Head of People

About

Tau

Power conversion is the bottleneck between the compute, energy, and mobility industries and the future they're trying to build. Most of the industry is still solving it with decades-old approaches. Tau is fixing that. We're a venture-backed hardtech company in Redwood City, building power conversion technology for data centers, EVs, and energy systems. Several products are already moving into production.

We hire people who own problems end-to-end: power electronics, embedded software, controls, test and validation, mechanical design. We solve from first principles, not legacy playbooks. We're past "promising technology." Customers are buying, volume is coming, and the people who join now set the standard everyone builds on after.

We're 50 or so people building power conversion hardware that has to work in the real world, not just in a deck. Our HR function today is a mix of good instincts and duct tape. We need someone who can turn that into something real, without losing the parts of this place that are actually working.

This job has two speeds, and you need to be good at both. Some days you're setting hiring strategy with the exec team and telling a leader something they don't want to hear. Other days you're calling our insurance broker, or doing data entry in Rippling. This role will require you to be hands on in many different areas, and to do it with (mostly) a smile.

What you'll actually do

• Own compliance and HRIS end to end. Right now that means fixing gaps, not maintaining a system someone else built.
• Build the systems we don't have yet: performance reviews, leveling, onboarding, the infrastructure that will enable us to hire the next 100 employees.
• Have the hard conversations. PIPs, terminations, telling a manager their team is a mess, telling a founder their hire isn't working out. You do this directly and you do it with real care for the person on the other end. Both things, every time.
• Partner closely with leadership and recruiting on headcount planning and org design. This isn't an execution-only seat. You'll shape decisions, not just implement them.
• Do the unglamorous stuff without resentment. Filing, scheduling, following a Rippling setup guide step by step. Someone has to, and at this stage it's you.
• Who you are
• You've worked in People or Talent at a company that was 10-50 people and grown with it past 200. You know what breaks at each stage because you've lived it, not read about it.
• You have real experience with HR and people-related compliance. This isn't a "figure it out as you go" requirement.
• You're more structured than most people in this function. You build process because it's the only way things stay repeatable, not because you like paperwork for its own sake.
• You can deliver a hard truth without either softening it into mush or being a jerk about it. High EQ and directness are not in tension for you.
• You want to shape a company, not just administer one. Ambition here isn't a red flag, it's the job.
• We don't care what your last title was or where you went to school. We care whether you can actually do this.
• Who this isn't for If you want a mature, well-resourced People function with a team under you on day one, that's not what this is yet. If doing data entry or staying on hold with EDD feels like a step backward, you'll be miserable here. If you'd rather write culture decks than have the conversation the deck is supposed to prevent, this isn't your seat.