Sr Manager, People

📋 Description

• • Architect the People function at Parkade from the ground up—own every policy, process, and program that will carry us from 40 teammates today to 100+ high-performing employees tomorrow. You are the single internal HR & recruiting leader, backed only by our PEO, so every lever of culture, compliance, and talent sits in your hands.
• • Design and continuously refine HR policies that feel “Parkade”: legally bullet-proof, operationally simple, and culturally authentic. Translate enterprise-grade standards into lightweight playbooks that a fast-moving startup can actually use—then socialize them so managers and employees embrace the change instead of resent it.
• • Build and steward a compensation philosophy that balances market competitiveness with internal equity and startup cash discipline. Benchmark roles, create salary bands, and build an annual review cycle that rewards impact without bureaucratic drag.
• • Reinvent performance management for a team that prizes autonomy. Create lightweight OKR or goal-setting rituals, train managers to give candid feedback weekly, and design fair, transparent promotion and PIP processes that raise the bar while preserving psychological safety.
• • Own full-cycle recruiting for every critical hire—engineers, operators, sales, and hourly field staff. Source passive candidates, configure our ATS (Lever/Ashby) end-to-end, coach hiring managers on structured interviews, and obsess over candidate experience so Parkade becomes a magnet for top talent.
• • Craft an onboarding journey that turns day-one excitement into month-three productivity. From offer letter to laptop delivery to 30/60/90-day checklists, you will script every touchpoint and measure ramp-up time like a product manager measures activation.
• • Become the trusted face of HR and culture. Hold open office hours, mediate conflicts, investigate concerns with empathy and rigor, and ensure every employee feels heard and protected—whether they sit in our SF HQ, Long Beach hub, or work remotely.
• • Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in ways that move beyond statements. Audit hiring funnels for bias, build inclusive benefits (gender-neutral parental leave, fertility support, equitable PTO), and partner with leadership to set measurable DEI goals.
• • Lead workforce planning and org design. Model headcount scenarios against revenue forecasts, identify succession risks, and design team structures that scale without adding unnecessary layers.
• • Drive change management as we layer in “necessary structure.” Spot cultural friction early—e.g., resistance to new expense policies or fear of losing startup vibe—and run listening sessions, pilots, and feedback loops that bring skeptics along.
• • Manage all compliance threads: FLSA, FMLA, ADA, OSHA, state and local leave laws, I-9, EEO-1, and anything California throws at us next. Build audit-ready files and train managers so compliance is preventive, not reactive.
• • Own HRIS, payroll, and benefits administration. Configure Rippling/Justworks integrations, run open enrollment, reconcile invoices, and deliver dashboards that give the exec team real-time visibility into cost per hire, turnover, and engagement.
• • Curate learning & development. Identify skill gaps, negotiate vendor partnerships (e.g., Udemy, Lattice, BetterUp), and launch manager bootcamps that turn first-time leaders into confident coaches.
• • Protect the magic. Document rituals (demo days, parking-lot BBQs, hackathons) that make Parkade special and evolve them so they still resonate when we’re 5× larger.
• • Report to the CEO and sit on the leadership team. Translate people metrics into board-ready insights and influence strategic decisions with data and narrative alike.