About the role
Hilbert is a scalable, data science-first growth engine that gives B2C teams predictive clarity into user behavior, revenue drivers, and the actions that drive sustainable growth. Fully agentic by design, Hilbert shrinks months-long decision cycles to minutes. From Fortune 500 enterprises to beloved brands like FreshDirect, Blank Street, and Levain Bakery, operators run their growth on Hilbert. We're also co-building alongside leading AI companies. We're scaling fast across every dimension—product, GTM, team—and we need someone exceptional to help us build the people infrastructure to match. We’re hiring a San Francisco–based People & Talent Lead , reporting directly to a Cofounder, to own the end-to-end people function. This person will operate as the single-threaded owner of People , while also building the foundation for a future team. THE ROLE You will be Hilbert’s first People leader , owning the full people function end-to-end. This is a builder + operator + partner role: You will design and run People , not just execute it You will own outcomes , not just processes You will be a thought partner to founders on performance, and team design This is people lead-level role—but you will operate reporting to the cofounder, with full ownership of execution and meaningful input into strategy for a globally scaling company. WHAT YOU'LL DO People Infrastructure & Global Operations Stand up core people infrastructure from scratch: employment documentation, benefits administration, payroll coordination, and compliance across multiple jurisdictions Own global employment logistics: contractor-to-employee conversions, EOR/PEO relationships, local labor law compliance, and entity setup support as Hilbert enters new markets Build and manage relationships with external partners—legal counsel, payroll providers, benefits brokers, immigration advisors—across every geography we operate in Create and maintain the single source of truth for people data, policies, and documentation Onboarding & Employee Experience Design and run onboarding that gets new hires productive fast—especially critical for regional leaders deploying into new markets on day one Own the end-to-end employee lifecycle: onboarding, role transitions, promotions, offboarding, and everything in between Be the go-to resource for the team on anything people-related—benefits questions, leave policies, workplace issues, or just navigating a fast-moving company Build rituals, rhythms, and communication structures that keep a distributed team connected and informed Performance & Development Build lightweight but effective people processes: performance conversations, feedback cadences, career development frameworks, and compensation structures that scale with the team Surface insights from people data—engagement signals, attrition patterns, onboarding effectiveness—and turn them into action Recruiting Support Partner with Talent Partner/Recruiterhiring managers to keep the candidate experience sharp: coordinate scheduling, manage offer logistics, and ensure a seamless handoff from signed offer to day one Support the hiring process operationally—maintain the ATS, track pipeline metrics, and help refine interview workflows as hiring volume scales WHO THRIVES IN THIS ROLE We care less about your title history and more about how you operate. The right person is a true generalist—someone who can move between setting up payroll in a new country and advising founders on org design in the same afternoon, and who treats both with equal rigor. The Profile You've been a people generalist or people ops lead at a high-growth startup (ideally Series A–C) and know what it's like to build the plane while flying it You've built something from scratch—an onboarding program, a people function, an employee handbook for a company that had none—and know the difference between process that enables and process that slows things down You have hands-on experience with global employment: international labor law basics, EOR platforms (Rippling etc.), multi-country onboarding, and the nuance of building distributed teams You're a clear, direct communicator who earns trust with founders, managers, and every team member across the org You're data-informed: you track what matters, spot bottlenecks early, and make decisions based on signal, not instinct alone You have the resilience and resourcefulness of someone who's operated in environments where the playbook didn't exist yet You care deeply about the details—because in people ops, the details are the experience BONUS POINTS Experience supporting GTM and revenue teams—you understand the pace and the personality Familiarity with modern people and ops tools (Rippling, Ashby, Notion, etc.) Exposure to retail, e-commerce, or CPG industries—Hilbert's core markets Comfort with ambiguity and competing priorities—you don't need everything defined to start moving LOCATION San Francisco. You should be comfortable working asynchronously with a distributed team and willing to travel periodically for onboarding, team gatherings, and operational setup in new markets. COMPENSATION Competitive base salary plus equity. Compensation details, equity package, and bonus structure shared during the hiring process. We believe the People Generalist is a leverage role and compensate accordingly. THE HIRING JOURNEY 01 — Short-form application 02 — Intro call with founding team 03 — Practical working session (process design or ops scenario) 04 — Team conversations 05 — Offer Fast, human, no bureaucracy.