Head of People

At Avegant, we are a unique team. Heads-down when we need to be, we enjoy each other’s company and play together as well as work together. Each member of our team contributes in their own way to our culture of openness, collaboration, and creativity. 

We are adding to our team a people-focused HR professional who leads with curiosity, empathy, and a sense of play to maintain and continue to optimize Avegant’s team culture. Avegant has built a culture that encourages its team members to bring their whole selves to their work and prioritizes a “how can I help” mindset. The result is an environment that cultivates creativity and teamwork. Avegant team members have long average tenure, making a focus on culture critical for the company’s success. As the team grows, we aim to ensure the core culture of the team is not diluted and also that it adjusts and grows to meet the needs of a larger team. While this role will include traditional HR responsibilities like talent acquisition and management, onboarding and off-boarding, learning and development, the through-line for this role is a focus on the employee experience and the culture.

This position is expected to be a full-time role, but we will consider part-time applicants as well. Time in the office is important. We would expect this professional to be in our San Mateo office at least two full days per week. Our office is an open workspace, dog-friendly, located in San Mateo, CA, within walking distance of Caltrain.

This is a full time position, with a salary range of $125,000-175,000, depending on experience. Other benefits include stock options, full medical, dental, vision benefits, 401k matching, unlimited PTO, office snacks, and team lunches.

What you would do at Avegant:

• Support and Continuously Improve the Culture and Employee Experience
• Learn the company’s culture and history of its evolution
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s culture, where the culture is not being embraced or embodied, where changes to the culture need to be made
• Make recommendations to the management team on ways to reinforce or improve culture
• Get to know the team members with regular 1:1s to surface issues
• Plan and organize regular team events
• Observe culture to proactively identify issues needing attention
• Learning and Development / Employee Engagement
• Organize events for team learning (lunch and learns; brown bags)
• Monitor team external learning activities to ensure employees have opportunities for learning aligned with their goals 
• Core HR Functions
• Talent Acquisition and Recruiting, with an emphasis on creating a positive experience for candidates
• Onboarding / Off-boarding
• Immigration support
• HR Strategy and Compliance

What we are looking for in a candidate:

• Curiosity and a willingness to experiment and gather input from the team
• A creative approach to building culture with a research-focused team
• A “how can I help” mindset
• 5 years experience in a people- or culture-focused HR role, preferably in a tech startup
• Excellent communication and empathetic interpersonal skills
• Proficiency with Greenhouse applicant tracking system