Head of People

# Head of People Lead hiring, pay, policy, and departures at a company where every equity or token grant is a securities transaction and every departure is a security event.

People Full time

Kansas

Apply for this role About the role

At most companies an equity grant is paperwork and a resignation is an exit interview. At USSE a grant is a securities transaction, and a resignation starts a security process. We need a founding Head of People who can run both with care, and who holds the company's most sensitive information without ever letting it slip.### Where the people side of USSE stands
* Our people records, hiring pipeline, and policy catalog are already set up in our internal systems, ready for a people leader to own and set the standard for.
* The company is pre-revenue and has not raised a priced equity round, so every offer you write will be weighted toward ownership rather than salary.
* Our token sale is built but paused, and no tokens have been sold. Token trading is not switched on, so token compensation has no market price today.
* The platform has been live on Ethereum and Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, since July 4, 2026.### Three things that make people work different here
* Grants are securities. Company equity and USSE tokens are both securities, and every grant moves through People, Finance, Legal, and the Board, in that order, before anyone receives it.
* Trading is precleared. Team members may hold the company's token, so personal trades are submitted for preclearance and the decision is recorded.
* Departures are security events. When someone leaves, every account, system access, and key permission is removed and the removal is confirmed, every time.### What lands on your desk
* Recruiting and the candidate experience, from posting a job to a signed offer.
* Onboarding: eligibility to work, agreements, and policy acknowledgements.
* Offboarding, run with the CTO so no access is left behind.
* Compensation, payroll records, and benefits, with the CFO.
* Starting every equity and token grant, and keeping it in the right order.
* The handbook, company policies, and trading preclearance.
* Employment compliance and accurate people records that the other offices rely on.

We will walk through each of these with you during interviews.### Your background### Required
* 10+ years in human resources, including senior roles such as Head of People, HR Director, or VP of People.
* U.S. employment law you can apply on your own: worker classification, wage and hour, eligibility to work, leave, and multi-state rules, plus the judgment to know when outside counsel is needed.
* You have run hiring, onboarding, pay, benefits, and departures yourself at an early-stage company.
* Equity compensation knowledge: grant administration, vesting, and 409A valuations. Rule 701 experience is a strong plus.
* Absolute discretion with pay, performance, health, and departure information.
* You are comfortable with your own offer being weighted toward ownership, as every offer you write here will be.### Strongly preferred
* People leadership at a fintech, digital asset, or financial services company.
* Executive and technical recruiting.
* Background checks under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and benefits administration.
* Partnering with security or IT on access for joiners and leavers.### How you handle the work
* You finish the checklist, especially the last item on it.
* You keep confidences, and you still raise a concern about a senior person when it is warranted.
* You write policies that people can follow without asking you what they mean.### Where the Head of People works

The Head of People works from our corporate office in Hutchinson, Kansas. You can start hybrid and then relocate to Hutchinson in person,…