Director of Human Resources

Director of Human Resources

Company Overview

GC Therapeutics is the first genome-wide cell landscape exploration company using an integrated synthetic biology and AI-driven platform for cell programming.

Its patent-pending and proprietary pluripotent stem cell differentiation technology platform TFome™ was developed in Professor George Church’s lab, a pioneer in synthetic biology, and allows for the development of unique cell therapies with significantly streamlined manufacturing, improved cell quality, efficiency, and speed. GC Therapeutics is based in Cambridge, MA. For additional information, please visit www.gc-tx.com.

Job Purpose

We are seeking a seasoned, strategic Director of Human Resources to design, build, and lead the human resources function as the company enters its next phase of growth. Reporting to senior leadership and serving as the company’s most senior HR leader, this individual will define our people strategy and translate it into the organizational programs and infrastructure that a rapidly growing biotechnology company requires.

This role offers what few HR leadership positions do: the opportunity to define the function rather than inherit it.

Building on an established framework, the Director will design and evolve the major elements of the HR function—talent acquisition and development, organizational design, performance management, total rewards, employee relations, compliance, and HR operations—anticipating the company’s needs as it matures from an early-stage startup into a larger, more complex organization.

The Director will act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the leadership team on organizational effectiveness, leadership, and culture, while operating hands-on in a lean, fast-moving environment.

The Director will also provide leadership across selected corporate operations that shape the employee experience, including workplace experience, business systems, vendor relationships, and operational planning, and will direct the HR-related work of operations staff who support the function.

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Organizational Design

• Define and execute a multi-year people strategy aligned with the company's scientific milestones, financing stages, and headcount growth plans.
• Advise the executive team on organizational design, leadership effectiveness, change management, and scaling decisions; serve as a confidential sounding board on sensitive people matters.
• Partner with Finance on workforce planning, headcount budgeting, and organizational scenario planning as the company scales.
• Establish HR metrics, benchmarks, and reporting that give leadership clear visibility into organizational health and inform data-driven people decisions.

Talent Acquisition and Employee Lifecycle

• Design and lead a scalable talent acquisition strategy-employer brand, sourcing, structured interviewing, and candidate experience-that enables the company to compete for exceptional scientific, technical, and business talent.
• Create an engaging end-to-end employee experience, from onboarding and first-day experience through internal mobility and offboarding, that fosters a culture where people are proud to belong and choose to build their careers, and evolve it as the organization grows.

Performance, Development and Succession

• Shape the company's performance management philosophy and processes, including goal setting, calibration, feedback, and talent review; coach managers to apply them effectively.
• Develop career frameworks, competency models, leadership development programs, and succession plans that prepare the organization for its next stages of growth.

Total Rewards

• Design and own the company's total rewards philosophy and programs, including compensation structures, equity guidelines, benefits, and recognition, benchmarked to the life-sciences market and built to scale.
• Lead compensation planning cycles and advise leadership on offers, promotions, and retention strategies for critical talent.

Culture, Engagement and Employee Relations

• Champion and evolve an inclusive, collaborative, high-performing culture as headcount grows, and design engagement, recognition, and retention programs that sustain it.
• Own the employee engagement strategy, including listening mechanisms (surveys, feedback channels) and action planning with leaders.
• Lead complex employee relations matters and workplace investigations with sound judgment, discretion, and legal rigor.

Compliance, Policy and HR Operations

• Build and maintain the company's policy infrastructure-employee handbook, governance documentation, and HR policies-and ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws and regulatory requirements as the company's footprint expands.
• Oversee employment-based immigration programs and manage external immigration counsel.
• Own the HR technology roadmap: select, implement, and integrate systems and build the operational infrastructure and workflows that allow the function to scale efficiently.

Business Operations and Team Leadership

• Provide oversight of selected corporate operations that support the organization-workplace experience, business systems, vendor management, and operational planning-in partnership with Finance, Legal, IT, and Facilities.
• Direct and develop the operations staff supporting the HR function; build additional HR capability as the organization's needs mature.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 7-9 years of progressive Human Resources or People Operations experience, including significant experience leading an HR function and advising executive teams.
• Demonstrated success designing and building HR programs and infrastructure from the ground up, not solely operating within established frameworks, ideally through periods of rapid growth or organizational change.
• Depth across the full spectrum of HR disciplines: talent acquisition, performance management, total rewards (including equity compensation), organizational development, employee relations, compliance, and HR operations.
• Experience implementing benchmarks, performance measures, and people analytics to guide decision-making.
• Strong working knowledge of employment law and regulatory compliance, with sound judgment on when to engage outside counsel.
• Exceptional leadership presence and emotional intelligence; able to build trust quickly with executives, managers, and employees, and to recognize and anticipate organizational problems before they surface.
• Strategic thinker who is equally comfortable with hands-on execution; able to move fluidly between board-level planning and day-to-day operational detail in a lean environment.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, capable of conveying complex business and people matters to diverse audiences.
• High attention to detail and strong organizational skills; able to manage multiple parallel priorities reliably.

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a venture-backed life sciences or biotechnology company, ideally one that scaled rapidly from an early stage.
• Experience as the senior-most HR leader in an organization of fewer than 100 employees, as well as experience in larger, more mature organizations.
• MBA or related advanced degree, or senior HR certification (SPHR, SHRM-SCP).
• Experience with employment-based immigration programs common in the life sciences sector.

Interested? Contact [email protected] to apply!

Send your CV with the subject “

Director of Human Resources

”.

Pay Range:

$180,000 - $230,000

(This range reflects the base salary only and does not include additional compensation such as annual bonus and equity awards, which are part of the total compensation package.)

Disclosure Statement:

The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements.

Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.

At GC Therapeutics, our generous competitive benefits package also include generous PTO, paid holidays, Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), Life and Disability Insurance and transportation subsidy.

Equal Opportunity

Workplace: GC Therapeutics is an equal opportunity employer.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment and existing employees without regard to ancestry, national origin, place of birth, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, service in the military or otherwise to the full extent of all federal, state and local laws.

GC Therapeutics’ equal employment opportunity policy applies to all terms and conditions of recruiting, hiring, placement, training, compensation, transfer, leave of absence, employment, promotion, layoff and termination of employment.