Founding People Operations Manager

Location: Washington, DC metro area (hybrid, 2 days/week in office)
Type: Full-time
Reports to: Co-founding team (COO)
Team: ~15 and growing fast

About Schemata

At Schemata, we are transforming the $400B virtual-training and simulation market by fusing 3D computer vision, neural rendering and large multimodal models inside highly regulated industries. Our platform delivers photorealistic, intelligent 3D experiences, demanding robust spatial reasoning, high-performance data pipelines and seamless integration between traditional graphics and AI-driven perception.

Why This Role

This is a founding hire. You will be the first person at Schemata whose entire job is people and operations, and you will build that function from a blank page. There is no playbook here to inherit and no manager to hand you a task list. You'll join a fast-growing company, a founding team that needs its time back, and a wide-open mandate to design how the company runs as it scales from 15 people to many more.

If you are ambitious, this is the opportunity: you'll own a function end to end, make real decisions, and build the systems a much larger Schemata will run on for years. This is a role for a builder, not a maintainer.

What You'll Own

You will own the full back-of-house of the company. Early on, that means doing the work yourself. Over time, it means building the processes, tools, and eventually the team that runs it. The core areas:

People operations and HR

• Build and run our people operations from the ground up: onboarding and offboarding, employee records, PTO, and benefits, and own the systems behind them (Rippling, Human Interest 401(k)).
  
• Write and maintain the policies, handbook, and compliance that a growing multi-state workforce needs, and keep us ahead of federal and state requirements.
  
• Stand up the people programs that make a small company a great place to work: performance cycles, feedback surveys, and manager support as we scale.
  
• Be the first point of contact employees trust for questions big and small.
  

Recruiting and talent

• Drive hiring as we grow: own job postings, sourcing support, interview coordination, candidate experience, and the full pipeline.
  
• Run offers, background checks, and the handoff into onboarding, and build a hiring process that scales with us.
  

Everything else that makes a company run

• Take on the office logistics, vendor management, and back-of-house projects the founding team no longer has capacity to carry.
  
• Spot what is broken or missing before anyone asks, and go build the fix.
  

We care far more about drive, ownership, and judgment than about a perfect resume. If you are early in your career but hungry to build, or further along and want real scope at a company on the rise, we want to hear from you.

You'll thrive here if you

• Have 3+ years across people operations, HR, recruiting, operations, or executive support, ideally at a startup or small company.
  
• Bring a working knowledge of HR fundamentals (payroll, benefits, onboarding, basic employment compliance) and know when to bring in expert help.
  
• Are relentlessly organized and can run many different things at once without dropping details.
  
• Default to action, take ownership of outcomes, and are happiest when handed a problem and trusted to solve it.
  
• Communicate clearly and handle confidential information with maturity.
  
• Want to build a function and grow with the company, not just hold a defined seat.
  
• Are based in the DC metro area and able to work a hybrid schedule (2 days/week in office).
  

Bonus points for

• Experience with Rippling, Human Interest, Notion, or comparable HR and operations tools.
  
• Experience working at a technology startup company.
  
• Exposure to a defense, government contracting, or otherwise regulated environment.
  
• Full-cycle recruiting experience.
  
• Ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance (U.S. citizenship required for some of our work).
  

• Base salary: Competitive salary
  
• Equity: Meaningful stock options in a high-growth defense tech company.
  
• Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, with Schemata contributing up to $600/month toward premiums (100% of the cost on most plans); 401(k) with Roth option through Human Interest; paid parental leave; and 17 to 25 days of PTO, increasing with tenure.
  
• Impact: Shape mission-critical operations for military and commercial partners at an early-stage company where your contributions are highly visible.
  

Schemata is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.