The Role
Lead Albedo's end-to-end people function for a fast-growing aerospace startup: build HR systems and policies, ensure compliance, manage payroll/benefits/HRIS, advise leadership, design compensation and performance programs, handle employee relations and investigations, support recruiting for key roles, run culture and engagement initiatives, and track people analytics to inform organizational design.
Summary Generated by Built In
Be one of the Bedo 100
Albedo is making Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mainstream, building the infrastructure to usher every satellite mission set into this new orbital domain. We build buses, integrated satellites, and turnkey missions for customers to thrive in VLEO, between 250 km - 400 km, where proximity compounds performance and drag self-cleans debris.
As part of the first 100 employees at Albedo, you will have a big impact on Albedo’s trajectory to proliferating VLEO — whether you’re advancing hardware to increase satellite longevity, scaling production for large constellations, building next-gen flight and ground software to push performance, or enabling missions that matter for national security and our day-to-day life here on earth.
How We Operate: Albedo takes a first-principles approach — in space and in business. We move with speed, take calculated risks, and learn quickly. We use AI regularly to create leverage in every discipline across the company. We work in-person at our Broomfield CO HQ to maximize team and company productivity. We work hard and with urgency to compound our first-mover advantage.
Who We're Looking For: Builders who want to own outcomes, not tasks. Systems thinkers who balance precision with iteration while thinking about the big picture. Individuals who are energized by creating a category rather than competing in an existing one. You’ll join a team that has already proven what others said wasn’t feasible and is now scaling and upgrading our VLEO buses & payloads to serve mission sets across sensing, communications, and responsive operations.
If you can feel the excitement running through your veins, apply to be one of the Bedo 100.
As Albedo continues to scale, we’re looking for a Head of People to build the systems, processes, and leadership capability that allow the company to grow without losing what makes it special. You’ll own the people function end-to-end, partnering closely with founders and leadership to develop a high-performance culture, support employees and managers, and ensure our people infrastructure scales ahead of company growth. This role is equal parts operator, advisor, and builder — helping Albedo attract, develop, reward, and retain exceptional talent while navigating the realities of a fast-moving aerospace company.
What You’ll Do:- Own the end-to-end employee experience, including onboarding, offboarding, benefits administration, payroll coordination, HRIS administration, and employee support
- Ensure compliance with employment laws and HR best practices across hiring, documentation, leave administration, employee relations, worker classification, and performance management
- Serve as a trusted advisor to employees, managers, and leadership on people-related matters, providing coaching, guidance, and support through both everyday challenges and complex situations
- Partner with managers and leadership to strengthen management capability across the organization and drive a high-performance culture
- Lead performance management, compensation philosophy, salary banding, benchmarking, and total rewards programs
- Own employee relations matters, including investigations, conflict resolution, performance concerns, and disciplinary processes
- Partner closely with Finance, Legal, and company leadership on payroll, benefits, headcount planning, reporting, and organizational design
- Plan and execute company events, offsites, and employee experience programs that strengthen culture and reinforce company values
- Track and report key people metrics, identify organizational risks and opportunities, and use data to inform leadership decisions
- Support recruiting on an as-needed basis for critical roles, while partnering with the recruiting team that owns hiring execution day-to-day
- 7+ years of progressive HR/People experience, including prior ownership of a broad people function; prior Head of People or equivalent title at a company of similar scale strongly preferred
- Experience building and scaling people infrastructure at a startup, ideally between 50–200 employees, where you had to create structure without losing speed
- Deep knowledge of HR compliance, employment law, and best practices — including leave administration, worker classification, multi-state compliance, and employee relations — with the judgment to navigate gray areas
- Hands-on experience with HRIS platforms (Rippling preferred), payroll administration, and benefits management
- Experience designing and running performance management cycles, compensation benchmarking, and engagement and culture initiatives
- Strong track record partnering directly with founders and senior leadership — comfortable influencing up and pushing back with data when needed
- Exceptional written and verbal communication — you set the tone for how Albedo communicates with its people
- Startup experience at the 50–200 person stage; comfort operating with ambiguity, wearing multiple hats, and building process where none exists
- Prior experience in aerospace, defense, hard tech, or another technical environment is a plus
- Comfort leveraging modern AI-assisted tools to create leverage and operate efficiently
- $160,300 - $187,388 per year
Compensation and Benefits for Full-Time Roles:
- Employee friendly equity compensation
- 4% direct matching 401k
- Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage
- Parental leave and childcare coverage
- Flexible vacation and sick time from day one
- 12 company holidays
- $100 monthly wellness benefit
- Relocation package if not based in Denver
The final compensation package is subject to change if the candidate's experience and company need drive a different job level than originally slated for the position.
Albedo does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to Albedo employees. Albedo is not responsible for any fees or overhead related to unsolicited resumes.
Additional Requirements: In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. All persons hired will be required to be a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled: Albedo is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Relocation: Relocation support for this position is available
Applicants must be a U.S. Person as defined under 22 CFR 120.62
#LI-Onsite
Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Albedo, we'd rather hear from you. We care more about how you think than which boxes you check. We value people who do the math, make their assumptions explicit, and ask the annoying questions: what breaks, what's the failure mode, what has to be true for this to work? If that sounds like you, apply, even if you don't meet every line.
Skills Required
- 7+ years of progressive HR/People experience with ownership of a broad people function
- Prior Head of People or equivalent title at a company of similar scale
- Experience building and scaling people infrastructure at a startup (ideally 50-200 employees)
- Deep knowledge of HR compliance and employment law including leave administration, worker classification, and multi-state compliance
- Hands-on experience with HRIS platforms and payroll administration (Rippling preferred)
- Experience designing and running performance management cycles, compensation benchmarking, and total rewards programs
- Strong track record partnering with founders and senior leadership and influencing with data
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
- Experience managing employee relations, investigations, conflict resolution, and disciplinary processes
- Comfort operating in ambiguous startup environments and wearing multiple hats
- US citizenship is required
- Comfort leveraging modern AI-assisted tools to increase efficiency
- Prior experience in aerospace, defense, hard tech, or another technical environment
- Ability to work in-person at Broomfield, CO HQ (on-site)
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The Company
What We Do
Albedo is the first space company to commercialize and provide platform capabilities to the new orbit regime of VLEO. VLEO — very low Earth orbit — transforms satellite capabilities by operating twice as close to Earth, enabling dramatic improvements in performance while reducing system costs. Albedo’s first satellite Clarity-1 — launched in March 2025 and now operating in VLEO — exemplifies the disruptive potential of the company’s proprietary VLEO platform. Clarity-1 delivers imagery at a resolution previously exclusive to drones & aircraft or billion-dollar classified satellites, while showcasing a platform that can support a variety of mission types. The world is rapidly changing and a new level of visibility and transparency is required to solve some of our largest problems. Albedo’s 10cm visible and 2m thermal imagery will fuel insights for industries such as mapping, insurance, utilities, solar, agriculture, carbon offsets, infrastructure sustainability, national security, and much more.
