Title: Head of People Operations

Location: Remote

Reporting Structure: This role reports to the COO

The Company

Throne is a high-growth Series B startup on a mission to meaningfully expand access to clean and delightful bathrooms, and they’re growing fast. With flagship customers like the District of Columbia, Caltrain, and LA Metro, they’re on track to more than 2x ARR this year, making this a pivotal moment for the brand.

Why This Role is Exciting

• Founding hire impact: As the founding Head of People Ops, you will have an opportunity to design and shape the HR/People function from the ground up with a clear mandate: reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and scale systems that work for a mixed exempt/non-exempt workforce.
• Transformative mission: You'll be helping cities tackle a critical public infrastructure challenge, improving accessibility and inclusivity in public spaces through innovative bathroom technology.
• Rapid growth trajectory: With Throne projected to grow from $7M to $18M in annual revenue by 2026, this is an exciting opportunity to scale with the company and potentially build a HR/People team.Throne is growing from ~70 employees and expanding fast—this role designs the infrastructure that won’t break at 150+.
• Strategic Leadership Partnership: Work closely with the executive team at Throne to cultivate and enhance a positive, high-performing company culture.

Responsibilities

As the Head of People Operations, you will be responsible for building and managing Throne’s HR and People function while driving retention, building culture, and ensuring compliance across the organization. Your tasks will include:

Compliance, Risk & Policy (Multi-State)

• Own multi-state compliance across CA, MI, DC, MD, VA (and new markets), with a proactive calendar for audits, trainings, and required reviews.
• Design clear, enforceable policies for a mixed workforce—grounded in business risk, consistent practice, and genuine care for employees.
• Build manager-ready toolkits for performance, discipline, timekeeping, attendance, and separations that reduce risk and improve fairness.
• Run employee relations with rigor: investigations, documentation, corrective action, and escalation paths that are timely and consistent.
• Partner with Ops + Finance to ensure policies actually work in the field (breaks, scheduling, safety, leave coverage) without exposing the business.

People Systems & Transition Off the PEO

• Standardize the full employee lifecycle (hire → onboard → changes → offboard) with clear owners, checklists, and controls.
• Lead selection of a new People stack (HRIS, payroll, timekeeping, benefits), optimized for frontline + multi-state complexity.
• Build the transition plan and business case: cost, risk reduction, timeline, resourcing, and success metrics.
• Manage the migration end-to-end: data cleanup, integrations, permissions, testing, training, and go-live support.
• Own systems long-term: vendor relationships, admin hygiene, reporting, and continuous improvement as Throne scales.

Regulated Workforce + Public-Sector Readiness

• Own drug & alcohol testing programs (pre-employment, random, post-incident, reasonable suspicion as applicable) and vendor management.
• Train and equip supervisors with playbooks for incident response, reasonable suspicion, and documentation that holds up under scrutiny.
• Maintain DOT/driver-adjacent compliance where applicable (MVR/DMV checks cadence, recordkeeping, and qualification practices).
• Translate government requirements into HR workflows (credentialing, background checks, required trainings, retention of records, audit readiness).
• Keep documentation “customer-ready” so contract requests don’t become fire drills (proof of compliance, rosters, training logs).

Culture, Retention & Employee Experience (That Scales)

• Make values usable at scale: defined behaviors, manager norms, and feedback rhythms that reinforce “how we work here.”
• Level up onboarding so new hires ramp faster, feel supported early, and understand expectations from day one.
• Build retention levers that fit reality for frontline + corporate teams (role clarity, fair enforcement, growth paths, manager coaching).
• Create consistent employee experiences across locations and teams—clear communication, predictable policies, and follow-through.
• Protect the lovable culture by reducing chaos: fewer surprises, clearer decisions, and a workplace that feels fair and well-run.

Is This You?

• 7+ years of experience working in HR, ideally within fast-growing startups, with specific experience managing diverse workforces (exempt and non-exempt employees, full-time and part-time).
• Proven experience working with California’s workforce laws, ensuring compliance with state-specific regulations.
• Track record of developing and executing retention and culture-building initiatives in high-growth environments.
• Experience overseeing HR functions such as onboarding, offboarding, payroll, background checks, DMV checks, and compliance.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with leadership to build a scalable, compliance-driven HR infrastructure and People function.
• Deep understanding of the unique challenges and needs of a blue-collar workforce.
• Self-starter mentality, with the ability to drive HR initiatives in a fast-paced, evolving startup environment.
• Strong communication and leadership skills, with a knack for simplifying complex HR concepts for all levels of the organization.

Education/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field is preferred.