Director of HR

About the role:

We are seeking a dynamic and hands-on Director of Human Resources to lead our HR initiatives and support our growing team as we scale from Series B to Series C and beyond!  As the leading HR professional on the team, you will play a crucial role in maturing the HR function, shaping our culture, driving employee engagement, and implementing HR best practices. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is passionate about building a positive workplace culture. You will directly and significantly impact how HR functions within this fast-growing AI business!  As our Director of Human Resources, your expertise will help shape our organizational culture during this pivotal growth phase. Many of our initiatives have been deployed in what we fondly consider a Version 1 (V1). We fully expect and are excited to see what you do with the next version* to help us reach the next level of HR excellence! If you have helped grow a team from 50 employees to 150+, please keep reading! 

Key Responsibilities:

•  Strategic HR Leadership: Develop and execute HR strategies aligned with business goals, ensuring the organization attracts, develops, and retains top talent.

• HR Processes: Refine the end-to-end recruitment, onboarding, and offboarding processes to ensure the implementation of industry best practices.  

• Employee Relations: Foster a positive work environment by acting as a trusted advisor to employees and management, addressing and resolving concerns, and promoting open communication.

• Total Rewards:  Assist with negotiating compensation for new hires and severance packages for departures when required. Ensure our Compensation Philosophy, equity strategy, Pave Role Leveling System, Pay Bands, and strategy around Merit Increases and talent retention efforts accurately reflect fair market value in the evolving Tech industry.  Refine or add compensation programs or tools where appropriate, such as the business and headcount scales. 

• Performance Management: Refine and manage performance evaluation processes, ensuring alignment with company objectives and employee development.

• Culture & Engagement: Drive initiatives to promote strong company culture, positive employee engagement, retention strategies, and inclusion initiatives that reflect our values (of Facts, Trust, and Kindness) and our mission.

• Policy Development: Create and update HR policies and procedures in compliance with legal requirements and best practices, ensuring clarity and accessibility for all staff.

• Training & Development: Identify opportunities for employee training and development initiatives. Coordinate and implement training programs to enhance team skills and capabilities.

• HR Metrics & Reporting: Establish metrics to measure HR effectiveness and prepare reports for leadership to inform decision-making. Work with the Talent Team to ensure quarterly reporting is completed ahead of board meetings for the Chief of Staff to present quarterly.

• Compliance & Risk Management: Ensure compliance with labor laws and regulations, maintain accurate employee records, and manage HR-related risks. Maintain accurate employee records and HR databases.

• Management Experience: This role will have anywhere from 2 to 5 direct reports over the next 6–12 months. 

• Career Development Potential in this Role: This role currently reports to the Chief of Staff, Michelle Banham. We have high hopes that this individual will one day earn the role of leading the entire HR function as Head of Human Resources, reporting directly to the COO and joining the Executive Team at you.com! 

Examples of V1 vs V2

Initiative

• Total Rewards

• Employee Engagement

• Employee Handbook

• Learning & Development

• DEI

V1 (Completed)

• Total Rewards: Comp philosophy, leveling system, pay bands, templated offer letters, 401k matching, wellness shipment, benefits via PEO w/ Rippling.

• Employee Engagement: eNPS survey deployed via Google Forms, and results have been analyzed

• Employee Handbook: Employee handbook V1 deployed

• Learning & Development: Approving L+D courses as requested

• DEI: The hiring process, work environment, employee communications, and in-person events are designed with equitable and inclusive practices in mind

V2 (Next Level)

• Total Rewards: Merit increase philosophy, retention strategy, review of benefits vs competitors, review PEO renewal in 2026

• Employee Engagement: Q4 action planning required; 2025 eNPS should be done with a culture software

• Employee Handbook: Employee handbook V2 to be deployed in 2025 (with any new policies that should be added

• Learning & Development: Creating a Manager Training program and career development framework for all interested employees (using our leveling system as a starting point)

• DEI: Actively finding DEI partnerships for talent attraction to ensure a diverse pipeline, sourcing DEI speakers or pieces of training to share with the team

Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field; Master’s degree or HR certification (SHRM-CP, PHR, etc.) is a plus.

• 5-7 years of experience in HR management.  

• Proven experience in a startup or high-growth environment, demonstrating adaptability and a hands-on approach to HR functions. Startup experience is a must-have for this role, as we are currently a Series B company and are actively preparing for Series C.

• Strong understanding of employment laws and regulations in the US.

• Excellent interpersonal, communication, problem solving and organizational skills.

• Ability to build relationships at all levels of the organization and influence decision-making.

• Proficient in HR software and tools (such as Rippling, Deel.com, and Ashby), with a strong aptitude for data analysis.

• Remote work experience and being available to travel in possession of a valid Passport

About You.com:

With a deep foundation in search, You.com is truthful, accurate, and transparent and addresses hallucinations.

You.com was founded by leading AI research scientists Richard Socher and Bryan McCann. Richard was previously the Chief Scientist at Salesforce and is the fourth most-cited researcher in natural language processing (NLP) with over 190,000 citations. Bryan was a lead research scientist at Salesforce Research, specializing in deep learning and NLP. Over the years, Richard and Bryan’s collaborative research has had significant implications for the field of NLP, particularly in the areas of word vectors, contextual vectors, and prompt engineering. Richard's contributions were recently recognized with his inclusion in Time Magazine’s TIME100 AI list in 2023 as one of the “most influential people in AI” and the prestigious 2023 ACL Test-of-Time Paper Award for his influential research published in 2013.

Since its founding, You.com has transformed how people discover and engage with information online as an AI Assistant that helps people accomplish and solve everyday needs. Recognized as one of Fortune Magazine’s 50 AI Innovators for 2023 and featured in Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2022,” You.com has pioneered many solutions for Large Language Model (LLM) challenges, especially around trust and accuracy. You.com notably introduced the first consumer-facing LLM with access to the internet to provide up-to-date answers and include citations. You.com's API further enables other LLM-based chatbots to improve their accuracy with real-time web access. You.com also emphasizes personalized AI chat experiences, offering tailored responses based on users’ backgrounds, interests, and preferences while respecting privacy and ensuring transparent control over personal data.

You.com is accessible on desktop, Chrome web extensions, iOS and Android apps, and WhatsApp.

Our Compensation:

• This role is considered a Level M5 in our role-leveling system inspired by PAVE

• Equity eligible role 

• You.com offers Location Based Compensation. Here are a few examples of what the annual salary for this role could look like if you are located in one of these locations;  

  • US Tier 1 - $190k-$230k USD

  • US Tier 2 - $180k-$220k USD

  • US Tier 3 - $170k-$205k USD

  • All of Canada - $165k-$200k CAD

Our Perks:

• A remote-first work environment with hubs in California, NYC, and Canada that offer monthly in-person gatherings and in-person coworking weeks 1 to 2 times a year with the whole team

• Unlimited PTO with 11 U.S. holidays observed and a week shutdown in December to rest and recharge  

• Competitive health insurance plan, where 100% of the policyholder is covered and 75% for dependents

• 12 weeks of paid paternity leave in the US; additional time off is also considered

• 401k program, 3% match coming January 2025! (RRSP + 3% match for Canadians)

• $500 work-from-home stipend to be used up to a year of your start date

• $1,200 / year Health & Wellness Allowance to support your personal goals

• Chance to collaborate with a team at the forefront of AI research!
  

You.com is an inclusive, equitable, and accessible workplace. Please let us know if you require accommodation for any portion of the recruitment and hiring process.