People & Culture Lead, Jesse & Ben's

People & Culture Lead, Jesse & Ben's
Position Overview
Jesse & Ben's makes real-food frozen fries that taste like the restaurant version you crave. Made with simple, better-for-you ingredients, we're all about great flavor, great food and no shortcuts. Founded by two friends, Jesse and Ben, who got obsessed with fixing a category that had gone stale, we're now scaling quickly across national, regional, natural and club retailers alike. We're a passionate team that cares deeply about turning junk food into joy food.
As we scale across freezers in America, we are hiring a People & Culture Lead to build the people side of the company. You will own the full employee experience, from the first application to the first anniversary and beyond: People Operations, benefits, onboarding, culture, recruiting, our New York office, and support for the hourly team at our own facility. The role is hands-on from day one. This is a team of one. You will build the systems, then run them. We are growing rapidly, and you will make sure every new hire joins well and the culture holds as we grow.
Responsibilities
1) People Operations
Employee lifecycle. Own every people process from offer through offboarding: offer letters, new hire paperwork, role changes, leaves and exits.
HR platform. Own our HR platform (Rippling or equivalent) end to end: selection, setup, integrations, permissions, data and reporting. Run payroll in it every cycle, accurately and on time, and reconcile with Finance.
Compliance. Keep us compliant in every state where our team lives: registrations, wage-and-hour rules, workers' compensation, required notices, policies, I-9s and recordkeeping.
Handbook and policies. Write and maintain an employee handbook and people policies that are clear, current and short.
Employee relations. Be the trusted, confidential first call for team members and managers, and know when to bring in outside counsel.
Hourly team. Be the main point of contact for our hourly team at our own facility: onboarding, pay and timekeeping questions, policies, and the concerns they want heard.
Leadership partnership. Advise leadership on org planning, headcount and sensitive people matters, and report the people metrics that matter: time to hire, turnover and engagement.
Compensation. Run annual salary planning and market benchmarking against our pay bands.
2) Recruiting
Hiring process. Own how we hire end to end: job posts, application forms, candidate pipelines, scheduling and candidate communication.
Candidate experience. Make sure every applicant gets a real answer, on time. Every candidate is also a customer.
First-round screens. Run first-round screens and give hiring managers a clear, honest read on each candidate.
Hiring manager partnership. Help managers define the role, run structured interviews and scorecards, check references and close offers.
Sourcing. Track where great candidates come from, build the channels that work, and manage outside recruiters when we use them.
3) Onboarding and Culture
Onboarding. Build and run an onboarding program so every new hire has equipment, accounts, a 30/60/90 plan and a first-week schedule ready before day one.
Culture and engagement. Turn our values into habits: team gatherings, recognition, and the moments that make people proud to work here.
Offsites and events. Plan and run team offsites and company events end to end, from budget to agenda to logistics.
Performance and growth. Run the annual review and goal-setting cycle, and coach managers on feedback, documentation and hard conversations.
Listening. Run regular engagement check-ins and bring leadership what you hear, with a recommendation attached.
Internal communications. Own people announcements, policy updates and a regular team newsletter.
4) Benefits
Benefits program. Run point on setting up our employee benefits from zero with a broker: health, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k), and leave, from design through launch.
Administration. Run open enrollment, carrier relationships and day-to-day questions so benefits work without anyone having to chase them.
Renewals. Bring leadership a recommendation at every renewal on cost, coverage and what the team actually uses.
5) New York Office
Office operations. Run our Manhattan office day to day: vendors, supplies, access, facilities and maintenance.
Workspace. Keep the space ready for the team, visitors, retail partners and the occasional fry tasting.
Equipment and access. Coordinate laptops, accounts and access for every arrival and departure.
Budget. Own the office and people budgets, and track spend against plan.
What You Bring
6+ years in People Operations, HR or People & Culture, including at least 2 years running the people function largely on your own at a startup or growth company
Hands-on experience running payroll and administering benefits yourself
Experience advising founders or executives on sensitive people matters
Experience building a benefits program from scratch
Working knowledge of multi-state employment compliance, including New York
Experience supporting hourly, non-exempt employees in a production facility, including wage-and-hour compliance
Full-cycle recruiting experience: you have run hiring, not only coordinated it
A track record of building onboarding and people processes where none existed
Experience running an office or workplace operations
Hands-on experience implementing and running Rippling or a comparable HR platform end to end
A direct communicator who handles sensitive matters with discretion and raises problems early
Comfort using AI tools as part of daily work
CPG or food industry experience is a plus
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
Our Values at Jesse & Ben's
We believe tempo is strategy: high standards, direct feedback, real craft, and doing work you'll look back on as some of your best.
Humility. Stay open. Listen first. No one here is too important to sweep the floor.
Excellence. Do it right, and do it consistently. Quality is the standard, not the goal.
Resourcefulness. We won't always have the perfect tool, budget or playbook. We figure it out anyway. We always find a way.
Ownership. If you see a problem, it's yours to solve or escalate. No spectators.
Joy. We turn junk food into joy food. If we're not having fun, we're doing it wrong.
Logistics
Structure. Full-time. Reporting to the Founding President.
Location. Based in the New York City metro area, working hybrid from our Manhattan office two days a week.
Travel. Low. Company offsites and occasional visits to facilities.
Salary. The estimated base pay range for this role is $127,500 to $157,500. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors permitted by law. This range represents the anticipated salary for this position at this time.
Bonus. A meaningful annual bonus payout tied to company performance.
How to Apply
Apply through the form below. You'll share a few basics, confirm a couple of role requirements, answer three short questions, and upload your resume. We look forward to hearing from you.
Apply here: https://forms.gle/LLdoGY4jkPwzSgYp7