Director, People Operations & Total Rewards

Welcome to Brightline! We are searching for a Director, People Operations & Total Rewards to build and scale our national total rewards, performance management, career architecture, and people programs as we continue to grow. This leader will serve as a strategic partner to senior leadership, shaping how we design equitable compensation programs, enable continuous performance and development, and create clear career paths that support engagement and retention. This role requires a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on execution. The ideal candidate is comfortable being 60% strategic and 40% hands-on, building systems while also doing the work.

This is a highly visible and impactful role, ideal for a mission-driven people leader who thrives in ambiguity, excels at cross-functional collaboration, and is excited to architect people systems that support organizational growth, fairness, and long-term talent development.

Responsibilities:

Total Rewards & People Strategy

• Own and evolve compensation, benefits, and total rewards programs to support talent attraction, retention, and internal equity, inclusive of structures that account for both corporate and clinical workforces, including licensed mental health professionals (therapists, psychiatrists, LCSWs, LMFTs) with unique market dynamics and licensing requirements.

• Ensure programs align with business priorities, workforce planning, and organizational growth.

• Partner closely with People Ops, Finance, and Legal to ensure rewards programs are scalable, compliant, and operationally sound.

Performance Management & Talent Development

• Develop manager enablement tools, training, and resources to support effective compensation decisions, performance conversations, and career development discussions.

• Lead company-wide performance cycles, calibration processes, and program enhancements.

• Partner with senior leaders on talent strategy, succession planning, and development priorities.

Organizational Design & Career Pathing

• Lead career pathing, leveling frameworks, and role clarity across the organization.

• Ensure consistency and equity in job architecture and role expectations.

• Partner with leaders on org design, workforce planning, and future-state org structures.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as a trusted thought partner and internal consultant to leaders across the organization.

• Translate people insights into actionable recommendations and implementation plans.

• Facilitate workshops, leadership discussions, and alignment sessions.

• Track outcomes and program effectiveness with strong operational rigor.

• Experience managing and developing people operations or HR professionals; this role will initially manage one direct report with potential for team growth.

Data & Program Effectiveness

• Own HRIS optimization and reporting infrastructure, ensuring systems support scalable people operations, manager self-service, and data-driven decision-making.

• Partner with People Operations team to ensure scalable processes for onboarding, offboarding, leave administration, and employee lifecycle management.

• Ensure people programs are grounded in strong analytics and data-driven decision-making.

• Oversee compensation, performance, and people analytics.

• Ensure data integrity across people systems and workflows.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in an HR-related field and/or HR certification (CCP, PHR, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, etc.)

• Demonstrated experience leading total rewards and/or performance programs within an organization

• Knowledge of best practices related to benefits strategy and relationship with payroll processes/procedures

• Experience managing HR or compensation-related compliance in multi-state environments

• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making capabilities

• Experience leading high-impact initiatives integrated with business strategy

• Proven ability to collaborate with executive-level stakeholders across functions

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and presentation skills

• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously

• Skilled facilitator across 1:1, small-group, and workshop environments

• Experience in a fast-growing startup environment (100-500 employees) OR healthcare/behavioral health industry with demonstrated ability to build scalable programs.

We offer several benefits, perks, and stipends:

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Long-Term Disability, Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, and 401k

• 12 Company Holidays, Holiday Shutdown, Flexible Time Off, Parental Leave

• Health and Wellness Stipend, Home Office Reimbursement and Professional Development Reimbursement

• Stock Options

At Brightline we have built a total rewards philosophy that includes fair, equitable, competitive, geo-based compensation that is performance and potential based. Our strategy is based on robust market research, including external advisory specializing in national compensation, and thoughtful input from every level of our organization. It is a combination of a cash salary, equity, benefits, wellbeing, and opportunity. In compliance with the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the annual base salary range for applicants is $165,000-$190,000.

Our Commitment to Building a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workforce

At Brightline, we believe that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging are essential to the foundation upon which our mission is built. We are committed to:

• building a future where all families can access inclusive, high-quality care

• creating an environment that encourages our employees to show up authentically, reach their highest potential, and have an equal opportunity to thrive

• systematically evaluating and improving our inherent beliefs, observed behaviors, structures, and systems

• ensuring that every employee, candidate, client, and family we serve is valued and respected

About Brightline

Brightline is a therapy and psychiatry practice that delivers expert pediatric, teen, and parental mental health care to families and kids up to age 18. Brightline’s virtual and in-person outpatient services include diagnostic evaluation, therapy, psychiatry services (e.g. medication management), and psychological testing (to assess learning differences, school readiness, executive functioning difficulties [e.g. ADHD], and autism). In addition to Brightline’s generalized support, we offer focused programs including those that support anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, ADHD, and disruptive behaviors. Founded in 2019, Brightline has delivered care to tens of thousands of families with industry-leading results. We’ve been nationally recognized for clinical excellence and innovation for several years — recent awards include the Fast Company 50 Most Innovative Companies (2022) and Behavioral Health Business Companies to Watch Award (2024). Brightline is based in Palo Alto and is backed by investors including Boston Children’s Hospital, Northwell Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Google Ventures, KKR, and Oak HC/FT.