Director, People

About the Position 

Formation Bio is looking for a Director, People to drive operational excellence, lead strategic people programs, and partner with leaders to solve complex organizational challenges.

Reporting to the SVP, Head of People, you'll have broad ownership across the People Team, translating business priorities into scalable programs, processes, and decisions that help the company grow. This is a high-impact role for someone who is comfortable thinking strategically, diving into the details, and operating with a high degree of autonomy.

Our People Team operates as business-first partners, setting a high bar for talent, culture, and execution while embracing AI and technology to rethink how People Teams create value. We're looking for someone who shares that mindset, is energized by challenging conventional approaches, and wants to help build an AI-native People Team that supports Formation's mission and culture.

Responsibilities

This role is responsible for three areas that are critical to the success of our People Team and the broader business. The majority of your time will be spent in the first two pillars, where you'll drive strategy, execution, and continuous improvement across our People Team.

People Operations Excellence

• Drive AI-native operations across the People Team, identifying opportunities to leverage technology and fundamentally redesign workflows while maintaining the human elements of our work.
• Ensure operational excellence and compliance and continuously evolve our people processes as the business scales.
• Lead complex, cross-functional processes and partner with internal stakeholders including Legal, Finance, Tech Ops, and Quality Assurance to deliver business outcomes.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex people operations, benefits, and compensation matters.
• Manage external vendor relationships and consultant partnerships while continuously evaluating opportunities to improve quality, cost, and effectiveness.

Program Design & Strategic Execution

• Elevate and own our performance, promotion, and compensation review programs to ensure quality, consistency, and scalability as we grow.
• Own our compensation strategy and execution for Formation's unique business model, including framework design, market positioning, and equity programs.
• Lead benefits strategy, vendor selection, and plan design, ensuring our total rewards package is competitive and supports our culture and business needs.
• Anticipate future people program needs based on business priorities and organizational growth.

People Business Partnership 

• Serve as a strategic People partner for designated leaders and functions.
• Develop a deep understanding of the business and build trusted relationships with leaders to anticipate business needs, identify organizational risks, and develop solutions.
• Coach managers through complex people situations while balancing employee experience, business outcomes, and long-term organizational health.

About You 

• 8+ years of experience in people operations, people business partnering, total rewards, and/or HR leadership roles.
• Proven track record leveraging AI and automation to improve people operations. You have concrete results, not just enthusiasm, and a clear vision for what an AI-native People Team can become.
• Strong operational background. You've owned people systems, benefits, compliance, and built scalable people operations infrastructure that enables the business.
• Experience designing and scaling people programs while balancing quality, consistency, and operational efficiency. You’ve successfully led change by building alignment and bringing leaders and employees along through it.
• Ability to make independent, complex decisions. You exercise strong judgment, evaluate tradeoffs with a company-wide perspective, and anticipate long-term implications.
• Strong ownership mentality and high accountability. You take full responsibility for outcomes, proactively identify opportunities, and drive work to completion.
• People management experience. You've developed and elevated individuals and teams, set a high bar for performance, and care deeply about career development.
• Strong cross-functional partnership skills. You build trusted relationships with leaders, internal teams, and external vendors.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, high-growth environments. You thrive in ambiguity and can seamlessly shift between strategic thinking and hands-on execution.
• Compensation expertise is a plus. You've designed compensation frameworks, conducted market analyses, and thought strategically about equity and total rewards.
• Experience in biotech, pharma, or other technical or regulated industries is a plus but not required.

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Total Compensation Range: $185,500 - $267,000