Senior Human Resources Manager

About Clockwork Systems

Clockwork.io – Software Driven Fabrics to increase GPU cluster utilization

Clockwork Systems was founded by Stanford researchers and veteran systems engineers who share a vision for redefining the foundations of distributed computing. As AI workloads grow increasingly complex, traditional infrastructure struggles to meet the demands of performance, reliability, and precise coordination. Clockwork is pioneering a software-driven approach to AI fabrics by delivering cross-stack observability to catch and quickly resolve problems, workload fault tolerance to keep jobs running through failures, and performance acceleration that dynamically routes and paces traffic to avoid congestion.

To learn more, visit www.clockwork.io.

About the Role

As our Senior HR Manager, you'll be the cornerstone of Clockwork's people function. This is a high-impact, hands-on role for someone who thrives in the builder phase: you'll own the full HR lifecycle, elevate our people programs, and serve as a trusted partner to leadership and employees alike. You'll work closely with our executive team to shape the culture, policies, and infrastructure that will carry us through our next phase of growth — including our teams in the U.S. and UK.

What You'll Do

People Operations

• Own end-to-end HR operations: onboarding, offboarding, employee lifecycle management, and HRIS administration.
• Partner with our PEO on payroll, benefits administration, and HR compliance.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for employee relations, resolving issues with empathy, fairness, and good judgment.

Programs & Policy

• Design, implement, and continuously improve HR policies, employee handbooks, and operational processes that scale with the company.
• Lead compensation benchmarking, benefits strategy, and rewards programs to keep Clockwork competitive in the AI/infrastructure talent market.
• Build and deliver onboarding, training, and manager development programs that reinforce our values and accelerate employee effectiveness.

Compliance & Legal

• Ensure compliance with federal, California, and UK employment laws and regulations.
• Oversee employment-based immigration programs (H-1B, green cards, etc.) in partnership with outside counsel.
• Proactively identify compliance risks and implement controls before they become problems.

Strategic Partnership

• Partner with leadership on workforce planning, org design, and headcount strategy as we scale.
• Track and report on people metrics (attrition, engagement, hiring velocity) and surface actionable insights.
• Support our UK employees with region-appropriate HR programs and compliance requirements.
• Contribute to culture-building initiatives, DEI programs, and employee engagement.

What We're Looking For

• 8–10+ years of progressive HR experience, with meaningful time in high-growth startup or scale-up environments.
• Demonstrated ability to build HR programs from scratch — not just maintain existing ones.
• Deep knowledge of California and U.S. employment law; familiarity with UK employment law is a strong plus.
• Hands-on experience with compensation benchmarking, benefits administration, employee relations, performance management, and onboarding.
• Familiarity with employment-based immigration processes (H-1B, PERM, etc.).
• Experience working with PEOs and HRIS systems (e.g., Rippling, Gusto, BambooHR, or similar).
• Excellent judgment, discretion, and the ability to navigate ambiguity with confidence.
• Strong communicator who can build trust with engineers, executives, and everyone in between.
• Prior experience at a technical company or AI/infrastructure startup is a plus — you don't need to know how GPUs work, but you should be comfortable in that environment.

Why Clockwork

• You'll be the owner — not a coordinator — of a people function that genuinely matters.
• Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.
• An exceptional team solving hard, important problems at the intersection of AI and infrastructure.
• Palo Alto HQ with catered meals and a collaborative, low-ego culture.
• The chance to shape the HR foundations of a company at an inflection point.

Enjoy

• Challenging projects.
• A friendly and inclusive workplace culture.
• Competitive compensation.
• A great benefits package.
• Catered lunches.

Compensation for this position will vary based on the skills and experience you bring, as well as internal equity considerations. For candidates hired at the posted level, the expected base salary range is $140,000 - $180,000. The offered compensation package may also include stock options or other equity awards, subject to Clockwork’s equity program and applicable approvals.
In addition to cash compensation, this role is eligible to participate in the company’s equity program, which may include stock options granted in accordance with the company’s equity plan and subject to approval and applicable vesting schedules.