VP of People

About the role Giga builds energy infrastructure for a growing digital economy. Our people design equipment, build manufacturing capacity, deliver construction projects, and operate in the field. We are looking for a leader who can help those teams perform at a consistently high level as the company grows. You will report to the Chief Business Officer and lead People and Talent Acquisition, including recruiting, People operations, onboarding, rewards, and employee development. You will establish common standards across our international teams while working with regional leaders and local specialists. Your decision authority will expand as you learn the business and earn trust, with close support and supervision from the Chief Business Officer. The central requirement is credibility earned by building a high-performing organization. You have selected strong people, developed leaders, set demanding standards, and delivered results through others. You can earn the respect of a demanding executive, an engineer, and a frontline supervisor, then help each of them manage better. What you will do ● Build a high-performance culture: attract excellent people, keep the strongest contributors, coach where it improves results, and address persistent underperformance promptly and fairly. ● Help managers set clear expectations, give direct feedback, develop their teams, and make well-supported performance decisions. Managers remain responsible for their people. ● Put usable compensation bands, levels, promotion criteria, and performance-linked bonus rules into operation with Finance and business leaders. ● Lead recruiting and onboarding as one connected effort, improving selection, new-hire effectiveness, and Giga's reputation as a place where capable people can do consequential work. ● Establish practical talent reviews, manager development, succession plans, and communication across functions and locations. ● Build a small, capable People team with dependable operations. Use specialist expertise, automation, and AI where they improve speed and reliability, while keeping human judgment where it matters. What we are looking for ● A record of personally building or improving a high-performing organization through growth, change, or demanding operating conditions. ● Evidence that people trust your judgment and that your work made managers and teams more effective. ● Fast learning, intellectual agility, and the ability to solve unfamiliar problems, test your assumptions, and change course when the facts change. ● Strong judgment about selecting talent, coaching, developing leaders, and addressing underperformance. ● The ability to move quickly, make clear decisions, and carry work through to adoption without adding unnecessary process. ● Comfort working across technical, operational, and corporate teams, with the willingness to spend time where the work happens. Your experience may come from building a People function, leading a growing business or operating organization, military command, federal law enforcement, or another demanding institution. Prior HR titles, certifications, and mastery of every People specialty are not prerequisites. We care about the organization you built, the decisions you owned, and the outcomes you can substantiate. You will be accountable for learning the domain and making effective use of your team and specialist advice. What success looks like You will inherit work already underway and start delivering immediately. In the first month, put usable compensation and leveling structures, clear promotion and bonus rules, and a practical manager-led performance plan into use in priority teams. By roughly six weeks, complete the first organization-wide role mapping and talent calibration, with broader adoption of the standards and clear plans for remaining exceptions. Over the following months, success means stronger managers, better hires, faster new-hire contribution, clear development paths, and timely decisions on performance. We will judge the work by how teams operate and the results they deliver. Austin or Houston is strongly preferred. Exceptional candidates elsewhere may be considered, with regular in-person time in both cities and at Giga's operating sites. The specific working arrangement will be agreed during the search.