Director of People Operations

RYZE is hiring a Director, People Operations to build the operational and strategic backbone of the People function. Reporting to one of the Co-Founder's, this person will lead a team of People Operations Partners & Generalists while acting as a strategic partner to leaders across the business. This is a builder's role: someone who can move fast, make smart judgment calls, and turn strategy into programs that stick. Responsibilities will include: • Own People Operations end to end, building right-sized infrastructure, processes, and tools as RYZE scales across DTC, retail, and new categories. • Lead, coach, and develop a team of People Operations Partners and Generalists • Act as a trusted advisor to leaders across the business on team dynamics, organizational design, and growth challenges, structuring teams for scale. • Design and lead performance management, succession planning, and workforce planning frameworks that connect individual goals to business priorities, including calibration, manager enablement, and data integrity across review cycles. • Build retention, culture, and employee engagement strategies that keep pace with a fast-growing, distributed team. • Lead learning and development and onboarding, giving every new hire a structured path from day one. • Maintain a general working knowledge of compensation and benefits programs • Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment law across a multi-state remote workforce, staying ahead of risk rather than reacting to it, and serve as the escalation point for employee relations matters. • Building SOPs and communication frameworks that make delivery clean and consistent. • Champion AI adoption and workflow automation across the People function, from document creation to performance plan development, to help the team run leaner and faster. • Partner with Talent Acquisition, Legal, IT, and Finance to ensure smooth rollout of People Operations initiatives, and bring feedback into policies and processes. • Partner with Founders and cross-functional leaders on org design and change management, translating strategy into action without getting stuck in process for its own sake. Professional Qualifications • 10+ years of progressive HR experience, including team leadership, earned in a high-growth startup or scale-up DTC, CPG, or omnichannel environment. • Proven track record building and scaling People Operations infrastructure, not just maintaining what already exists. • Hands-on experience across performance management, succession planning, workforce planning, retention, and employee engagement. • Experience leading organizational design and change management • Strong knowledge of federal, state, and local employment law, with real experience supporting a multi-state workforce. • General working knowledge of compensation and benefits programs, and comfort with HR technology including HRIS platforms, ATS, and people analytics. • Demonstrated experience with AI tools and workflow automation in HR • Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, founder-led culture, with a strong bias toward moving things forward over getting stuck in process. • Bachelor's degree in HR, Business Administration, or a related field. WHAT WE OFFER • Competitive compensation aligned with experience and market benchmarks. • Comprehensive benefits package • Paid time off and company-observed holidays. • Opportunities for professional growth and development. • A collaborative, inclusive, and supportive work environment. • Access to tools, resources, and training to support success in the role.