VP of People

Our mission at Ello is simple and urgent: Maximize the potential of every child, everywhere.

We’re building the world’s first AI teacher to close that gap: one that listens, speaks, adapts, and inspires, just like the best human educators.

Our first product, Read with Ello, is already helping tens of thousands of kids each week learn to read. It listens as they read aloud, offers support when they stumble, and generates magical, personalized stories using generative AI. It works—and kids love it.

Now, we’re scaling that success into something even bigger: a complete AI teacher for all children. We’re building a real-time learning platform that combines language, speech, and memory to power personalized, interactive education for kids worldwide. We’re moving fast: we ship weekly, test directly with kids and families, and push the boundaries of what AI can do in education.

With the resources of the world's top investors and the heart of a public benefit corporation, we’re here to revolutionize how children learn globally. Featured on TIME’s Best Inventions and Fortune’s Change the World, Ello is a small, mission-driven team taking on one of the most critical challenges of our time: to democratize education.

About the role

We’re seeking an experienced and strategic VP of People to join our San Francisco-based leadership team and scale the people operations foundation to grow Ello from 45 to 200+ employees. You’ll be our first executive People leader—not just scaling the function, but owning it. This is a unique opportunity to shape the systems, processes, and culture that will guide us through Ello’s next chapter of growth. You’ll bring the judgment, gravitas, and experience to be a true peer to our three co-founders, earning trust through clarity, care, and a track record of scaling organizations with both rigor and heart.

As our VP of People, you’ll shape the entire employee experience – owning the full People stack from compensation and performance to recruiting, immigration, and culture. You'll partner closely with our three co-founders as both a strategic advisor and trusted coach, building scalable systems while maintaining the care and relationships that make Ello special.

This is a role for a seasoned People leader who has helped a company go from scrappy startup (< 30 people) to thriving organization (150+) while preserving the heart of its culture. You bring a clear strategic vision paired with the IC drive to roll up your sleeves and execute.

Our mission to maximize every child's potential begins with our people, so we’re looking for a leader who shares our commitment to unlocking the full potential of every teammate. If you’re a strong, values-driven leader who loves designing systems and processes that help people thrive, we’d love to meet you.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic partner to Ello’s co-founders and leadership team, shaping org design, team structure, and people strategy as we scale
• Lead with values: evolve Ello’s culture as we grow, maintaining and building it through each inflection point
• Build and scale People systems—across performance, compensation, and recruiting
• Build out comprehensive compensation frameworks and benefits programs that attract and retain top talent
• Design and run performance management systems that drive growth and accountability across the organization
• Ensure every new hire has a world-class recruiting and onboarding experience
• Build people analytics to inform smarter, faster decisions
• Ensure our physical spaces, travel experiences, and day-to-day operations make every team member feel cared for and supported
• Be a trusted coach and advisor to executives and managers across the company, helping them to grow as leaders and decision makers
• Define how AI and People intersect, ensuring the function and our people are prepared for this paradigm shift.

About you

• 8+ years of People/HR leadership with proven startup scaling experience
• Deep expertise in compensation, equity, benefits, performance, and recruiting at growth-stage companies
• Strategic thinker with strong execution skills and a process-oriented mindset
• Experienced coach and mentor who develops managers and leaders at all levels
• Excellent communicator: clear, direct, empathetic, and skilled at both giving and receiving feedback
• Values-driven and relationship-centered: you care deeply about building a culture where people feel supported and seen
• Thrive in ambiguity, bringing clarity and structure to complex situations
• Excellent judgment and can build trust quickly through integrity and strong interpersonal skills

Bonus points

• Have experience with global offices and immigration processes
• Have guided a company through complex transitions, including fundraising stages, leadership transitions, and org redesigns.

We look for candidates who

• Have something to teach us
• Take initiative and full ownership of their work
• Want to do work they are proud of to build a company they are proud of
• Have an urge to make a real impact on child development at scale
• Prefer open and direct communication grounded in empathy to beating around the bush
• Exemplify integrity in their actions, decisions, and communication
• Want to build meaningful relationships at work
• Bring good judgment to complex, high-stakes decisions and are comfortable challenging senior leaders when necessary
• Understand how to scale culture, not just preserve it

Here are some reasons to be a part of our team

• Help build the future of education with mission-driven teammates who care deeply about each other and the work we’re doing
• Shape and scale the People function at a fast-growing, well-funded, award-wining startup
• Join the senior leadership team and influence company direction and culture

About Ello

Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. We’re currently around 45 people, headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in São Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; and New York.

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator’s W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors, including Goodwater Capital, Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, Ravensburger, Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures.

We’re a small, collaborative team that takes each other’s voices seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, our team must be representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.

We feel enormously privileged to be one of the few companies with the opportunity to take a shot at truly revolutionizing education with AI at this inflection point in technology. We don’t take it for granted, so we work urgently to turn that vision into reality. We want to create an environment where we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things we’re proud of – and we believe it’s possible to do both.