Director Of People

Atomic Machines is building the Matter Compiler™, the first in a new class of AI-native, all-digital manufacturing systems that build working machines directly from code. The Matter Compiler™ is aimed at micro-machines: motors and gears the size of a grain of sand, robots small enough to work inside the body, cooling built directly into the chips that run AI, and the many devices like them that have been waiting on a way to build them. Its first product is PrimeSwitch™, an electromechanical power relay the size of a button battery that carries 150 amps continuous current and opens in 50 microseconds, about a thousand times faster than a conventional contactor. Founded by Jeff Holden — serial entrepreneur, ex-Amazon SVP and Uber’s first Chief Product Officer — the company has raised $250 million to date.   Atomic Machines is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara.

About the Role

Atomic Machines is scaling past 250 employees. We're looking for a builder to join as our Director of People and design and lead the People function. This opportunity owns People end to end: the systems, infrastructure, programs, and compliance that let a hardware company grow fast without breaking. You'll lead a team across the operational lifecycle from onboarding through offboarding, total rewards, and the People systems and data foundation the company runs on. You'll also own our move off a PEO to in-house benefits and payroll, stand up the multi-state footprint that comes with our first out-of-state site, drive organizational development and learning, and lead our HR Business Partner function.

You will report to the VP of People & IT and partner regularly with senior leadership, including the CEO, alongside our Head of Strategic Growth, IT, and Finance, representing our operational and organizational core HR functions. This is a role for someone who loves to build and build teams. To be successful, you’ll need to evaluate technology, modernize processes, implement systems, and design programs serving a workforce that spans engineering, R&D, manufacturing, operations, and corporate functions.

We're a hardware company, and hardware moves differently than software. We need someone who has (or is excited to) build People in a hardware, manufacturing, or deep-tech environment and understands why that context changes what good support looks like.

This role is based in our Emeryville office.

What You'll Do

People Operations

• Own the operational employee lifecycle: onboarding, transfers, leaves, offboarding, and the process, documentation, and governance underneath each
• Lead the transition of benefits and payroll from our PEO to in-house administration
• Own payroll operations, including multi-state payroll as we expand beyond California
• Design scalable processes and internal documentation that hold up as headcount grows

Total Rewards & Benefits