Head of people

About Watershed

Watershed is a software platform for running a world-class climate program. We measure our success in the carbon reduction achievements of our customers. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team.

We have offices in San Francisco and London and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you'll be interested in joining us!

The role

As the first leadership hire for the People team at Watershed, you’ll be responsible for establishing the foundation of a world-class people function to ensure our rapidly growing team can do their best work at Watershed. This role will set the strategic vision for people as a part of the senior leadership team. This includes: 

• Long-term people and organizational strategy
• Compensation and total rewards 
• Performance management
• Employee experience and engagement
• People tools and technology
• Learning and development
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

You are likely a good fit for this role if you have experience building out people teams and implementing systems and processes in high-growth technology companies, particularly in the early to mid-stage. You should also bring a strong perspective on how to cultivate environments that attract and retain talent . As we grow rapidly, you’ll help us make key decisions about what to prioritize and when. 

You will: 

• Lead Watershed’s people function and team, acting as a trusted strategic partner to senior leadership, recruiting, business operations and finance partners
• Oversee the development and implementation of competitive compensation, benefits and performance management programs 
• Set the vision and roadmap for the people team at Watershed, with the goal of making Watershed an amazing place to work
• Partner with leadership to operationalize Watershed’s Operating Principles
• Implement processes to assess the effectiveness of programs and practices against benchmark companies and industries, driving improvements where appropriate
• Partner with leadership to implement Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging best practices throughout the employee experience at Watershed
• Help build and mentor a diverse, ambitious, creative, and high-achieving people operations team as the company scales 
• Enhance, implement and enforce key human resource policies and procedures that will improve the overall effectiveness of the organization
• Manage external vendors and consultants that support the people operations function and any related projects as required

You have: 

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in people, total rewards and HR technology, tools and systems  
• Experience building and implementing people operations processes, policies and business systems in early stage environments 
• A strong understanding of HR best practices in organization development, policy administration, benefits and training 
• A clear vision of how to build world class people functions to support high growth companies, including what programs and initiatives to prioritize and when as the company grows and scales
• A deep understanding of the current employment market, including industry trends for compensation, benefits and general employee experience
• Deep knowledge of best practices for building diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through people operations
• Experience in high-growth, fast-paced startup environments, preferably with hybrid remote and in-office teams 
• Experience working at a company that has scaled global people operations in the U.S. and Europe 

FAQ

What’s your approach to remote work?

Watershed is hiring team members on all US and EU time zones, and we’re committed to growing a long-term distributed team. We have hub offices in San Francisco and London, and remote team members from Oregon to New Jersey to Ireland. There may be certain jobs that need to be in San Francisco / London or certain locations, and will be specifically noted in the job description or in conversations.

What are Watershed’s return-to-office plans?

We reopened our San Francisco office in June 2021, and treasure the energy and collaboration that comes from working together in person. We’re particularly lucky to have a great rooftop outdoor space, where we can gather for lunch, one-on-one’s, and the occasional outdoor whiteboarding session. We’re also investing deeply to support remote as a first-class hub, with regular Zoom social times, an emphasis on transparency and written artifacts, and periodic offsites to gather everybody in person.

We’re a COVID-cautious company. The office is open to vaccinated team members with regular testing, and we’ll continue to pay close attention to case rates to ensure it’s safe for everybody.

Do I need X years of experience, climate experience, etc.?

No, Watershed is hiring team members with a broad range of prior experience, and we’d love to talk with you regardless of yours. We prioritize mentorship on the job. There maybe certain jobs that will need X years of experience, and will be specifically noted in the job description.

What’s the interview process like?

It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience screen (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a (usually virtual) onsite interview after that if the screens go well. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process.