PeopleProgramsLead

PEOPLE PROGRAMS LEAD San Francisco, CA · In-office (5 days/week) · Full-time ABOUT AFTERQUERY AfterQuery is building the human-data layer that the next generation of AI models is trained on. Frontier labs and AI-first companies depend on us to deliver high-quality, expert-generated data — fast, with rigor, and at a level of taste that off-the-shelf labeling vendors cannot match. Our edge comes from how we recruit, level, develop, and retain a workforce of high-agency operators and domain experts. We are growing quickly, the work is consequential, and the bar is unapologetically high. ABOUT THE ROLE This is our first dedicated People Programs hire, reporting to the Head of Business Operations & People. You will own the systems that turn AfterQuery from a fast-growing team into a durable institution — comp philosophy and bands, leveling and career pathways, performance management, learning & development, and retention. You will partner directly with the founders, finance, and functional leaders to design programs that fit a company supporting a lean, talent-dense team and a much larger expert workforce, both held to a single quality bar. You should be excited to tackle the talent opportunities specific to an AI-native company, and/or internalize the insights from the kind of work that Handshake AI, Block, and a small set of others have had to navigate as they reorient around AI products and AI-native talent. Compensation gravity is changing. Career ladders that worked five years ago do not. We need someone who has the analytical horsepower to redesign these systems from first principles, the taste to know what "excellent" looks like, and the operating instincts to roll programs out with efficiency, not bureaucracy. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design and own AfterQuery’s total compensation strategy — philosophy, bands, leveling, refresh cadence, and equity framework — and refresh it annually against benchmarks and market signals. - Build the career pathways and leveling rubric th