Director of People

Goodfire

$250K — $400K *
Business Services
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-7 years of experience in People Operations or related field
  • Strong understanding of compensation, equity philosophy, and benefits management
  • Demonstrated ability to build scalable HR systems and processes
  • Excellent judgment and problem-solving skills, particularly in high-stakes situations
  • Experience leading full employee lifecycle management from onboarding to offboarding

Responsibilities

  • Own and execute the People strategy, focusing on hiring and employee experience
  • Develop and manage a competitive compensation and equity philosophy
  • Oversee the full employee lifecycle to ensure a smooth experience
  • Build scalable people systems to support rapid growth and operational excellence
  • Lead benefits administration and vendor management for employee support
  • Serve as a trusted People partner, addressing employee concerns swiftly and discreetly
  • Facilitate employee relations and navigate sensitive personnel issues with empathy

Benefits

  • Equity in the company
  • Access to competitive benefits packages
  • Opportunity to work in a mission-driven environment
  • Potential for professional growth and development
  • Join a world-class team focused on groundbreaking technology
Full Job Description
About the role

We're hiring a Director of People Ops to build the infrastructure that enables us to scale the highest-performing AI research organization in the world and consistently win. You'll own the systems, processes, and programs that support our people across the employee lifecycle, and you'll build most of it from scratch.

You find intensity exhilarating, move with urgency, and thrive when faced with challenges. You're someone we can lean on to make exceptional judgment calls, and you go out of your way to make sure our people feel genuinely cared for and supported. You'll be the secret weapon behind our ability to attract and build a world-class team, creating an organization that gives us a lasting competitive edge.
Key responsibilities
  • Own and execute Goodfire's People strategy across hiring, talent, compensation, employee experience, and organizational development as the company scales
  • Own compensation, leveling, and equity philosophy, ensuring our approach is competitive, internally consistent, and aligned with our goals to attract and retain exceptional talent
  • Own the full employee lifecycle, from onboarding through offboarding, ensuring a smooth, high-quality employee experience at every stage
  • Build scalable People systems, processes, and infrastructure that support rapid growth while maintaining a high bar for employee experience and operational excellence
  • Lead benefits administration and strategy, including enrollments, changes, employee support, and vendor management
  • Serve as the go-to People partner for employees and managers, responding to questions and concerns with care, speed, discretion, and sound judgment
  • Shape and reinforce a high-performance, mission-driven culture as Goodfire scales, preserving trust, intensity, and high standards
  • Lead employee relations and navigate sensitive, high-stakes people situations with sound judgment, discretion, empathy, and appropriate risk awareness
  • Oversee visa and immigration processes, partnering with external counsel/vendors to support employees through each stage of the process
  • Own People-related compliance and risk management, ensuring Goodfire's policies, practices, and processes evolve appropriately as the company grows
  • Communicate People-related updates and initiatives to the broader team in a way that is clear, warm, consistent, and aligned with Goodfire's culture
Our values

Goodfire is looking for individuals who embody our values and share our deep commitment to making interpretability accessible. We are building a team first and foremost.

Put mission and team first

All we do is in service of our mission. We trust each other, deeply care about the success of the organization, and choose to put our team above ourselves.

Improve constantly

We are constantly looking to improve every piece of the business. We proactively critique ourselves and others in a kind and thoughtful way that translates to practical improvements in the organization. We are pragmatic and consistently implement the obvious fixes that work.

Take ownership and initiative

There are no bystanders here. We proactively identify problems and take full responsibility over getting a strong result. We are self-driven, own our mistakes, and feel deep responsibility over what we're building.

Action today

We have a small amount of time to do something incredibly hard and meaningful. The pace and intensity of the organization is high. If we can take action today or tomorrow, we will choose to do it today.
Where we work

We are hiring for this position in our San Francisco office who'd be onsite 5 days a week.
What we offer

This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits.

The expected salary range for this position is $250-400k.

This role reports to our COO.

Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to join a vital mission at an important point in its trajectory - we are developing groundbreaking technology with a world-class team on the critical path to ensuring a safe and beneficial future for humanity. If you want to do your life's work with us, even if you believe you do not meet every single requirement, apply now.

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Goodfire

  • Senior Counsel
    $200K — $400K *
    San Francisco, CA 94112 (San Francisco County)
    Legal & Accounting
    In-Person
  • Director of People
    $250K — $400K *
    San Francisco, CA 94112 (San Francisco County)
    Business Services
    In-Person
  • Forward Deployed Research Scientist
    $220K — $315K *
    San Francisco, CA 94112 (San Francisco County)
    Enterprise Technology
    In-Person
  • Head of Recruiting
    $400K — $500K *
    San Francisco, CA 94112 (San Francisco County)
    Staffing
    In-Person

More Business Services Jobs

  • Branch Vice President
    $150K — $250K + $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd, auto allowance, *
    Just Rite Equipment / DuraServ
    South Windsor, CT 06074 (Capitol County)
  • Branch Vice President
    $200K — $500K++ $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd, auto allowance, *
    Casco Dock & Door / DuraServ
    West Sacramento, CA 95691 (Yolo County)
  • Branch Vice President
    $150K — $250K + $30K bonus + equity, medical, dental, vision, life, std/ltd, etc. *
    Southern Dock Products / DuraServ
    Oklahoma City, OK 73111 (Oklahoma County)
  • Director of Business Development
    $130K — $150K *
    Warren Whitney
    Richmond, VA 23226 (Henrico County)
  • Risk Manager
    $130K — $140K *
    Cal State Long Beach
    Long Beach, CA 90802 (Los Angeles County)

Find similar Director of People jobs: