Head of People

Rainmaker is pioneering a modern cloud seeding system to mitigate water scarcity and inclement weather. We develop and incorporate radar and satellite validation, weather-resistant UAS, weather modeling, and novel sensors and dispersions into an effective precipitation enhancement solution. 

Rainmaker is a high-performance research, engineering, and operations company. Our work requires scientific rigor, technical excellence, disciplined execution, and strong cross-functional communication across the cross-functional teams.

We are hiring a Head of People to build the people infrastructure that allows Rainmaker to scale with clarity, accountability, and high standards.

This role will own the company’s People operating system: organizational design, workforce planning, manager effectiveness, performance management, compensation, HR operations, employee relations, compliance, onboarding, people analytics, and scalable people processes. The Head of People will partner closely with the executive team to ensure that Rainmaker’s structure, management systems, and culture evolve as the company grows.

Rainmaker is still defining many of its operating norms, management systems, and people processes. The right person will be able to create practical infrastructure without adding unnecessary bureaucracy. They should be equally comfortable advising the CEO on organization design, coaching managers through difficult people issues, building compensation and performance systems, and ensuring the company has clean, compliant, scalable HR operations.

The Head of People will also oversee the Talent function. Recruiting is critical to Rainmaker’s success, but this role is not primarily a full-cycle recruiting role. We expect to hire a Talent Lead to own recruiting execution, candidate pipelines, sourcing strategy, and day-to-day hiring operations. The Head of People will ensure that the Talent function is tightly connected to workforce planning, role design, compensation, onboarding, manager readiness, and company priorities.

You will define and implement the core systems that help Rainmaker scale: performance management, manager expectations, feedback norms, onboarding, compensation, employee communications, team operating documents, talent reviews, HR infrastructure, and leadership operating cadences.

The goal is to make Rainmaker clearer, faster, more accountable, and more consistent as the company grows.

You will help leadership make clear decisions about structure, reporting lines, role scope, leadership gaps, management capacity, and workforce planning.

You will own the systems and processes that allow Rainmaker to operate professionally and compliantly as it grows. This includes HRIS, employee records, onboarding and offboarding, employment documentation, benefits administration, workplace policies, compliance, employment practices, and vendor management.

You should know how to build durable systems, work effectively with counsel and external partners, and ensure that People operations are clean, reliable, and scalable.

You will partner directly with executives and managers on team health, performance issues, communication gaps, role clarity, organizational risks, employee relations, and manager effectiveness.

You will help managers become better communicators, planners, feedback-givers, interviewers, and developers of talent.

You will establish clear performance expectations, feedback cycles, promotion criteria, improvement processes, and talent review mechanisms.

Rainmaker needs a system that supports high standards without creating corporate theater. The process should help managers make better decisions, employees understand what great looks like, and leadership identify talent risks early.

You will be accountable for ensuring that hiring priorities, workforce planning, role design, compensation, onboarding, and manager readiness are connected.

A Talent Lead will own recruiting execution, but the Head of People will ensure that the recruiting system serves the company’s broader operating needs. This includes ensuring that hiring is tied to business priorities, roles are well-scoped, managers are prepared, and new hires are set up to succeed.

You will help translate Rainmaker’s culture into concrete operating practices. This includes clarity of communication, diligent planning, servant leadership, technical rigor, accountability, professionalism, and strong cross-functional collaboration.

You will help ensure that culture is not just stated in values, but reinforced through hiring, onboarding, manager expectations, performance management, communication norms, and leadership behavior.