Head of People
About Relay Relay is a cross-chain payments network that delivers instant, low‑cost bridging, swaps, and transactions across 85+ chains. We’ve served 5M+ users with 59M+ transactions and $6B+ in volume. Our mission is to make moving value across chains as fast, cheap, and reliable as online payments; abstracting chain complexity so the next billion users never have to think about it. The Role We’re hiring a Head of People to build and lead a world‑class People function; equal parts strategic partner and hands‑on operator. You’ll shape our culture, design the org for speed and clarity, and put in place the lightweight systems that help senior, high‑ownership people do their best work in a global, remote‑first environment. Why Relay? Impact : Work as a true partner to leadership, deeply influencing org design, talent standards, and culture Autonomy : Build a People function from the ground up with a high degree of trust and freedom Leverage : We’re profitable and growing quickly, which means you’ll have the resources you need to do great work Challenge : There’s never a dull moment as we navigate fast growth in a rapidly evolving industry Upside : We’re post-PMF, but pre-scale. The perfect time to join. What You’ll Own People strategy aligned to company priorities: Act as a trusted partner to the CEO, COO, and functional leads Org design and workforce planning: Clarify responsibilities, structure, and career pathways for a highly technical team Performance & growth: Evolve a feedback-first culture and a pragmatic performance cadence (calibration, promotions, development) without heavy process Manager & leadership enablement: Coach leaders, raise bar for manager effectiveness, and create simple toolkits that scale Talent & recruiting partnership: Partner with leadership and external recruiters on headcount planning, brand positioning, and closing Retention & compensation: Define a clear compensation philosophy, pay bands, benchmarking, and refresh rhythms; proactively monitor engagement and satisfaction People Ops systems: Maintain and continuously improve payroll, benefits, leave, and HRIS in partnership with Finance; keep us compliant across jurisdictions Policies & employee relations: Maintain handbook and policies; handle sensitive issues with judgment and discretion Onboarding & offboarding: Own an end-to-end, high-signal experience that sets expectations and accelerates ramp up Culture & rituals: Lead company-wide rituals and offsites (2–4×/year) that strengthen trust in a remote-first, async-friendly team Cross-functional cohesion: Work closely with every function, and own large cross-functional projects like M&A diligence and integration What Success Looks Like Org is simple, fast, and aligned: teams have crisp interfaces and fewer bottlenecks Compensation is kept up to date and trusted; attrition remains low People are clear on expectations, growth paths, and how performance is assessed Nothing slips through the cracks; we identify & solves challenges before they escalate Hiring velocity improves without lowering the bar; our closing rate increases and we make less mistakes People Ops runs smoothly; clean data, reliable systems, and no compliance surprises. Our culture is explicit and felt: “safe hands,” high ownership, and healthy feedback loops Our top talent is happy, and feels like they can do great work without friction We develop a reputation as a great place to work, increasing the quality of inbound candidates What You Bring 8–10+ years in People leadership with direct partnership to senior execs; experience supporting engineering/product orgs in high-growth environments Track record building lightweight, scalable performance and growth systems Demonstrated judgment in employee relations and sensitive matters Experience architecting compensation philosophy and running cycles Strong operator: you’ve owned onboarding, payroll/benefits, leave, and multi-jurisdiction compliance, ideally with modern tools (e.g., Rippling/Remote/Carta) Excellent communication and coaching; comfortable in a distributed, fast-moving team Comp & Benefits $200,000+ base salary + equity Remote-first with meaningful IRL time Comprehensive health, dental, vision; home office setup allowance Unlimited PTO with an encouraged minimum Access to crypto education and industry events; work with a world-class technical team and partners across the ecosystem