Head - Human Resources - Startup/Scaleup

About this role:

We need a leader who builds its people function in step with the business and works side by side with the Founder.

This is a hands-on role. You will set up the policies, rhythms and systems that a growing team needs, and you will advise the Founder on people decisions.

Key responsibilities:

People strategy and Founder partnership:

• Turn the business plan into a headcount plan, org structure, role definitions and levels.
• Advise the Founder on hiring, promotions, exits and organisation design.

HR operations and compliance:

• Run onboarding and offboarding, employment contracts, HR records and the policy handbook.
• Coordinate payroll with finance and keep the company compliant with Indian labour laws and POSH requirements.

Performance, rewards and growth:

• Set up goal-setting and review cycles, job levels and salary bands.
• Run incentive and ESOP processes with finance and legal.

Employee relations and culture:

• Handle grievances, investigations and exits fairly and promptly.
• Build engagement, communication rhythms and a culture the Founder wants to scale.

Hiring partnership:

• Work with the Talent Acquisition Lead on hiring plans, interview standards, offers and compensation approvals.
• Support senior and leadership hiring where the Founder needs it.

HR systems and data:

• Choose and run the HRIS.
• Report headcount, attrition, hiring and engagement numbers to the Founder every month.

Must-have requirements:

The right person has 7 - 10 years of broad HR experience and has already worked inside a startup.

• 7 - 10 years in HR across generalist work: HR business partnering, operations and employee relations.
• Startup or scale-up background, where HR processes were built rather than inherited.
• A track record of advising founders or senior leaders and being trusted with sensitive decisions.
• Working knowledge of Indian labour laws, statutory compliance and payroll.
• Experience running performance and compensation cycles end to end.
• Clear written and spoken communication, and sound judgement in employee relations cases.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and happy to do the work personally.

Good to have:

• MBA or PGDM in HR or a related field.
• Experience in a technology or AI company.
• ESOP administration and HRIS implementation experience.
• Experience managing a small team.
• Exposure to multi-state or multi-country hiring or payroll.

What success looks like:

These targets are a starting point to agree with the Founder.

First 90 days:

• Review current HR processes, policies, contracts, compliance and payroll, and fix the biggest gaps.
• Agree people priorities and a headcount plan with the Founder.
• Settle the working split with the Talent Acquisition Lead.

First 12 months:

• A documented policy handbook and onboarding process in use.
• One full performance and compensation cycle completed.
• Hiring plan delivered with the Talent Acquisition Lead.
• Headcount, attrition and engagement reported to the Founder monthly.