How to apply for Head of People

About 10a Labs

10a Labs provides adversarial red teaming, model evaluations, and intelligence collection to companies deploying AI systems. Its clients include frontier AI labs, AI unicorns, Fortune 10 companies, and leading global technology platforms. The company operates remotely and focuses on AI safety and threat intelligence.

About the role

This is a Head of People role responsible for building and leading the entire people function at 10a Labs. You will own the full employee lifecycle, from onboarding to performance management, while ensuring compliance with employment laws and partnering with Legal, Finance, Recruiting, and Operations. The role is remote and full-time.

A typical day

A typical day might involve reviewing and updating HR policies, meeting with Legal on employment matters, coaching managers on performance issues, and analyzing people metrics to inform leadership decisions. You could also be onboarding new hires, resolving employee relations cases, or designing a new performance review cycle. Since the company is remote, much of the work happens via video calls and written communication.

Who 10a Labs is looking for

• Has experience building HR policies, processes, and documentation from scratch in a scaling organization.
• Is well-versed in federal, state, and local employment laws and has partnered with Legal on employment matters, contracts, and investigations.
• Has led employee relations, workplace investigations, conflict resolution, and performance management.
• Can design performance review programs, manager enablement, and people metrics to drive organizational effectiveness.

Tips for this application

• Highlight specific examples of building HR infrastructure (policies, processes, documentation) for a growing company, ideally in tech or AI.
• Emphasize your experience with compliance across multiple states and countries, since 10a Labs is remote and likely has a distributed workforce.
• Provide concrete examples of handling employee relations and investigations, including outcomes and lessons learned.
• Show familiarity with the AI industry or other high-growth technical environments, as 10a Labs serves frontier AI labs and Fortune 10 companies.
• Demonstrate ability to partner cross-functionally with Legal, Finance, Recruiting, and Operations by describing past collaborations.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your hands-on experience building people operations from the ground up, including policy development and compliance.', 'Specific instances where you managed employee relations, investigations, or performance management, and the results.', 'How you have used people metrics and performance programs to improve organizational effectiveness.', 'Your interest in AI safety and threat intelligence, and why you want to support a company that serves frontier AI labs and global platforms.']

Research before applying

• Read 10a Labs' website and any public materials to understand their services: adversarial red teaming, model evaluations, and intelligence collection.
• Look up recent news or publications about AI safety, red teaming, and threat intelligence to understand the industry context.
• Find out who the leadership team is and their backgrounds, to understand the company's priorities and culture.
• Check if 10a Labs has any public statements about remote work policies, company values, or employee experience.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would build the people function at 10a Labs from its current state, including prioritizing policies and processes.
• Your approach to ensuring compliance with employment laws across multiple jurisdictions in a remote-first company.
• A time you conducted a workplace investigation or resolved a complex employee relations issue, and how you handled it.
• How you design and implement performance review programs that managers actually use and that drive high performance.
• How you would partner with Legal, Finance, and Recruiting to support rapid growth without sacrificing operational rigor.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Focusing only on generic HR experience without tying it to the specific needs of a scaling AI safety company.
• Neglecting to mention compliance expertise, which is a key requirement for this role.
• Giving vague answers about handling employee relations or investigations without concrete examples.