{"id":3175236,"url":"https://alion.io/job/propeller-industries-vp-people-services","title":"VP, People Services","company":{"id":685510,"name":"Propeller Industries","domain":"propellerindustries.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/propellerindustries","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Pinpoint","truth_index":null},"role":"Early Careers","role_family":"Early Careers","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"posting_text","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":210000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-22T19:44:52Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-26T05:33:06Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"In 2008, Propeller reinvented the way venture-stage companies build finance teams, and in the process we\ndefined the category the market now calls fractional. Today we are building what comes next: a professional\nservices firm where human judgment and AI-enabled intelligence work as one system. The technology is\nmoving fast. The people side is harder. AI changes what our teams produce, how engagements are staffed,\nwhat a career path looks like, and what great looks like in every seat. Firms that treat that as a software\nrollout will stall. Firms that lead their people through it deliberately will define the next decade.\nWe are hiring the leader who will make that change stick at Propeller. You will be the strategic people\npartner to our CEO and leadership team: someone who has lived inside a professional services business,\nideally finance and accounting, who understands that the expertise, judgment, and client relationships of\nour people are what clients actually buy, and who has a strong point of view on why driving people change is\nharder than driving technology change and what it actually takes.\nThis role has a second dimension. Our clients are the same founders and operators who need HR\ninfrastructure as they scale, and many already rely on Propeller for payroll. You will build that foundation\ninto a People Services practice with its own P&L: payroll at the core, augmented by the policies, handbooks,\ncompliance, and HR advisory that small and growth-stage companies need but are not ready to hire for.\nThis is a leadership role for someone ready to build both a function and a practice, not just run a\ndepartment.\nWho We Are\nToday, Propeller's 250+ professionals serve as the embedded finance and accounting partner to some of the\nmost iconic emerging companies in Consumer, Technology, Blockchain, and Business Services. All are full\u0002time employees, across three continents; none are contractors or freelancers. Behind us: 1,500+ companies\nserved, $105B+ in enterprise value created, 26 unicorn alumni, and $29B+ raised. Ahead of us: the\ntransformation of professional services through AI-enabled intelligence.\nOur embedded teams integrate seamlessly into client operations in multi-year partnerships. We attend\nweekly leadership meetings, participate in board prep, collaborate on strategic decisions, and have direct\naccess to client CEOs and CFOs. This embedded positioning creates trust, access, and influence that\ntraditional providers never achieve.\nPropellerOS, our financial operating platform, combines human judgment, precision accounting, data\ninfrastructure, and AI-enabled insight to transform finance from a back-office function into the central\nnervous system of growth. The system enables finance-grade standards of lineage, reconciliation,\nauditability, and explainability, with a named human accountable for every number we ship.\nKey Responsibilities\nMost HR leadership roles emphasize one dimension. This role requires three.\nIn a professional services firm, the people are the product. Every decision about hiring, development,\ncompensation, and role design shows up directly in client experience, retention, and the reputation that\ndrives referrals. At the same time, AI is reshaping the work itself. The market treats the internal HR leader,\nthe change leader, and the HR services entrepreneur as three separate jobs. At Propeller they are one, and\neach makes the others stronger.\nStrategic People Partner\nYou are a member of the leadership team and the strategic partner to our CEO and practice leaders on\neverything people. You understand what creates value in a professional services business: the depth of\nclient relationships, the continuity of the teams that serve them, the expertise that compounds over a\ncareer, and the institutional knowledge that has to outlast any one person. You build the workforce plan\nthat keeps talent ahead of growth, the career architecture that lets Controllers and CFOs grow on parallel\ntracks rather than one ladder, and the compensation and performance systems that reward client impact\nand the outcomes clients pay for. You lead and guide our internal People team, including our recruiting, HR,\nand compliance leads: you set the strategy, standards, and priorities, and they run execution in their areas.\nYou earn credibility with delivery teams by connecting with them at their level: you understand their work,\ntheir clients, and their pressure. If you see HR primarily as administration and compliance, this isn't your\nrole.\nServe as strategic advisor to the CEO and leadership team on organization design, workforce planning,\nand talent strategy.\nLead and develop the internal People team (recruiting, HR, and compliance), guiding strategy and\nstandards while team leads own day-to-day execution.\nDesign the career architecture, compensation, and performance systems for client-facing\nprofessionals across all practices.\nShape talent strategy for attracting, developing, and retaining the expertise our clients rely on,\nworking through our recruiting lead.\nEnsure Propeller's own HR, payroll, benefits, and employment compliance are best-in-class, so we run\ninternally what we sell externally.\nTransformation Leader\nYou own the people side of Propeller's transformation into an AI-enabled firm. You redesign roles as AI takes\non the mechanical work, build the AI fluency programs that move every team member from awareness to\ndaily practice, and reshape performance expectations so the new behaviors are the ones that get recognized\nand rewarded. You know that resistance is rarely about the tool; it is about identity, trust, and what people\nbelieve the change means for them. You bring a clear, tested point of view on how to lead through that, and\nyou hold leaders accountable for doing it with you. You also partner with our Transformation practice to\nbring change management to client system and process implementations, where the people side decides\nwhether the technology delivers. If your change playbook is a launch email and a training deck, this isn't\nyour role.\nLead the people side of Propeller's AI transformation: role redesign, AI fluency training, change\nmanagement, and adoption measurement.\nRedefine what great looks like in each role as the work shifts from producing outputs to exercising\njudgment.\nPartner with practice leaders and the Transformation practice to bring change management capability\nto client engagements.\nPractice Builder\nYou own the People Services practice end to end: offering, pipeline, delivery, and P&L. You accelerate our\nexisting payroll services and build around them the HR services small and growth-stage companies need:\nhandbooks and policies, multi-state compliance, onboarding and offboarding, compensation benchmarking,\nbenefits guidance, and fractional HR leadership. You package and price those services, sell them into our\nexisting client base alongside our embedded finance teams and through our referral network, and build a\nlean delivery team that runs them to Propeller's standards. You think like a business owner. If you have\nnever carried a number, this isn't your role.\nOwn the financial performance of the People Services practice: revenue, margins, client retention, and\nprofitability.\nGrow payroll services and launch complementary HR offerings (policies, handbooks, compliance,\nadvisory) for small and growth-stage clients.\nDrive business development in coordination with our GoToMarket team, embedded client teams, and\nreferral partners.\nUse AI and automation in service delivery, and codify what works so the practice scales without adding\nheadcount linearly\nSkills, Knowledge & Expertise\n15+ years in HR and People leadership, with at least 7 years as head of HR or senior strategic HR\npartner in a professional services firm. Finance, accounting, or advisory firm experience strongly\npreferred.\nA strong, articulated point of view on transforming a professional services business, and on why\npeople change is harder than technology change. You can walk us through a transformation you led:\nwhat worked, what broke, and what you would do differently.\nDirect experience building or running an HR services offering for small companies (fractional HR, HR\nconsulting, payroll or PEO provider, or similar), including pricing, selling, and delivering it.\nTrack record leading HR functions through other leaders: guiding recruiting, HR, and compliance leads\nrather than doing the work yourself.\nDeep working knowledge of payroll operations: multi-state payroll and tax, benefits administration,\nand the major small-business payroll and HRIS platforms.\nCommand of US employment law and multi-state compliance; experience supporting employees\nacross multiple countries is a plus.\nExperience designing compensation, career paths, and performance systems for client-facing\nprofessionals.\nDemonstrated AI fluency: you use AI in your own HR workflow today and can show us how it changes\nwhat you produce.\nCommercial instinct: comfortable owning a P&L, building pipeline, and closing business.\nExecutive presence and credibility with both senior leadership and delivery teams; comfortable\ndelivering difficult messages with clarity.\nSPHR or SHRM-SCP preferred.\nProfessional Services Expertise\nYou understand how professional services firms work: why client trust and team continuity are the real\nassets, how reputation and referrals are earned engagement by engagement, the career expectations of\ncredentialed professionals, and the tension between developing people and serving clients. You know what\nit takes for a CPA or controller to trust a change in how their work gets done. Experience in a finance and\naccounting firm, Big 4, or advisory practice is strongly preferred; experience serving small and growth-stage\ncompanies as clients is a plus\nJob Benefits\n\nBase salary range $210,000 - $250,000 + significant variable compensation tied to People Services\npractice performance and new business.\nEquity participation.\nInvestment in your development: AI/automation training, executive coaching, and access to\nPropeller's network.\nRemote-flexible with travel for team leadership, client meetings, and conferences.\nCurrent Benefits Offered: Generous Paid Time Off and Holiday pay, Comprehensive health benefits plus\ndental, vision, short and long-term disability, and life insurance. HSA contribution, Paid Family Leave, 401k\nmatch and Remote Work. We also help you grow in your professional life","description_format":"text","description_chars":10452,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Life insurance","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Financial Software & Embedded Finance"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-23T19:44:52Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":37,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-26T05:57:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":250000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/propeller-industries-vp-people-services","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/propeller-industries-vp-people-services.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-26T09:31:15Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12889,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":685510},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=685510"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpropeller-industries-vp-people-services"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpropeller-industries-vp-people-services"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpropeller-industries-vp-people-services"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/propeller-industries-vp-people-services\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpropeller-industries-vp-people-services"}]}