When people finance GPU clusters, the datacenters housing them, and the infrastructure powering them, they need "offtake" - meaning someone has signed a contract to lease the cluster for a period of time before its even built.

Financing a GPU cluster is inherently risky, since margins are thin and volumes are huge. Lenders don't want to take on the risk that cluster developers can't repay their loan, and cluster developers really don't want to risk not selling their cluster. As a result, risk is offloaded to the customer using fixed-price long-term contracts.

If you don't mitigate this customer risk, there's a bubble. This isn't SaaS anymore - application layer companies sign multi-year contracts for computer and inference, but sell to customers on monthly subscriptions. If you mess up a purchase, it's game over: a minor shift in your revenue growth rate might mean the difference between profit or bankruptcy. But what if companies could exit their contract by selling it back to the market?

Otherwise, as AI scales, compute only becomes available to folks who can effectively take on that risk. A 2-person startup in a San Francisco Victorian can't realistically sign a 5-year take or pay contract on $100m supercomputers. But they may be able to buy the month of liquidity that someone else sold back.

So that's what we make: a liquid market for GPU offtake.

About the Role

SF Compute is growing at a tremendous pace. We need a People Leader who is both a strategic partner to the team and a hands-on operator capable of building "zero-to-one" processes. You will manage a high-performing team, ensuring we maintain a high talent bar while scaling our internal systems.

Core Responsibilities

Recruiting & Talent Acquisition

• Team Leadership & Execution: Partner closely with our recruiters to drive the full hiring lifecycle. You will provide the leadership and support they need to hit aggressive headcount targets while maintaining our high talent bar.
• Tech Stack & Tooling: Audit and evolve our recruiting infrastructure. You will be responsible for evaluating, selecting, and sourcing the right Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and auxiliary sourcing tools to ensure our team is operating with maximum efficiency.
• Employer Brand: Define and champion SF Compute's story in the market. You'll ensure our reputation for solving hard problems and operating with low ego is reflected in all candidate touchpoints, making us a destination for top-tier builders.
• Hiring Partnership: Act as a talent consultant to hiring managers, helping them calibrate technical requirements and drive high-quality hiring decisions that align with our culture.

People Operations & Compliance

• Scalable Infrastructure: Audit and modernize our People tech stack. You will transition us from manual workflows to automated, scalable systems that support a distributed workforce.
• AI Integration: Proactively identify opportunities to leverage AI and automation to streamline repetitive tasks, improve data accuracy, and enhance the speed of HR service delivery.
• Total Rewards & Compensation: Design and execute a competitive compensation philosophy, including equity grants, salary benchmarking, and comprehensive benefits packages that attract and retain top-tier talent.
• Risk & Compliance: Serve as the internal expert on federal, state, and local employment laws. You will ensure our policies are bulletproof, maintaining accurate documentation and timely reporting to mitigate organizational risk.

Talent Development & Management

• Performance Ecosystems: Design and lead high-signal performance review cycles. Move beyond checkboxes to create a culture of continuous feedback, high-stakes accountability, and clear career ladders.
• Manager Enablement & Coaching: Build a "manager as coach" framework. You will personally mentor first-time and experienced managers on team health, delivery pressure, and navigating difficult conversations.
• Employee Relations: Serve as the lead strategist for complex people issues. You will handle conflict resolution and internal investigations with a high degree of empathy, discretion, and legal literacy.

Engagement & Candidate Experience

• Lifecycle Excellence: Own the "Day 0 through Day 1000" experience. This includes crafting a seamless onboarding program that gets engineers productive quickly and an offboarding process that preserves long-term relationships.
• Cultural Health: Pulse-check the organization using eNPS and qualitative feedback. You will translate data into actionable programs that improve employee satisfaction and retention without losing our "tight-knit" feel.
• Candidate Journey: Ensure that every person who interacts with SF Compute-regardless of the hiring outcome-has a professional, fast, and high-signal experience that mirrors our technical standards.

About You

• Experience: 10+ years in HR/Recruiting/People Ops with at least 5 years of people management experience, ideally within high-growth tech environments.
• AI Proficiency: You have a proven track record of utilizing AI tools and automation to improve people processes, increase efficiency, and reduce administrative overhead.
• Startup DNA: You are energized by building from scratch and believe no task is too large or too small.
• Judgment: You are a trusted partner who exercises high integrity and sound judgment in complex employee relations matters.
• Systems Thinker: Data-driven and organized; you bring structure to ambiguity and are comfortable evaluating the technical tools needed to scale.

Benefits

Generous equity grant

Team members are offered a competitive salary along with equity in the company

Visa Sponsorships

Yes, we sponsor visas and work permits

Retirement matching

We match 401(k) plans up to 4%

Medical, dental & vision

We offer competitive medical, dental, vision insurance for employees and dependents and cover 100% of premiums

Time off

We offer unlimited paid time off as well as 10+ observed holidays

Parental leave

We offer biological, adoptive, and foster parents paid time off to spend quality time with family

Daily lunch

We cover lunch daily for employees

Unlimited office book budget

You can buy as many books for the office as you want