Head of People Operations
Atomic Machines
| Company | Atomic Machines |
| Category | Operations & Admin |
| Location | Emeryville or Santa Clara |
| Remote | On-site (inferred) |
| Employment | Not stated |
| Level | Director |
| Salary | Not stated by the employer |
| Posted | 28 Jul 2026 |
| Last verified | 9 Aug 2026 |
| Source | Employer ATS (greenhouse) |
Description
Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler™ technology platform. This platform enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by providing manufacturing processes and a materials library that are inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It unlocks MEMS manufacturing not only for device classes that could never be produced by semiconductor methods, but also for entirely new categories. Furthermore, this digital platform is fully programmable in the way 3D printing is digital—but whereas 3D printing produces parts of a single material using a single process, the Matter Compiler™ technology platform is a multi-process, multi-material system: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device—made possible only through the Matter Compiler™ technology platform—that we will be unveiling to the world soon.
Our offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California.
About The Role:
Atomic Machines is building up its People Operations from early-stage startup to infrastructure for scale. We’re bringing benefits and payroll in-house, evaluating a new HRIS, and want a genuinely AI-forward point of view on the tools we adopt — and all of this sits within one broader mandate: making the full employee experience, from onboarding through daily life at a site to how people are supported and recognized, reliable and consistent as we grow past 200+ employees across multiple locations.
This role owns that mandate end to end: People Operations (the employee lifecycle — onboarding, benefits, payroll, leave, compliance), People Programs (performance management and development), People Systems (HRIS and tooling decisions, with a pragmatic AI-forward lens), and the Atomizer Experience (the day-to-day experience of being at one of our sites, including team events and cross-site consistency — not facilities or building management, which is handled separately). These aren’t separate workstreams bolted together; they’re one continuous employee experience that this role is accountable for end to end.
What matters most is the ability to take operations, programs, systems, and employee experience from founder-era ignition events to reliable, scaled, and thoughtfully modern. AI-enabled tools and workflows should be built into the foundations while balancing the ability to personally build custom automations as we learn with everyone else.
This role reports to the VP, People, and works in direct partnership with the executive team, including the CEO, while personally leading and coaching the existing People Operations team through this maturation.
What You’ll Do:
People Operations
Own the full employee lifecycle end-to-end — onboarding/offboarding, benefits, payroll coordination, leave, and immigration/regulatory compliance — including leading the transition of benefits and payroll from our PEO to in-house administration.
Build the operational rigor — process documentation, SOPs, data integrity — that lets these processes hold up as the company scales past 200+ employees and multiple sites.
People Programs
Be the execution partner for our core company processes — compensation administration, performance management, and employee development — turning them into clean, well-run programs rather than one-off events.
Bring a modern, evidence-based approach to how these programs run, iterating based on what’s actually working.
People Systems & AI-Forward Tooling
Evaluate and select HRIS and People systems appropriate for a scaling company, favoring proven platforms over one-off custom builds.
Bring a genuinely curious, evaluative mindset to AI-enabled features and vendors — fluent in assessing what’s built into ATS, HRIS, and benefits platforms, without needing to personally build custom automation