Director, People

About Turing Based in San Francisco, California, Turing is the world’s leading research accelerator for frontier AI labs and a trusted partner for global enterprises looking to deploy advanced AI systems. Turing accelerates frontier research with high-quality data, specialized talent, and training pipelines that advance thinking, reasoning, coding, multimodality, and STEM. For enterprises, Turing builds proprietary intelligence systems that integrate AI into mission-critical workflows, unlock transformative outcomes, and drive lasting competitive advantage. Recognized by Forbes, The Information, and Fast Company among the world’s top innovators, Turing’s leadership team includes AI technologists from Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, McKinsey, Bain, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT. Learn more at www.turing.com About the Role Turing is standing up a formal People leadership structure to match the pace of our growth. This is a founding hire into a high-leverage, multi-national people environment—the person who gets clarity, moves fast, and measures their work the way a business leader would. You will own three core pillars of Turing's talent strategy: HR Business Partners, Talent Development, and People Experience, managing a team of approximately 15 HR professionals. You will report directly into executive leadership and operate as a genuine strategic partner—not a program owner. The playbook does not yet exist. You will write it. The Role You will be the first senior People leader to sit at the intersection of Turing's AGI Advancement and Turing Intelligence businesses. Every function—engineering, research, sales, production—depends on talent density. You will partner directly with business leaders to design and execute AI-enabled people strategies that drive disciplined, scalable hypergrowth. Strong judgment, clear thinking, and consistent execution are the baseline. The differentiation is an AI-forward mindset and a bias for measurable business impact over HR programming. What You'll Do 1) Strategic HR Partnership — be the go-to for judgment, clarity, and a steady hand Operate as the primary people strategy partner to business leaders across all functions. Bring a clear point of view that helps leaders navigate complexity, elevate their impact, and make better decisions—not just HR process. Build trusted relationships with executives and senior ICs; become the person they call before a decision, not after. Understand that recruitment and retention are the foundation of talent density—treat them as business priorities, not HR programs. 2) AI Innovation — define the frontier of AI in HR Take an AI-forward approach to every problem. Ask what a 10x outcome looks like before designing a program. Drive adoption of AI tools across the People function; identify and prioritize use cases that accelerate execution and scale impact. Partner on AI initiatives including the development of agents and HR-focused RL environments. No coding required—strong curiosity and a builder's mindset are. Lead People Operations' AI-enabled workflow initiative, including AI-assisted talent analytics and HRBP decision support tools—identifying the highest-leverage use cases and building toward a function that operates at 10x through intelligent automation. Drive Generative AI adoption across the People team, establishing expectations for daily AI tool usage, sharing best practices across the HRBP and Talent Development teams, and measuring adoption as a functional KPI. 3) HR Business Partners — scale a world-class HRBP function Continue to scale the HRBP function supporting all business units. Reinforce operating rigor that aligns people strategies with business priorities and drives consistent, measurable impact. Develop business partners who apply sound judgment, adapt to nuance, and are measured on business outcomes—not activity. The current HRBP team includes People Partners and Generalists supporting all Turing business units across AGI Advancement and Turing Intelligence. This leader will also manage the Talent Development function, led by a dedicated function leader. Combined, the team spans approximately 15 HR professionals. 4) People Experience — strategic direction through the function leader Lead the People Experience function through the team leader—set direction, remove blockers, and hold the bar on quality. Ensure programs are effective, scalable, and tied to culture and operating effectiveness rather than optics. Active priority: integrate employee experience ownership into the HRBP operating model following the recent consolidation of the standalone People Experience function, ensuring onboarding and engagement programs are embedded into business partnership workflows. Active priority: reestablish clear ownership of employee touchpoints (onboarding, engagement, offboarding) within the combined HRBP and Talent Development structure, with measurable quality standards. 5) Talent Development — set direction through the function leader Lead the Talent Development function through the team leader—own the strategy, delegate the execution. Ensure programs drive real capability building and business performance, not compliance checkboxes. Active priority: stand up Turing's first formal Talent Review framework across all executive teams, creating a repeatable quarterly cadence that identifies high performers, succession risks, and development needs. Active priority: build a leadership development infrastructure to drive manager effectiveness at scale—establishing the programs, tools, and accountability cadences needed to grow Turing's leaders as the company scales. 6) Operational Excellence & Measurement — run the function like a business Define the metrics that matter: retention, time-to-productivity, manager effectiveness, HRBP impact on business outcomes. Build operating cadences across all three pillars that executive leadership trusts and the team executes without hand-holding. Near-term operational build priorities: establishing People Team operating cadences from scratch; defining metrics that connect people work to business outcomes (retention, promotion rates, succession readiness, gross margin impact through workforce model improvements); and building HRBP accountability frameworks where few formal structures previously existed. A key ongoing question is how to instrument and buy-vs-build the right analytics and HRBP tooling as the function scales. Who We're Looking For 10+ years of experience in HRBP or people leadership roles, including direct leadership of HRBP functions; blended experience across HRBP and recruiting is acceptable, but strong HRBP experience is required. Proven track record of using people strategy to drive measurable business outcomes—not just HR programs. Experience operating as a strategic partner to executive leadership, with the judgment and influence to push back when it matters. Demonstrated success leading and scaling HRBP functions in complex, global, and multi-national organizations. Ability to navigate ambiguity and operate effectively in fast-paced, hypergrowth environments where the answer is rarely obvious. A high written communication bar: your memos get read, your proposals get approved, and your leaders don't need to ask follow-up questions. Energized by 10x scaling, not incremental progress—you're here to build, not to maintain. Strong Pluses Prior experience at a high-growth technology company scaling through a critical inflection point (Series C to IPO, or equivalent). Hands-on experience deploying AI tools in an HR or people context—even informal experimentation counts. Background in a multinational environment with teams across the US, India, and other geographies. Experience partnering with GTM and R&D leadership specifically, not just G&A functions. Experience working within or closely alongside AI research organizations, frontier model labs, or technical teams building on large language models or advanced AI infrastructure. What Success Looks Like 30 Days First executive partnership cadences established with key business unit leaders. HRBP team assessment complete—current scope, open priorities, key relationships, and early gaps identified. Top three People priorities for the next quarter aligned with Taylor Bradley and relevant executive partners. 60 Days People strategy v1 drafted and socialized with executive leadership. Talent Review framework designed and first pilot session scheduled with an executive team. AI-in-HR opportunity roadmap drafted, with use cases prioritized by impact and effort. First HRBP accountability check-in completed against agreed priorities; early baseline metrics established. 180 Days Talent Review fully operationalized across all executive teams, with every executive partner holding a documented, living talent plan. Talent Development roadmap published and key programs in-flight, including manager effectiveness and succession readiness. People Team metrics defined and reported regularly to executive leadership. HRBP coverage model producing measurable business outcomes—visible impact on retention, organizational effectiveness, and people-driven gross margin improvement. Values We are client first: We put our clients at the center of everything we do, because their success is the ultimate measure of our value. We work at Start-Up Speed: We move fast, stay agile and favor action because momentum is the foundation of perfection We are AI forward: We help our clients build the future of Al and implement it in our own roles and workflow to amplify productivity. Advantages of joining Turing Amazing work culture (Super collaborative & supportive work environment; 5 days a week) Awesome colleagues (Surround yourself with top talent from Meta, Google, LinkedIn etc. as well as people with deep startup experience) Competitive compensation Flexible working hours Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Turing is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. At Turing we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace and celebrate authenticity, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. For applicants from the European Union, please review Turing's GDPR notice here.