Founding HR Business Partner

Founding HR Business Partner

Palo Alto (Hybrid) · Up to $300k base + Meaningful equity

We're a frontier AI lab building general-purpose world models — real-time, interactive simulations with persistent state and causal structure. This isn't video generation; we're building worlds you can step into, act on, and that respond in turn. It's a fundamentally harder problem than anything in the generative video space, and we're one of the only teams in the world taking it on. Founded by a serial founder with a prior venture-backed exit and a CTO who was a founding engineer at one of the leading autonomy labs, we're backed by top-tier investors and a board that includes one of the most influential figures in computer graphics. Our research team is drawn from the most respected names in AI and autonomy — DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, and Wayve

.
This is our founding People hire. You'll own the People function end to end — and build most of it from scratch. Comp, compliance, immigration, onboarding, HRIS, the operating cadence of a fast-scaling team. There's no playbook waiting for you; you'll write i

t.
This is a builder's role, not a maintainer's. You'll be hands-on every day, moving at the clock speed of a research-driven startup, partnering directly with leadership on the hardest People cal

ls.
What you'll

• own
  Stand up and run People operations across multiple jurisdictions — California, US federal, and (ideally) Swiss and UK employmen
• t lawOwn immigration operations end to end — visa strategy, sponsorship, multi-country mob

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• ilityRun our HRIS in Rippling as the system of record and automate everything that can be auto
• matedBuild comp, levelling, onboarding, and compliance frameworks from the grou
• nd upBe the trusted People partner to founders and functional leads — including knowing when to push

back
What we're looki

• ng for
  10+ years in People/HR, with genuine 0→1 experience at startups — you've built functions, not inherit
• ed themDeep, hands-on Rippling ex
• pertiseMulti-jurisdiction compliance depth; immigration operations experience is es
• sentialHigh agency and high clock speed — you operate with urgency and ow
• nershipYou use AI tools actively in your own workflow and look for ways to apply them across the f
• unctionComfortable being onsite 4–5 days a week in Palo Alto. This one is non-negotiable, so please only apply if it works f