People operations lead

About Watershed

Watershed is a software platform for running a world-class climate program. We measure our success in the carbon reduction achievements of our customers. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team.

We have offices in San Francisco, New York and London and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you’ll be interested in joining us!

The role

You and your team will build and operate all systems, processes and practices related to People Operations. You’ll analyze our current approaches  in the context of our future growth and deliver our People Ops strategy, with a lens of operational excellence and leading with data. As a member of the people leadership team you work will shape Watershed’s people philosophy and approach.

We scaled from 40 to 200 in 2022. Expecting a quick pace in 2023, we need to operationalize our practices for larger scale. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who sees themselves as a builder to get into the role early and help us avoid the pitfalls of a rapidly scaling organization.

You and your team will lead all aspects of People Operations (e.g., onboarding and offboarding, benefits, leave of absences, HRIS, immigration, etc.) and help us scale existing or build new approaches to making the employee experience at Watershed exceptional.

In your first 12 months you will: 

• Ensure compliance with local, regional and national laws in the US and UK
• Scale our tools and systems
• Build out process for opening new international office locations
• Implement a ticketing system – establish operational playbook inbound requests
• Determine people ops operating model and strategy – should we continue using vendors
• Create employee handbook that is both useful and in the spirit of our culture
• Create basic reporting and observability dashboards

Over the next 24 months you will:

• Oversee all aspects of Watershed’s People Operations including our systems, processes and practices
• Provide coaching, mentorship, and support to the team you will build
• Determine our approach to knowledge sharing in the People org – effectively convey information to employees and respond to inbound requests
• Collaborate with People Partners and legal team to develop and maintain global HR policies and principles
• Identify opportunities to evolve our people programs & system and support project management and implementation as we continue to grow globally (currently have offices in the US and UK)

You have:

• 10+ years experience in People orgs
• Experience building and managing teams
• Understanding US, UK and European labor laws and immigration regulations
• Enthusiasm for operational improvements
• Broad experience applying HR knowledge, skills and abilities to build and maintain efficient and compliant People Operations Programs at scale
• Previous experience supporting a scaling organization at critical stages of growth & expansion (e.g., pre-IPO, M&As, new market entry, etc.)
• Experience working at fast growing companies and comfort with ambiguity
• Experience selecting, migrating and overseeing people systems
• Desire and ability to be a player coach – everyone is a doer at Watershed!
• Outstanding judgment and ability to balance compliance with a people-first culture

 

FAQ

What’s your approach to remote work?

Watershed is hiring team members on all US and EU time zones, and we’re committed to growing a long-term distributed team. We have hub offices in San Francisco, New York and London, and remote team members from Oregon to New Jersey to Ireland. There may be certain jobs that need to be in San Francisco / New York / London or certain locations, and will be specifically noted in the job description or in conversations.

What are Watershed’s return-to-office plans?

We reopened our San Francisco office in June 2021, and treasure the energy and collaboration that comes from working together in person. We’re particularly lucky to have a great rooftop outdoor space, where we can gather for lunch, one-on-one’s, and the occasional outdoor whiteboarding session. We’re also investing deeply to support remote as a first-class hub, with regular Zoom social times, an emphasis on transparency and written artifacts, and periodic offsites to gather everybody in person.

We’re a COVID-cautious company. The office is open to vaccinated team members and we’ll continue to pay close attention to case rates to ensure it’s safe for everybody.

What’s the interview process like?

It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience screen (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a (usually virtual) onsite interview after that if the screens go well. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process.

Diversity & Inclusivity:

CULTIVATE A DIVERSE TEAM — We strive to build a company where people from all backgrounds feel welcomed and empowered to lead and succeed.