Head of People

Role Summary

Pantomath is hiring its Head of People to own and scale the People function as we enter our next phase of growth post-Series B. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you will be the most senior People leader in the company, responsible for the full employee lifecycle, talent acquisition, organizational design, compensation, and culture; while serving as a strategic partner to the executive team.

This role starts as a senior individual contributor, supported by our current PEO/HRIS, external employment counsel, and a dedicated operations partner on the engineering side for executive and recruiting logistics and culture. Team expansion is encouraged when warranted — and this role owns the business case for it, partnering with the CEO and COO to scope, justify, and sequence hires as the company grows. The right candidate will see the starting setup as a feature rather than a gap: autonomy, executive access, and the opportunity to build People infrastructure from a clean foundation before scaling the team.

You will succeed here if you treat People work as a craft: documentation is meticulous, strategic work is quantitative and defensible, attention to detail is reflexive, and recruiting is a favorite part of the job, not a delegated one.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic People Partnership

• Serve as the senior People advisor to the COO, CEO, and executive team on organizational design, workforce planning, performance management, and change management.

• Partner with the VP of Engineering and other functional leaders on long-term org strategy as Pantomath scales across our U.S. footprint and international contractor base.

• Own Pantomath's compensation philosophy, salary bands, and leveling framework; benchmark against peer data (e.g., Option Impact, Radford, Compensia); run the annual merit cycle and off-cycle adjustments.

• Advise on equity strategy and coordinate option grants in partnership with the CEO, Finance, and Board — including administration under the 2022 Stock Option Plan.

• Evaluate Pantomath's HR infrastructure stack on an ongoing basis, including the PEO/HRIS model, and lead any initiative to transition from PEO to direct employment when scale, cost, or operational flexibility warrants. This is a meaningful strategic lever; the right moment to execute it is a judgment call the Head of People is expected to own.

Talent Acquisition (Full Lifecycle)

• Run full-cycle recruiting personally for senior engineering, go-to-market, and executive roles; with particular focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are actively scaling technical talent.

• Partner with hiring managers to write high-quality job descriptions, define calibrated interview scorecards, and structure rigorous interview loops.

• Own Pantomath's ATS, employer brand, and candidate experience end-to-end. The candidate's first impression of Pantomath is always yours.

• Build and maintain active and passive talent pipelines; cultivate sourcing channels, alumni networks, and referral programs.

• Track and report on recruiting funnel health, time-to-fill, pass-through rates, offer acceptance, source-of-hire, with the same rigor as any other business function.

People Operations & HR Infrastructure

• Own the full employee lifecycle: onboarding, performance reviews, progressive discipline, promotions, transfers, separations, and offboarding.

• Administer Pantomath's HRIS and ensure data integrity at all times, including accurate employee records, PTO balances, benefits enrollments, and compensation history.

• Maintain an organized, audit-ready People Operations shared drive with a clear folder taxonomy, consistent file-naming conventions, enforced version control, and complete records. When an executive requests a document, you can locate it in under a minute.

• Draft, review, and administer employment agreements, offer letters, amendments, Performance Improvement Plans, separation and release agreements, and related documentation with absolute accuracy.

• Run a regular documentation review cadence to ensure templates remain current with federal, state, and local legal developments — in coordination with external employment counsel.

Employment Law & Compliance

• Maintain compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws including FLSA, FMLA, ADA, Title VII, OSHA, state-specific wage and hour laws, and applicable anti-discrimination statutes.

• Maintain state-specific compliance across Pantomath's hiring footprint, with particular depth on the more-complex regimes (California, Washington, Illinois) — including wage statement, pay transparency, meal and rest break, and leave entitlement requirements where applicable.

• Own Pantomath's E-Verify program and I-9 compliance end-to-end.

• Administer Pantomath's Work Authorization and Immigration Sponsorship Policy in partnership with external immigration counsel. Monitor ongoing STEM OPT compliance for sponsored employees.

• Partner with Security & Compliance resources on the intersection of People data with SOC 2, security, and IT access controls.

Culture & Employee Experience

• Steward Pantomath's culture as the team scales — design and run the rituals, recognition programs, and communication rhythms that keep a distributed company cohesive.

• Design and execute the annual employee engagement survey; translate findings into concrete action with leadership accountability.

• Lead inclusion initiatives with substance over symbolism — driving outcomes that reflect our values without performative noise.

Total Rewards

• Administer benefits programs (medical, dental, vision, 401(k), equity, supplemental) through our PEO and direct carriers; evaluate program effectiveness annually.

• Evaluate, negotiate, and manage vendor contracts for People-related services.

• Monitor benchmark data and recommend program changes to keep Pantomath competitive for senior technical talent.

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive HR / People experience, with at least 4 years as the most senior People leader at a venture-backed technology company (Series A through Series C).

• Demonstrated success scaling a People function from under 100 to 250+ employees.

• Proven, quantifiable full-cycle recruiting track record — ideally 40+ engineering hires personally run from sourcing to offer accept.

• Experience owning a compensation philosophy, leveling framework, and band architecture at a multi-state, multi-level scale.

• Multi-state employment law fluency. Pantomath currently hires across Ohio (our largest concentration), California, Washington, Illinois, Colorado, Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, and additional states. Depth on the more-complex regimes — particularly California, Washington, and Illinois — is expected.

• Hands-on experience administering an equity plan (ISOs, NSOs) at an early- to mid-stage startup.

• Experience working with a PEO (Justworks, Rippling, Gusto, Sequoia, or TriNet) is strongly preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• Exceptional organizational discipline. You treat documentation, file management, and record-keeping as a craft. Your folder structures, naming conventions, and record completeness are audit-ready at all times. You could hand off your People Operations drive to a successor today without apology.

• Strategic rigor. You can model, analyze, and present complex People problems — comp frameworks, org design, workforce planning, ATS implementation — with the quantitative seriousness of a finance partner. You are fluent in spreadsheets and data, and your strategic work product would stand up to scrutiny from a CFO or board member.

• Meticulous attention to detail. You catch the cross-reference error in the offer letter, the inconsistent date in the PIP, the wrong placeholder in the separation agreement. A typo reaching an employee is a failure event for you, not a minor slip.

• Genuine enthusiasm for talent acquisition. Sourcing, closing, and hiring are among your favorite parts of the job. You will not describe recruiting as a least-favorite activity, and you will not look for ways to offload it to an agency or a future direct report.

• Concise, high-signal communication. You get to the point. You listen more than you speak. You respect executives' time — in writing, in meetings, and in Slack. You know when to ask a question and when to simply execute.

• Startup operating rhythm. You have thrived in under-resourced, high-ambiguity environments. You build systems as you go. You are comfortable being the function rather than leading one.

Education & Credentials

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology, or a related field; equivalent experience considered.

• SHRM-SCP or SPHR strongly preferred; SHRM-CP or PHR acceptable with strong experience.

• State-specific credentialing — such as California PHRca or equivalent — is a plus but not required; depth of actual multi-state practice matters more than the credential.

PHYSICAL AND WORK ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS

This role is primarily performed in a hybrid office or remote work setting and requires the ability
to do the following:

• Sit for extended periods while working on a computer.

• Occasionally stand, walk, reach, stoop, or bend during the course of work.

• Communicate clearly and effectively via video conferencing, phone, and email.

• Occasionally lift and move items varying in weight (e.g., office equipment, onboarding kits, company materials).

• Travel occasionally — including air and ground transportation and overnight stays — for offsites, recruiting, and employee-facing events.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & ACCOMMODATIONS

Pantomath is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to legally protected characteristics and are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals — whether during the application and interview process or throughout employment. To request an accommodation, please contact the Chief Operating Officer.

FLSA COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

This position is classified as Exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), meaning it is not eligible for overtime compensation. This classification is based on responsibilities involving advanced expertise, independent judgment, and discretionary authority over significant matters.