Head of People

Epoch AI is growing from around 30 to around 70 people over the next 6–8 months, across multiple countries and employment arrangements. We are creating a new leadership role to own everything people- and events-related through this growth and beyond.  About the role The Head of People oversees three functions: Recruiting, HR, and Events. The role reports to the COO and manages a team of five to start: two operations associates/recruiters, a talent scout, an events lead, and a people operations associate.  This is a building role. Much of the infrastructure you’ll oversee needs to be scaled for an organization twice our current size. People and process management will be your primary responsibility, but during crunch time you’ll need to direct work such as personally running key hiring rounds. The primary responsibilities for this role are managing and guiding the team, scaling the hiring and people systems, overseeing the events calendar, contributing to strategy, and making sure staff are well supported.  This role is fully remote, with the option to work from our Berkeley, California office if you are based in the Bay Area, but we require at least 4 hours of overlap with PST working times. We invite anyone who is interested to apply, regardless of background, experience, or credentials. Please do not include a cover letter, photograph, or headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role for which you're applying (including marital status, age, identity traits, etc.).

Key Responsibilities Recruiting

Own the hiring system. Improve how the hiring processes work: oversee retrospectives after each round, address recurring mistakes, restructure or close rounds that aren't converging, and flag when our compensation structure isn't competitive.

Support headcount planning with the COO. Help turn the org’s growth plan into a hiring plan: which roles open when, in what order, what each round realistically takes. Flag early when the plan and reality diverge, for example when a round is going to slip a quarter and dependent hires need resequencing.

Own the candidate experience. Set the standard for how Epoch presents itself to the talent market — job descriptions, careers page, outreach, rejections — and ensure every candidate, hired or not, leaves with a positive impression of Epoch.

Own the hiring manager experience. Make it easy, quick, and frictionless for researchers, engineers, and other senior staff to launch and run hiring rounds. Protect their time.

Report on the funnel. Own the metrics that tell us whether hiring is working — time-to-hire, source-of-hire, offer-accept rate — and translate them into action, surfacing negative results early, like when hires from a round keep leaving and the role needs a different JD.

HR and staff support

Be a trusted advisor to leadership. Advise on org design, leveling, and sensitive personnel decisions, handled with discretion and empathy.

Help our talent develop once they're inside. Work with the COO and managers on how we develop people after they join: performance review cycles, manager support and materials, and whatever staff need to keep growing at Epoch.

Own the onboarding system. Spot weaknesses, drive improvements, and anticipate what onboarding needs to look like at twice our size.

Own benefits, payroll, and our HR providers. Make sure staff concerns are resolved quickly, and own the provider strategy: what we use, on what terms, and when to switch.

Own compliance, contracts, and visas. Own employment compliance across the jurisdictions where we employ staff, review contract templates and terms, and take the visa sponsorship escalations, flagging risk decisions to the COO.

Own the handbook and internal policies. Set the standard for what makes the handbook useful to staff, and own the policies in it.

Shape organizational culture as we scale. Steward the practices, rituals, and feedback processes that keep Epoch a place where talented people do their best work.

Events

Oversee the events function. Set the goals our events serve and shape the calendar around them: which events earn their place, where to invest more, and when to try new formats as Epoch's needs change.

Scale the function with the org. As the events calendar grows, add contractors or headcount as needed, and make sure repeatable processes make each event easier than the last.

Leadership

Manage the People team. Weekly priorities, performance, and growth for the recruiters, talent scout, people operations associate and events lead. Decide when to flex capacity with contractors versus asking for permanent headcount. Model the management standard you expect of others.

Not in this role Hiring decisions: hiring managers decide, the CEO and/or COO signs off. This role improves the hiring process, manages the recruiters and talent scout, and advises.

Day-to-day HR administration and staff support: the people operations associate runs this; you manage them and own the system and complexities.

Day-to-day event execution: the Events Lead owns this; you manage them, set priorities, and step in on bottlenecks.

We are looking for someone who... Has 7+ years of operations leadership experience including across recruiting and people operations.

Has scaled a people or recruiting function through significant headcount growth.

Has experience managing people, building high performance teams, and developing both individual contributors and managers.

Has owned in-house searches end-to-end, ideally for technical research or academic roles, and has filled hard roles where the best candidates weren’t applying and had to be recruited.

Has experience building at least some of: hiring infrastructure, onboarding processes, performance management systems, or international employment via PEO/EOR.

Is process-minded, with a bias toward simple solutions over heavy processes, and has built systems that scale.

Is relentlessly resourceful, energized by building functions from near-zero, calm under pressure, and impatient when a project could be moving forward but isn’t.

Is comfortable with funnel data and honest reporting on what’s working.

Has strong judgment on sensitive personnel matters, with a default toward direct, candid, and respectful communication.

Is a natural relationship builder who can pitch Epoch’s mission compellingly to candidates and build trust with staff and leadership.

Is familiar with the AI research or nonprofit ecosystem, and motivated by Epoch’s work.

Nice to have: experience with Lever or a similar ATS; experience running or overseeing events; experience with employment visa processes; experience building culture in a remote/hybrid, multi-country organization; an existing network in the AI safety, AI policy, or technical AI community.

If you don’t tick all these boxes but think you would be a great fit, please consider applying anyway!

Compensation & Benefits Annual salary between $145,000 and $193,000 USD for candidates outside the Bay Area, and between $181,000 and $241,000 USD for candidates based in the office in the Bay Area, depending on seniority and prior experience.

Comprehensive health insurance program including supplemental health benefits, life insurance, and a 3% 401K match.

Generous paid time off (PTO), including no specific annual limit, with 30 days PTO per year protected, unlimited personal and sick leave, and 4 months paid parental leave for permanent staff with at least 12 months of tenure (prorated parental leave if less than 12 months).

A flexible and generous expense policy for you to spend on equipment and a large range of productivity tools or learning/development opportunities, including unlimited spending on AI tools, subject to regulations and manager approval.

Paid work trips, including 3 staff retreats per year and relevant conferences.

Full access to our very well-equipped offices in Berkeley, California, including paid meals, snacks, gym, and more.

Additional Information We strongly prefer candidates who can overlap four hours per day with UTC–8 (Pacific Time). This role requires some travel. Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency. Epoch is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. We’re committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. Please email careers@epoch.ai if you have any questions about this role, accessibility requests, or if you want to request an extension to the application deadline. However, we will not review applications submitted to this email address; please submit your application through the link on this page. About Epoch AI Epoch AI is a research institute that produces rigorous empirical research and public data on the trajectory of AI: models, compute, capabilities, adoption, and the broader industrial and economic dynamics. Our work informs policymakers, developers, researchers, journalists, and funders making decisions about advanced AI. Our most widely used projects include our database of AI models, our AI trends dashboard, the Gradient Updates newsletter, and benchmarks like FrontierMath.