Director, People Operations (Defense)

Location: Full-time onsite in Los Angeles (Hawthorne), California, United States. U.S. citizenship is required because the role involves access to information and systems subject to U.S. export control and government contract regulations.

Salary: $172,000–$220,000 annual base compensation, excluding bonuses, equity, and benefits.

Company

hirify.global is a defense technology company founded in 2022 that develops multi-product systems powered by Coherent Distributed Networks for defense, commercial aviation, and border protection applications.

What you will do

• Lead, hire, develop, and manage the People Operations team, including Generalists and Operators.
• Own the People Operations policy library from development and Legal/Compliance review through rollout and revision.
• Set the HR systems and vendor roadmap across Rippling, Sparrow, Culture Amp, Confluence, JIRA, and future tools.
• Improve HR service delivery through intake processes, response-time standards, automation, and self-service resources.
• Own benefits strategy, performance and compensation cycle design, compliance training, reporting, and workforce metrics.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, IT, Security, and senior leadership on sensitive employee matters and cross-functional planning.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive HR experience, including 3+ years managing HR generalists.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience developing HR policies, scaling HR service delivery, managing HRIS vendors, and building generalist or business partner teams.
• Deep knowledge of U.S. employment law, especially California and multi-state requirements.
• Experience leading complex employee relations investigations, restructurings, or reductions in force at the executive-stakeholder level.
• U.S. citizenship is required due to export control and government contract regulations.

Nice to have

• SPHR or SHRM-SCP certification.
• Experience in defense, aerospace, or another regulated, security-conscious industry.
• Experience building People Operations from the ground up in a scaling startup.
• Experience governing Confluence or a similar knowledge-management system at scale.
• Experience designing compliance training with Legal and InfoSec.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits fully paid by the company.
• 401(k) with a 50% company match up to 6% of pay, plus FSA, HSA, and life insurance.
• Unlimited PTO, free daily lunch, no-meeting Fridays, and a casual dress code.
• Competitive base salary, pre-IPO stock options, relocation assistance, and planned annual bonuses.
• Approximately 350 employees across five global offices.