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Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing, reentry capsules, and satellite systems. The company was founded in 2021 by veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and major pharma companies, backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.
Reporting to the People Director, the People Manager will build and scale Varda's People infrastructure to support rapid growth in a fast-scaling aerospace environment. This is a hands-on, execution-focused role that combines strategic partnership with operational excellence.
Key responsibilities include:
**Strategic Business Partnership**: Serve as the primary People Business Partner for assigned business units, building trusted relationships with leaders. Partner on organizational design, workforce planning, team effectiveness, and organizational change. Coach managers on leadership effectiveness, performance management, and building high-performing teams. Provide guidance on talent decisions, promotions, and organizational changes.
**Talent & Organizational Effectiveness**: Lead annual talent processes including performance reviews, calibration, promotions, succession planning, and development planning. Support leaders in identifying, developing, and retaining top talent. Build leadership capability through coaching and manager development programs. Drive consistency across People programs.
**Compensation, Equity & People Programs**: Support managers with compensation recommendations aligned with market practices. Partner on equity program administration and communication. Lead rollout and adoption of company-wide People initiatives including performance management, leadership development, engagement, and recognition programs. Develop manager communications and training resources.
**People Operations & Operational Excellence**: Execute core People processes directly—onboarding, offboarding, transfers, promotions, and employee changes. Own day-to-day People operations and resolve issues with bias toward action. Build, document, and continuously improve workflows, SOPs, and People systems. Identify and fix operational gaps.
The role requires a builder mentality, operational rigor, and willingness to roll up your sleeves daily. You'll partner closely with People leadership, Finance, Legal, Payroll, Recruiting, and business leaders across the company.
