Head of People

Austin, TX | Hybrid | Full-time

Every day, over 10,000 eye care professionals log into Crystal PM’s software before they see their first patient. We’re the operating system behind independent eyecare — the EHR, practice management, billing, scheduling, and payments platform that keeps these practices running smoothly.

With new leadership, fresh growth capital from top-tier software and search fund investors, and a clear runway to $35mm+ in ARR, Crystal is at an inflection point. We’re not a startup – we’re a market leader focused on long‑term value creation. That means building the team, the product, and the go‑to‑market engine to execute on our ambitious goals.

We’re assembling a team that matches the opportunity. If that sounds like your kind of challenge, we’d like to hear from you.

You report to the CEO and own everything people. How we hire. How we develop talent. How we pay. How we measure performance. How Crystal feels as a place to work. This is not an HR seat with a fancier title. It is a strategy seat where HR is one of the levers you pull.

Crystal is at the stage where every hire compounds. A bad hire today becomes a culture problem at 150 people. An A player today becomes the leader who hires the next ten A players. We are looking for someone obsessed with that math. Someone who treats recruiting like a competitive moat and culture like a product they ship every week.

You will be the CEO’s thought partner on org design, compensation, and the calls nobody else gets to make. You will also be the operator who picks up the phone, finds the candidate other firms missed, and closes them before a competitor knows their name.

• You’ve built a hiring engine that finds A players on a predictable cadence. Time to fill is under 60 days for most roles. We close more than 70 percent of the offers we extend. Recruiting feels like a system, not a fire drill.
• A players don’t leave. Voluntary regrettable attrition stays under 8 percent. The people who matter most know they’re winning here, and they tell their friends. Our employer brand in Austin tech circles starts to bend in our favor.
• Performance management is real, not theater. Every employee has clear goals, regular feedback, and a clear sense of where they stand. Leaders are coaching, not just managing. The system runs without you babysitting it.
• Culture is defined and lived. Our five values show up in interview scorecards, performance reviews, and how we promote and fire. New hires can tell within their first week what we actually care about.
• You become the CEO’s first call on hard people decisions. Org structure, comp philosophy, executive conflict, hires that aren’t working out. You earn that seat because you bring judgment, not just process.

• 7+ years in people leadership roles, with at least 3 years owning the function (Head of People, VP People, CPO, or equivalent) at a growth‑stage company between 50 and 300 employees.
• Direct recruiting experience. You’ve personally sourced, screened, and closed senior candidates. Not a “we’ll let the agency handle it” leader. You can build a pipeline from scratch when you have to.
• Built a performance management system from the ground up or significantly rebuilt one. You know what makes them useful and what makes them busywork.
• Comp and leveling experience. You can build the framework, defend it to a board, and explain it to a frustrated employee in the same week.
• Strong on the operational and compliance side. HRIS administration, multi‑state employment law, benefits renewals, HIPAA awareness. You don’t love this work, but you do it well because it’s table stakes.
• SaaS, healthcare software, or vertical SaaS exposure preferred.…