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Gaia is a Series B healthtech company on a mission to make family building accessible and affordable through fixed-price fertility treatment plans, flexible financing, and employer benefits. They operate across the US and UK with teams in multiple locations.
You will be hired as People Ops Manager to build and lead the people function during the company's next growth phase. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will own the full employee lifecycle—from hiring and onboarding through performance management, compensation, and culture—across US, UK, and remote teams. You will set people strategy and execute much of the work yourself, partnering closely with the CFO, CEO, and leadership team.
Key responsibilities include:
**People Strategy & Leadership:** Build and own the people roadmap aligned to company goals and headcount plans. Serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on org design, team structure, and leadership development. Partner with Finance on workforce planning and people cost modeling. Report people metrics (retention, engagement, time to hire, compensation benchmarks) to leadership and the board.
**Talent Acquisition:** Manage and develop a Recruiter, owning the hiring process end-to-end including role scoping, sourcing strategy, interview design, and offer management. Build a consistent, inclusive hiring experience and manage recruiting partners and tools.
**Performance, Growth & Engagement:** Design and run performance review cycles, goal setting, and feedback practices. Build career frameworks, leveling, and development programs. Measure employee engagement and champion a culture of ownership and accountability. Lead thoughtful onboarding and offboarding.
**Compensation & Benefits:** Own compensation philosophy, salary bands, and equity guidelines in partnership with the CFO. Run annual compensation reviews and benchmarking. Manage benefits programs and broker relationships, including Gaia's family building benefits for employees.
**People Operations & Compliance:** Oversee HRIS, payroll inputs, and PEO relationships (Justworks in US, UK payroll providers). Ensure compliance with US federal/state and UK employment law. Maintain handbooks, policies, and documentation. Handle employee relations matters. Support audit, diligence, and fundraising with accurate people data.
**Success Metrics (First 90 Days):** Audit current people processes, policies, and tools across US and UK. Build relationships with every leader. Align with Recruiter on open roles and hiring priorities. Deliver a prioritized 12-month people roadmap.
**Success Metrics (First Year):** Launch consistent performance and career framework company-wide. Establish compensation bands and repeatable comp review process. Stand up a scalable hiring engine supporting headcount plan. Improve engagement and retention against a clear baseline.
**Requirements:**
- 8+ years of experience in People or HR roles, with at least 3 years leading the function or a meaningful part of it at a venture-backed startup (Series A to C)
- Experience supporting teams across the US and UK, or across multiple US states and at least one international entity
- Strong working knowledge of US employment law; familiarity with UK employment practices is a strong plus
- Track record of building people programs from scratch (performance, compensation, leveling, onboarding)
- Experience managing and developing direct reports, ideally including recruiters
- Comfortable with data: able to build headcount models, run comp analysis, and present people metrics clearly
- Excellent judgment and discretion with sensitive information
- Builder mindset: energized by ambiguity and willing to roll up sleeves
- Genuine connection to the mission of making family building accessible
**Nice to Have:**
- Experience in healthcare, benefits, fintech, or another regulated industry
- Experience with HRIS and ATS tools such as Justworks, Rippling, BambooHR, Greenhouse, or Ashby
- SHRM, CIPD, or similar certification
