Head, HR (Contract to Hire)

Head, HR (Contract to Hire)

Mountain View, CA

About the Role

We are seeking a Head of Human Resources to help scale and strengthen Gatik's people operations during a critical stage of company growth. This is a high-ownership, hands-on leadership role within a fast-paced autonomous vehicle startup environment. The ideal candidate will be comfortable operating both strategically and tactically — building scalable people processes while also rolling up their sleeves to support day-to-day HR operations when needed.

This role will partner closely with founders and leadership teams across engineering, operations, autonomy, robotics, AI/ML, and business functions to help drive organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, performance management, compliance, and culture. We are looking for someone practical, adaptable, solutions-oriented, and comfortable navigating ambiguity in a rapidly evolving environment.

The ideal candidate has strong startup or scaling-company experience, excellent judgment and executive presence, and a proven ability to build HR infrastructure without slowing down the business.

This role will be onsite 5 days a week at our Mountain View headquarters.

What You'll Do

• Partner closely with founders and leadership teams to help scale the organization and build strong people operations practices.
• Lead and support day-to-day HR operations, employee relations, organizational development, and people strategy initiatives.
• Build and improve scalable HR processes, policies, and programs while maintaining startup agility and speed.
• Support performance management processes, calibration discussions, manager coaching, and employee development initiatives.
• Partner with leadership teams on organizational planning, team structure, leveling, and compensation discussions.
• Handle employee relations matters, investigations, and conflict resolution with sound judgment and professionalism.
• Ensure compliance with California employment laws, HR best practices, and internal policies.
• Help improve onboarding programs, manager enablement initiatives, and employee experience processes.
• Support leadership teams during periods of rapid organizational growth, shifting priorities, and evolving business needs.
• Drive strong communication, accountability, and operational excellence across HR programs and initiatives.
• Partner cross-functionally with recruiting, operations, finance, legal, and leadership teams as the organization scales.
• Help foster and reinforce a high-performance, low-ego, ownership-driven culture.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of progressive HR leadership experience, preferably within high-growth startup or scaling technology environments.
• Strong experience supporting technical organizations such as engineering, robotics, autonomy, AI/ML, hardware, or operations teams.
• Proven ability to operate both strategically and tactically in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.
• Strong knowledge of California employment law, compliance practices, investigations, and employee relations.
• Experience building or improving scalable people operations processes and programs.
• Excellent communication, executive presence, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with founders, executives, and cross-functional leadership teams.
• Comfortable working onsite and operating in a highly collaborative environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills, sound judgment, and ability to navigate sensitive situations professionally.
• Experience with performance reviews, compensation calibration, leveling frameworks, onboarding, and manager enablement programs is highly preferred.
• Startup mentality with strong ownership, urgency, adaptability, and willingness to roll up sleeves.
• Candidates with demonstrated impact and longevity in startup or scaling environments are strongly preferred over candidates coming solely from highly structured large-company environments.
• Prior experience helping scale organizations through periods of rapid growth is a plus.

Salary Range: $180,000 – $260,000