SwiftSku (YC W21)
Website:
swiftsku.com
Job details:
The People Partner at SwiftSku is the whole function in one person — running the systems that keep the company compliant and organised, while also being the adviser managers turn to when they have a performance conversation to navigate or a team structure that isn’t working. You will be in the HRMS at 1pm and in a sensitive ER conversation at 8pm. That’s the role.
The role sits at the intersection of people, process, and systems — and is critical to delivering a reliable employee experience at scale.
We need someone who has scaled people functions before, not at a 5,000 person company with 20 HRBPs, but at a company that looked a lot like us — a 50+ headcount and growing steadily: fast, distributed, ambitious. Someone who can set up the infrastructure that lets us hire well, retain the people who drive outcomes, and build managers who don’t need hand-holding.
This is a builder role, not a maintainer role. If you need a fully staffed HR team and mature processes to do your best work — this isn’t the right fit.
Who You Are
- You have built HR infrastructure from scratch at a company that was scaling fast — you know what corners to cut and which ones you can’t
- You have worked across at least two geographies and understand that global doesn’t mean uniform
- You think in systems, not transactions. You solve the root problem, not the symptom
- You are direct with founders and leaders — you give your view, disagree openly, and commit fully once a decision is made
- You don’t need the team to be big to do the work well. You can execute alongside the people you’re enabling
- You are credible on the technical details — employment law, comp mechanics, HRMS administration — without getting lost in them
- You care about people’s outcomes. You measure yourself by what actually changes, not by programs launched
What We Offer
- A seat at the leadership table — not a support function that gets consulted after decisions are made
- The scope to build the people function the way it should be built, with leadership that will back the right calls
- Competitive compensation with meaningful equity — we will share the upside with the people who build it
- A company that genuinely cares for its people — the decisions you make will define the culture for years
ROLE DETAILS
People Infrastructure
The architecture that makes everything else possible
- Design and own the global people operations framework: process, policies, employment structures
- Own the HRMS (Keka) as the system of record: data integrity, workflows, reporting, and adoption across all geographies
- Define and enforce documentation standards: offer letters, employment terms, policy acknowledgements, and lifecycle records
HR Business Partnership
Strategic counsel to leadership and founders
- Serve as a trusted advisor to the founders and leadership team on all people matters — org decisions, team health, difficult cases, and growth tradeoffs
- Make people data useful: surface patterns, flag risks, and present options
- Own sensitive Employee Relations matters end-to-end: investigations, documentation, and resolution — with consistency and without unnecessary escalation
- Represent the employee perspective in leadership decisions — not as a blocker, but as someone who helps the company make better calls
- Manage and grow — build the team as headcount scales
Culture & Engagement
Distributed by structure, connected by intention
- Own the engagement signal: pulse cadence, synthesis, and action — not just survey scores, but what changes because of them
- Build the rituals and systems that sustain culture across time zones: recognition, communication norms, and shared operating principles
- Maintain a flight-risk radar and work with leaders on proactive retention before people have already decided to leave
- Be the honest voice in the room about culture drift: call it when you see it, propose solutions, and track whether they’re working
Compensation, Payroll & Rewards
- Run payroll end-to-end: collect inputs, validate, and execute processing. Payroll runs on time, every month
- Define levels and bands that hold — so that every offer, promotion, and raise is made within a framework
- Manage the annual comp review cycle: merit, promotion, and equity refresh
- Design and maintain a benefits approach that is locally relevant
Talent & Hiring
- Partner with hiring managers and leadership to define role scopes, success profiles, and hiring bars before roles open
- Own the hiring process from JD to offer — structured, consistent
- Drive workforce planning with leadership: anticipate hiring needs 2–3 quarters ahead rather than reacting to headcount pressure
- Own the new hire experience globally — from offer acceptance to 90-day integration — so joiners hit the ground running regardless of geography
Manager Effectiveness
- Define what good management looks like at this company: expectations, cadences, and non-negotiables — and make them explicit, not assumed
- Build the enablement layer: toolkits, templates, and coaching that give managers what they need to run their teams well (1:1s, feedback, performance conversations, hiring decisions)
- Diagnose manager gaps systematically and drive structured improvement plans with accountability, not just advice
- Build a feedback loop between team health signals and manager behaviour, so problems surface before they become attrition
Performance & Org Design
- Own the performance cadence: lightweight, consistent, and actually run
- Drive goal-setting discipline across the org: every employee knows what they’re accountable for and how their work connects to company outcomes
- Support leaders on performance decisions — not by making the call for them, but by ensuring they have the right framework, documentation, and consistency
- Advise leadership on org design: team structure, role clarity, decision rights, and span of control — especially during rapid headcount growth
- Own the improvement and exit framework: structured, documented, and executed fairly across geographies
Click on Apply to know more.