People Lead
Palo Alto, CA$200k - $380kfull-timePosted 4w ago
About the role
River AI’s first People Lead to own HR, payroll, benefits, insurance, and operations; shape employee experience from onboarding to workplace environment; leverage AI tooling to automate repetitive tasks.
Responsibilities
- Own HR operations end-to-end: HRIS administration (Rippling), onboarding and offboarding, benefits administration, and employee records.
- Run payroll operations end-to-end, including benefits–payroll integration; review benefits charges and invoices for accuracy.
- Own company insurance and benefits programs — health, wellness, and business — sourcing providers and comparing quotes as needs change.
- Coordinate closely with Legal and IT on compliance activities.
- Engage and manage the implementation of EORs, contractors, and consultants.
- Build employee training — including policies and norms for an AI-native workplace (acceptable use, data handling).
- Handle sensitive employee matters and information with professionalism and sound judgment.
- Own workspace and commercial real estate: lease administration and negotiations, workspace and equipment setup, utilities, physical security, and vendors for networking, deliveries, and the cafeteria program.
- Support office events and team meetings.
- Identify recurring problems, put better processes (and AI tooling) in place, and drive issues to resolution.
Qualifications
- You have at least 7 years of experience in HR and have run HR/People operations at a startup or scale-up
- You know HR platforms like Rippling (required).
- You handle sensitive situations and information discreetly and build trust across the company.
- You are genuinely enthusiastic about technology and AI, with a habit of finding tools that make work faster and better.
- You communicate clearly in writing and in person.
- You have strong organizational judgment: you can hold many small threads at once and know which one matters most right now.
- You take a practical, hands-on approach to issues — comfortable troubleshooting on the spot and knowing when to call in a specialist.
- You are fluent with modern software and AI tooling and are quick to evaluate and adopt new systems.
- You are able to work full-time on-site to support a fast-growing start-up’s needs.
Skills
Required:HR operationsRipplingPayroll administrationComplianceVendor managementTraining and onboardingCommunication
Nice to have:Change management
Benefits
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
- unlimited PTO
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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