Head of People

Location: Remote (US) | Full-time

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OpenRouter is the AI routing and infrastructure layer that AI builders, AI-native startups, and enterprises use to access, manage, and optimize their AI usage ... all through a unified API, billing interface, and analytics platform. We power some of the most advanced AI builders in the world by giving them the flexibility to move fast, scale confidently, and stay future-proof as models evolve.

As enterprise adoption of AI accelerates, OpenRouter sits at the center of how organizations operationalize LLMs across research, product, and production workloads.

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OpenRouter is at an inflection point. With ~60 people and scaling to 200+, we're looking for a Head of People who has done this before and built the people function from the ground up at a high-growth technical company and knows what matters at this stage.

This is not a traditional HR role but it’s a builder-operator who owns the full people function: org design, comp & leveling, performance management, culture, and recruiting too. The recruiting team will report into this role.

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• Design and implement compensation, leveling, and career ladder frameworks from scratch

• Establish lightweight, high-signal performance management systems

• Build onboarding, offboarding, and talent development programs that actually scale

• Define and reinforce company culture: remote-first, distributed, high-trust

• Partner with founders and leadership on org design and hiring strategy

• Own core people operations: benefits, payroll, employee relations

• Build and lead the recruiting function: hire and manage IC recruiters, own hiring from ~60 → 200+ without lowering the bar

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• Have been the first or second People hire at a company that scaled from ~40 to 150+ people

• Strong People Ops generalist: comp & leveling, performance cycles, employee relations, onboarding/offboarding

• Remote-first experience is critical given our distributed culture

• Founder-friendly and low-ego; comfortable being both strategic and rolling up your sleeves

• Enough seniority to operate autonomously; no expectation of building a large team immediately

• Background in a technical company (AI, infrastructure, devtools, or engineering-heavy org)

• High agency, strong commercial mindset, will push back on leadership when needed

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• Built a comp framework and leveling system from scratch

• Navigated a company through a period of rapid headcount growth

• Can speak to specific programs you've built: onboarding, performance reviews, manager training

• Knows how to build culture in a remote/hybrid environment

• Comfortable operating without a lot of HR infrastructure in place yet

• Prior Head of People or strong #2 stepping into a first seat

• Experience competing for top-tier AI or engineering talent