People & Talent Lead

Catena · Remote (US) · Full-Time

The Short Version

We're 15 people, moving fast, and building the connectivity layer that freight has been missing for 20 years. We need someone who can make the team run at its best — not a policy manager or an HR generalist, but an operator who owns the people function end-to-end and raises the bar on how we hire, onboard, and develop talent.

This is our first dedicated people hire — and a founding-level role in everything but title.

What You'll Own

Recruiting — not just posting jobs. You'll help define what "great" looks like for each role, run tight interview processes, maintain the candidate experience we'd want if we were the ones applying, and help close strong people. You won't do this for every hire — but when we're recruiting, you're the center of gravity.

Onboarding — we move fast and new hires need to ramp faster. You'll design the systems and rituals that get someone productive and culturally embedded in their first 30–60 days. Then you'll keep improving it.

Performance & Feedback — we want honest, structured, useful performance conversations. You'll help build and run the review cycles, goal-setting frameworks, and manager enablement that make feedback land well and drive real development.

Company Operations — team offsites, internal documentation, benefits, HR systems, employee lifecycle management. The connective tissue that keeps a distributed team aligned and the basics working smoothly.

What This Role Is Not

This is not a compliance role. It's not a headcount factory. It's not about managing HR tickets or writing policy documents no one reads.

You'll spend very little time in the administrative weeds. You'll spend a lot of time thinking about how to make a small, high-performing team operate at its ceiling — and then building the systems to get there.

Who Fits This Role

The best candidates will have worked in high-growth startups (10–100 people) and understand what it means to build people infrastructure without a playbook. You've probably held a title like People Ops Lead, Recruiting Lead, Startup Ops, or Chief of Staff — or you've worn several of those hats at once.

Specifically, you:

• Think like an operator first. You see a broken process and want to fix it, not document it.
• Are comfortable with ambiguity. At 15 people, priorities shift. You stay oriented.
• Have real recruiting reps. You've run searches, managed pipelines, and helped close candidates — not just coordinated scheduling.
• Handle sensitive situations with judgment and discretion. Small teams mean high stakes on people decisions.
• Write clearly and communicate directly. You won't have a big team to absorb miscommunication.
• Take ownership seriously. You'll be the person who catches things before they become problems.

5+ years of experience in people ops, HR, talent, or startup operations.

Why Catena, Why Now

Catena has raised $8.25M from Shaper Capital, Floating Point, Plug and Play, Liquid 2, and leading industry angels. Customers are already using us in production — many of them are also investors, which tells you something.

We're operators who've worked inside carriers, brokerages, TMSs, and financial institutions. We care about accuracy and real outcomes. The team we're building reflects that.

If you join now, you'll help set the cultural and operational foundation for a company with real momentum. That's rare.

Compensation: Competitive salary, meaningful equity, full benefits, 401k match.

Remote-first. Optional travel for team offsites and occasional on-sites.