About the job Founding Senior HR Generalist / People Operations Lead — Giga
Founding Senior HR Generalist / People Operations Lead — Giga
Location: San Francisco, CA — Dogpatch (Onsite)
Compensation: $160,000 – $185,000 base + competitive equity
Visa Sponsorship: None available
Experience Level: 4–8 years
Employment Type: Full-Time
About Giga
Giga builds enterprise AI agents for major B2C organizations across voice, chat, and email customer interactions. Customers include DoorDash, a top $200B telecom provider, the largest crypto trading platform, and a major alternative investment platform. The company has raised a $61M Series A and is ranked #6 on the Forbes AI 50 Brink List — scaling aggressively toward category leadership in enterprise AI automation.
About the Role
This is the first dedicated HR hire at Giga — a true foundational People Operations ownership role. This is not a specialist HR support role. This is not a large-company HRBP seat. This is a hands-on startup HR builder role with immediate focus on operational rigor and infrastructure, with broader people strategy ownership expanding over time.
Core ownership includes:
- Full employee lifecycle ownership — onboarding, equipment coordination, account provisioning, orientation, promotions, role changes, offboarding, and terminations
- Employment documentation management — offer letters, employment agreements, and separation materials
- HRIS ownership (Rippling as source of truth)
- Benefits administration — broker/provider management and retirement benefits
- Payroll coordination with Finance and payroll compliance oversight
- California labor law application and in-person workplace compliance
- Severance handling and HR workflow design
- Process documentation and scaling operational HR systems
Future ownership expansion includes performance management, manager enablement, employee engagement, culture programs, and broader employee experience initiatives.
Requirements
- 4–8 years of HR experience
- Venture-backed startup experience — ideally most recent role at a company with $10M+ funding
- First or second HR hire experience with one-of-one or one-of-two HR ownership
- California employment law fluency
- HRIS expertise — Rippling strongly preferred
- Payroll fundamentals and employee transition/termination experience
- Severance handling experience
- Independent HR decision-making judgment
- Full-time onsite in San Francisco
Nice to Have
- Rippling direct experience
- Sales org support experience
- Compensation complexity exposure — OTE plans, accelerators, commission structures
- Multi-state or international employment experience
- Performance management programs and broader People Ops initiatives
Target Backgrounds
Strong fits include founding People Ops leaders, startup HR generalists, early scaling HR builders, and operationally rigorous HR owners who have already served as the first or second HR hire and can independently build compliant, scalable people infrastructure from scratch.
This Role Is NOT For
- Large enterprise career HR profiles with no startup one-of-one ownership
- Candidates with weak California labor law knowledge
- Highly structured HR operators who require defined playbooks
Benefits
- Daily catered lunch and dinner stipend
- $150 monthly wellness benefit
- 401(k)
- Commuter benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision
Interview Process
- Application review
- Consideration
- Intro screen
- Role evaluation / technical
- Case study
- Onsite
- Final executive round
- Offer
Logistics
- Role is fully onsite in San Francisco (Dogpatch) — please only apply if you can commit to this
- No visa sponsorship available
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by David Joseph & Co., the recruiting partner managing this search on behalf of Giga.