---
title: 'Founding People Operations Lead at Mach9'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-people-operations-lead-mach9-san-francisco-q2sfh0vq8by5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Founding People Operations Lead at Mach9

- **Company:** Mach9
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mach9/8e8b9d3e-bf0c-484b-829a-9012865a4920

## Job description

## About Mach9

Every road, fiber route, transmission line, and data center starts with a survey. A surveyor measures the world, then turns those measurements into the CAD blueprint engineers build from. Mach9 makes AI CAD software for civil engineering that helps surveyors create the blueprint drawing in a fraction of the time. The fact is simple: infrastructure software hasn't had a major breakthrough since the 1980s. Critical infrastructure projects are still being designed through decades-old software and disconnected workflows. Mach9 is betting AI-assisted drafting and surveying workflows are the missing link towards making infrastructure projects progress at the speed and scale the world needs. Mach9 [is backed by](https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/14/mach9-is-equipping-infrastructure-operators-with-better-information/) Quiet Capital, Y Combinator, Overmatch Ventures, Kyle Vogt (founder of Cruise), Amar Hanspal (former CEO of Autodesk), Scott Belsky (CPO of Adobe), Gokul Rajaram (former executive at DoorDash), and more.

## About the Position

Mach9 is looking for a Founding People Operations Lead to own the employee experience from the moment someone accepts a job offer through their last day. We are approximately 30 people today and expect to grow to roughly 75 employees over the next 18 months. This role will be central to how we hire, develop, support, and retain an exceptional team while preserving the culture and pace that make Mach9 successful. We believe traditional HR often creates bureaucracy and slows companies down. We want someone who believes a great People function does the opposite: helps the company move faster, communicate clearly, make better decisions, and build an exceptional, productive place to work. You should know when structure adds value, when it does not, and how to build just enough process to make the company better without getting in the way. Mach9's team is smart, driven, ambitious, and committed to building a category-defining company. People work hard, take ownership, and do what is necessary to succeed. This is a 100% in-office position with no hybrid option. You will report to the Head of Business Operations and Finance and work closely with the CEO and managers across the company. Your responsibilities will include:

- Build the People systems and infrastructure needed to support Mach9 as it grows from approximately 30 to 75 employees and beyond.
- Own compensation, offer letters, employee onboarding, benefits administration, corporate governance, and the selection and management of external People-related vendors.
- Partner closely with our Founding Recruiting Lead to create a magical candidate and new employee experience.
- Own Mach9's employee experience, including the programs, rituals, feedback systems, and internal communication that shape how people work and develop.
- Serve as a trusted partner to managers, helping them become better leaders, develop their teams, handle difficult conversations, and address performance issues.
- Own employee relations and HR issues across the company, bringing sound judgment, consistency, discretion, and clear communication to sensitive situations.
- Own immigration strategy and execution, working with outside counsel and partners to support current and prospective employees.
- Manage employee offboarding, terminations, separations, and the employee experience through the end of employment.

## About You

You may not have led a People function before. What matters is that you have worked closely with an exceptional leader, learned how a great People function operates, and are ready to own one yourself. You should have:

- 5+ years of relevant experience across People Operations, HR, talent, or a closely-related function within a high-growth startup or similarly fast-paced company.
- A strong working knowledge of onboarding, compensation, benefits, employee relations, performance management, immigration, and HR operations.
- Excellent judgment and a practical approach to HR. You know the rules, understand why they exist, and can distinguish between what is truly required and what is simply convention.
- A bias toward simple, useful systems over bureaucracy. You are skeptical of policies, meetings, and processes that exist mainly because “that’s how HR does it.”
- The confidence and interpersonal judgment to build trust, maintain confidentiality, and give managers and executives direct advice—even when the conversation is difficult.
- A genuine interest in helping managers become better managers, employees do their best work, and building a People function that strengthens the company rather than policing it.
- You understand that owning the People function isn't a 9-to-5 responsibility. If the team or company needs something, you take care of it—regardless of the hour.

## Compensation & Benefits

Mach9 offers a competitive compensation package that includes:

- Competitive salary: $130k to $180k, based on experience
- Equity ownership in Mach9
- 100% employee coverage for medical, dental, and vision
- 401k
- Unlimited PTO and 8 paid holidays
- Daily office lunch and snacks
- Unlimited Cursor, ChatGPT, and Claude credits
- Monthly team offsites: Go-karting, Topgolf, etc.

## About Mach9

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Mach9 builds AI-native CAD software that automatically transforms LiDAR point clouds into engineering-grade 3D maps, accelerating infrastructure design and surveying workflows.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Alexander Baikovitz (CEO), Zachary Sussman (CTO), Haowen Shi, Michael M. – four researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Civil infrastructure, surveying & geospatial services, transportation, telecom, utilities, architecture/engineering/construction (AEC).
- **Target customers**: B2B. Enterprise clients include top engineering firms (Langan, Olsson, Woolpert, HDR, Michael Baker International), major state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), and utility companies.
- **Mission/purpose**: "Accelerate how teams model and understand the world" – providing the fastest, most accurate automated feature-extraction technology for infrastructure projects.

## Products & Services
- **Digital Surveyor (DS2)**: AI-native, web-based CAD platform for automated feature extraction from LiDAR point clouds. Offers AI-assisted extraction (curbs, pavement edges, guardrails, utility poles), manual tools, and direct export to AutoCAD, MicroStation, and ESRI. Data-agnostic ingest pipeline supports scanners from RIEGL, Trimble, Leica, NavVis. Type: SaaS.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – **USD $14,425,000** (as of early 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (Summer 2021 batch), Quiet Capital (led $12M Seed round, Nov 2024), Tiger Global Management (led $2.3M Seed round, Dec 2021), and top executives from Cruise, Autodesk, Adobe, and DoorDash as advisors/investors.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 30 employees (LinkedIn, Apr 2026) with +32.1% yearly growth; monthly job posting growth +66.7% year-over-year; trusted by leading engineering firms and state DOTs; launched Digital Surveyor 2 in March 2026; featured in Geo Week News and YC blog.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-native CAD workflow**: Unlike traditional manual drafting, DS2's AI "drafts with you" – learning from user edits to improve suggestions in real time, cutting manual drafting time by up to 96×.
- **Field-to-finish in one environment**: No need to switch between preprocessing, extraction, and CAD tools – all done in a single web-based platform.
- **Strong research roots**: Built on decades of research from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, giving a deep technical moat in computer vision and geospatial ML.
- **Designed for surveyors**: Intuitive UI that lets domain experts (not just CAD specialists) be productive on day one.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale GTM and engineering**: Active hiring across sales (Account Executive, Founding Marketer), engineering (ML Infrastructure Engineer, Perception Software Engineer, Head of Product Engineering), and operations (Solutions Consultant, QA Survey Technician).
- **Expand into new verticals**: Targeting electric/telecom utilities, data centers, and broader infrastructure beyond transportation.
- **Product evolution**: Continuously improving AI accuracy and automation, with a focus on trust and user control (as highlighted in the DS2 launch).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Fast-paced, customer-obsessed, engineering-first environment. Values: "work fast, iterate with customer feedback, never compromise on excellence."
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: HQ in San Francisco; some roles are "Remote / Remote (US)" per YC job listings. Likely hybrid with in-office presence for SF-based roles.
- **Perks & Benefits**: Health, vision, dental insurance; paid parental leave; flexible time off; equity package for all full-time employees; company 401(k); relocation assistance; catered lunches & paid dinner; company & team events; dog-friendly office.
- **Engineering culture**: Deep technical challenges at the intersection of AI, geospatial, computer graphics, and infrastructure. Opportunity to work on hard problems that "unlock billions in value for customers."

## Sources
1. [mach9.ai/careers](https://mach9.ai/careers)
2. [mach9.ai](https://www.mach9.ai/)
3. [mach9.ai/about](https://www.mach9.ai/about)
4. [ycombinator.com/companies/mach9](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/mach9)
5. [linkedin.com/company/mach9geo](https://www.linkedin.com/company/mach9geo)

## Other roles at Mach9

- [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-mach9-san-francisco-xkk9z3hxha2t) — San Francisco, CA
- [Perception Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/perception-intern-mach9-san-francisco-w4xn6hr557z2) — San Francisco, CA
- [ML Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-infrastructure-engineer-mach9-san-francisco-5fc06s72snqa) — San Francisco, CA
- [ML Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-engineer-product-mach9-san-francisco-m46vawenmmr8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Sales](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-mach9-san-francisco-5nqtbqf74qa5) — San Francisco, CA
- [Office Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/office-manager-mach9-san-francisco-8tpyk7z003jp) — San Francisco, CA
- [Business Operations Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-associate-mach9-san-francisco-bnpq69twf9ae) — San Francisco, CA
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- [Head of Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-growth-mach9-san-francisco-d8kxeytn9wx9) — San Francisco, CA
- [Community Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/community-marketing-manager-mach9-san-francisco-8m9th9t0gj50) — San Francisco, CA