Lead, People Partner

About this role

Who we are at Osmo:

Osmo is a digital olfaction company, on a mission to give computers a sense of smell to improve the health and wellbeing of human life. Why? Our sense of smell both enriches and saves lives, and has a deep and direct connection to our emotions and memory.

Olfactory Intelligence has applications across industries including fragrance, manufacturing, security, medicine, and more. We believe in the power of automation and thoughtfully applied AI/ML to solve problems beyond the reach of human intuition alone. Osmo is headquartered in Elizabeth, NJ, with an additional office in Somerville, MA.

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

Osmo is building the future of scent. Under one roof we have PhD AI researchers, bench chemists, perfumers, commercial leaders, and hourly manufacturing teams. That is five very different populations and two very different employment models (exempt and non-exempt), all scaling fast at once. That mix is our edge. It is also the hardest People problem most operators will ever take on.

We are hiring a Lead People Partner to build a high-trust, high-performing People function and move us from scrappy, reactive support to proactive, data-informed partnership. You will also be the partner leaders actually go to in their hardest moments. You will work side by side with our incoming CHRO. They set overall People strategy, and you own the partnership layer where it meets real leaders, real managers, and real employees.

This is a senior, broad role for someone who is both strategic and genuinely hands-on. Because you are our first People Partner, you will advise leaders and build the systems underneath them. You are comfortable in ambiguity, strong in judgment, calm under pressure, and able to move between a sensitive employee matter and operational execution without dropping a detail.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AND ADVISORY

- Partner with functional and team leaders to translate business priorities, such as research milestones, commercial targets, and the manufacturing ramp, into clear people strategies.

- Coach leaders on org design, team effectiveness, leadership capability, and change management.

- Serve as a thought partner on complex people decisions, balancing business needs, employee experience, and risk.

ORG EFFECTIVENESS AND TALENT STRATEGY

- Partner with leaders on workforce planning, org design, and early succession and bench planning across very different functions.

- Diagnose organizational health and performance gaps, and design targeted interventions to improve team effectiveness.

- Drive disciplined performance management, with clarity of expectations, accountability, and development, kept lightweight and scalable as we grow.

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS AND RISK MANAGEMENT

- Lead complex employee relations matters with strong judgment, discretion, and a solutions-oriented mindset, across both exempt and non-exempt populations.

- Partner with the CHRO, employment counsel, and Finance on risk mitigation, compliance, accommodations, leaves, and terminations.

- Apply policy consistently while keeping the employee experience fair and balanced. Document well and escalate cleanly.

DATA, METRICS, AND OPERATING RHYTHMS

- Build the foundational talent metrics that do not exist yet, such as turnover, engagement, time-to-hire, and performance signal, along with the operating rhythm to review them with leaders.

- Translate what the data shows into clear, actionable recommendations, and track progress against priorities.

CHANGE LEADERSHIP AND EXECUTION

- Lead adoption of key People initiatives (performance, feedback, engagement, manager enablement) with clear communication and sustained follow-through.

- Guide leaders and teams through re-orgs, new operating rhythms, and the employee communications that go with them.

CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

- Champion a high-trust, high-performance, feedback-rich culture across teams as different as the lab and the factory floor.

- Improve the employee experience across the lifecycle, and foster inclusive leadership that supports belonging and engagement.

- Be a pragmatic culture carrier who protects trust while helping the company make hard calls well.

WHERE YOU'LL PARTNER

These are areas the CHRO and Finance lead, where you are a strong, reliable partner rather than the owner. Ownership may shift to you or to dedicated hires as the team grows.

- Compensation and leveling. Support comp, promotions, equity refreshes, and offer alignment, and help keep job architecture consistent.

- People operations and lifecycle. Make sure onboarding, offboarding, changes, and policy administration run reliably with no dropped balls.

- Recruiting intake and headcount. Run disciplined intake with hiring managers, recruiting, and Finance, tying every requisition to budget, leveling, and a clear bar before a search launches.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

- Leaders across all populations treat you as a true thought partner rather than just support, and lean on you in their hardest moments.

- A basic set of talent metrics and a regular operating rhythm exist where there were none.

- Managers get fast, fair, well-documented guidance on sensitive matters, applied consistently across exempt and non-exempt teams.

- A lightweight performance and feedback cycle runs on schedule, and managers actually use it.

- Core lifecycle processes and hiring intake run reliably, tied to budget and leveling, with no dropped balls.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

- 7+ years of progressive HR experience, including significant time as an HRBP or People Partner supporting senior leaders.

- Experience in high-growth, operationally complex environments. Startup, scale-up, biotech, AI, hardware, or manufacturing experience is especially relevant.

- Strong judgment in sensitive employee relations and risk matters across exempt and non-exempt populations. You listen, document, assess risk, hold confidenti

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