cost management, and vendor selection
• Set standards for workplace experience, safety, and compliance across all locations

Learning, Development, and Manager Capability

• Build learning and development programming from the ground up, starting with what the business needs most rather than a catalog
• Partner with the executive team on organizational design, leveling frameworks, and job architecture
• Implement performance management that gives managers a clear, usable standard rather than a process to survive
• Build manager capability through explicit leadership expectations, development, and coaching

What You Will Bring

• Proven experience running the full People stack end to end: Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Operations, and Workspaces
• Expertise in global mobility, employer-of-record versus entity management, and compensation design
• Built and scaled a People function through high growth, in the range of 250 to 1,000+ employees, standing up programs, policies, and team headcount from scratch rather than inheriting an established function
• Took a company through IPO or another exit, and can articulate how that outcome shaped your compensation philosophy
• Managed entity setup and employee management across international jurisdictions
• Experience with workspace and physical environment strategy, onboarding, and building learning and development programming
• A track record of staying through the build: you have carried companies across multiple phases of growth to an outcome rather than moving on at each inflection point
• Operates as a business partner to the executive team, with a clear point of view on what the People function is for and the judgment to bring it forward unprompted

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting a federal-facing entity, including hiring, badging, and the compliance requirements specific to a cleared workforce
• Hands-on Middle East experience: employer-of-record arrangements versus local entity setup, and managing employees across the UAE, KSA, and Bahrain labor and compliance landscapes

Compensation & Benefits

For U.S. Based candidates: To ensure fairness and transparency, the starting base salary range for this role for candidates in the U.S. are listed, varying based on location experience, skills, and qualifications. In addition to base salary, this role will also be offered equity and subsidized benefits (details available upon request).

Final compensation will be determined by experience, scope, and level, and may vary from the posted range.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and equity
• Medical, dental, and vision (subsidized cost)
• Health savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts (FSA), and dependent care FSAs (DCFSA)
• Retirement plan options, including 401(k) and Roth 401(k)
• Unlimited paid time off (PTO)
• 14 paid company holidays per year

You're a Great Fit if You're

• A go-getter with a growth mindset. You're intellectually curious, have strong business acumen, and actively seek opportunities to build relevant skills and knowledge
• A detail-oriented problem-solver. You can independently gather information, solve problems efficiently, and deliver results with a 'get-it-done' attitude
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment. You're energized by an entrepreneurial spirit, capable of working quickly, and excited to contribute to a growing company
• A collaborative team player. You focus on business success and are motivated by team accomplishment vs personal agenda
• Highly organized and results-driven. Strong prioritization skills and a dedicated work ethic are essential for you