People and HR Lead

Somerville, MA

People/HR & Recruiting

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Our pay ranges are established per Pave Compensation Software. We’re also proud to offer equity in our fast-growing startup and one of the most comprehensive benefits packages among startups at our stage. Laminar pays 100% of the individual health insurance premium for HMO medical, vision, and dental, offers flexible PTO, a $90/month transportation benefit, a $65/month health and wellness benefit, FSA, 12 company-paid holidays, an employer-matching 401(k) (unheard of at this stage!), and Greentown Labs membership, among other valuable resources. (*subject to change)

Machines learned to understand language. We’re teaching them to understand matter.

Forty percent of global manufacturing happens through physical and chemical processes inside pipes, tanks, and reactors. Despite decades of industrial automation, much of what happens inside them remains remarkably invisible. Manufacturing is the most ubiquitous and foundational sector in global economy, yet the way factories are fundamentally run have used the same control philosophies, manual operations, and legacy software for the past 60 years.

Laminar deploys state-of-the-art patented sensors and edge hardware directly into live production environments, generating data that didn’t previously exist to build foundation models deployed in factory floors that understand chemistry, composition, quality, and material state in real time. We use that understanding to run autonomy and rethink how things are made.

The last generation of industrial automation taught machines to execute instructions reliably. The next will teach them to understand the processes they control and run autonomously, adaptively, and agentically: higher quality, safety, more efficiently, sustainably, and productively.

That future is already taking shape. Today, Laminar works with 7 of the world’s 10 largest food and beverage manufacturers and operates across hundreds of factories globally across six continents. Our systems have materially reduced waste, cut manufacturing downtime, saved water, chemicals, energy, and helped prevent safety and quality failures. Our technology has gained international recognition, from being selected as a 2026 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Gold 2026 Edison Award, Unilever Startup of the Year, to Innovator Awards by both Coca-Cola and AB InBev, and more.

We are backed by tier-one investors in physical AI to make intelligent, self-improving production the new standard for industry.

Join us to build what makes matter intelligible, and the intelligible controllable.

We're looking for a People & HR Lead who wants to do more than keep the HR trains running. You'll help build the culture, systems, and experience that make Laminar the best place to work in Boston. This role works hand-in-hand with our Technical Recruiter: while they own sourcing and hiring, you'll own everything that keeps a growing team thriving once someone joins, including a standout onboarding experience, benefits, employee relations, conflict resolution, performance, leaves, and staying ahead of state and local employment law, as we scale past 50 teammates and counting.

What You Will Own

What You Will Do:

Shape HR Strategy: Develop and implement HR strategies aligned with the company's goals and values.
Champion Employee Relations: Serve as a trusted resource for managers and employees, handling conflict resolution, performance concerns, and workplace investigations with discretion and fairness.
Administer Leaves & Accommodations: Own the end-to-end process for FMLA, parental, medical, and state-mandated leaves, ensuring accurate tracking and a smooth experience for employees.
Stay Ahead of Compliance: Monitor and apply state and local employment law across our growing footprint, keeping policies, handbooks, and practices current as regulations change.
Own HR Policy & Documentation: Maintain and evolve our employee handbook, policies, and procedures to match a scaling, multi-location team.
Review current pay bands, levels, and org structure and contribute to org growth and career pathways for team members
Draft and manage the Contract Renewal process for Contractors
Administer Benefits: Manage open enrollment, benefits administration, and vendor relationships to ensure employees get the support they need.
Build a Standout Onboarding Program: Design and manage employee onboarding in collaboration with team leads, marketing, and Ops so every new hire ramps fast and feels the mission from day one.
Work with Ops for all employee Offboarding, including communication, logistics, and access.
Support Performance Management: Partner with managers to run performance review cycles, coaching, and, when necessary, disciplinary processes and exits.
Partner with Recruiting: Work closely with our Technical Recruiter to ensure a seamless handoff from offer acceptance through onboarding and into steady-state employment, including joining career fairs and recruiting events. Collaborate on job description development.
Maintain HRIS: Own our HR systems of record, ensuring accurate employee data, reporting, and compliance documentation. Manage PTO process.
Fuel Growth & Development: Design and offer professional development opportunities that help our team keep leveling up.
Build Culture That Sticks: Foster a collaborative team, organize team building and social events, and weave company culture into everything we do.

About You

5+ years of HR generalist or HR business partner experience, ideally supporting a team that scaled past 50 employees
Deep working knowledge of employment law, including leave administration (FMLA and state equivalents) and multi-state/local compliance
Demonstrated experience handling employee relations issues and conflict resolution with sound judgment and discretion
Experience administering benefits and partnering with brokers/vendors
Proficiency with HRIS systems and strong organizational skills
High level of integrity and confidentiality in handling sensitive information
SHRM-CP, PHR, or similar HR certification preferred
Comfortable operating in a fast-paced startup environment

Benefits

Direct impact on product and culture.
Comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Disability, Transportation benefit, Health and Wellness benefit, and more.
401k plan with employer matching
Equity
Competitive salary and bonus opportunities.
Dynamic and inclusive work environment.
Opportunities for growth and professional development.
Access to Greentown Labs' extensive network of cleantech startups.

Learn How We Think

- Learn about our startup journey: Our Journey
- How we're combating climate change: AI-Powered Climate Tech

Why Laminar?

There are many easier places to work on AI. Laminar is for people who want the hardest version of their discipline. Models here must survive contact with physics. Hardware must survive years of continuous industrial operation. Software must integrate with machinery built decades ago. Everything we build ultimately has to work on a factory floor.

We believe exceptional people should be given exceptional amounts of ownership. At Laminar, you will have the context to form your own view, the permission to challenge ours, and the resources to pursue the right answers, whatever technical or organizational boundaries stand in the way. There are few layers between identifying something important and changing it.

We’re fortunate to work with a small polymathic team of hardware and software engineers, chemists, AI researchers, factory operators, and go-to-market wizards who are unusually capable, curious, rigorous, ambitious, and low-ego. If that sounds like you, we’d love to meet you.

Our Interview Process

1. Phone screen with Laminar HR/Recruiter (15-20 minutes)

2. Intro call with Hiring Manager (30 minutes)

3. On-site interview, overview of tech, and interview/presentation with the Hiring Manager and a few team members. Depending on the role, a skills exercise that should take no longer than an hour to prep, would be sent ahead of time. We record your skills exercise to share with any team members who could not join the interview and/or with Founder's ahead of their Founder's Interview. If you are not local, we can conduct this virtually.

4. Finalists for Full-Time positions will have a Founder’s Interview in-person

Final steps:

Two professional references are requested, ideally one from your current organization and one who served as your Manager

If an Offer Letter is extended, a Background check is conducted

Laminar is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. Even if you are unsure you are a perfect fit, we strongly encourage you to apply! If you're ready to play a key role in scaling a game-changing company that’s transforming the industrial sector and advancing sustainability, we want to hear from you.

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