---
title: 'Human Resources Manager at Orkes'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/human-resources-manager-orkes-santa-clara-39agft8wpx2b'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Human Resources Manager at Orkes

- **Company:** Orkes
- **Location:** Santa Clara, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-04-27
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/orkes/jobs/5202015008

## Job description

## About Us

Orkes is a platform for developers to build durable, distributed event driven applications. Based on the popular open source orchestration engine [Conductor](https://github.com/conductor-oss/conductor), Orkes lets developers focus on faster go to market with applications, scaling them to handle [billions of workflows](https://medium.com/orkes/running-a-billion-workflows-a-month-with-netflix-conductor-5fd358d9b6c1) without having to worry about failures, scalability or visibility into the executions.

The Opportunity

We’re hiring our first HR/People leader to build and own the entire function at Orkes.

This is a hands-on, player-coach role—you’ll lead HR, but also execute it day-to-day. There is no existing team or infrastructure—you’ll build it from scratch while supporting a fast-growing, in-office engineering organization.

This role will naturally evolve into a Head of People / Director-level position as the company scales.

## What You’ll Own (In Priority Order)

1. HR Operations (Core Foundation)

- Own all day-to-day HR operations: onboarding, offboarding, payroll coordination, employee lifecycle
- Build policies, processes, and internal structure from the ground up
- Support in-office operations (employee experience, coordination, logistics, facilities touchpoints)

1. Recruiting Function Oversight

- Oversee the full recruiting lifecycle (sourcing → scheduling → offers)
- Manage internal or external recruiting resources (agencies, sourcers, etc.)
- Improve hiring quality and efficiency (less reliance on low-quality agency volume)

1. Culture & Employee Experience

- Continuously gather feedback from employees and leadership
- Identify what’s working vs not—and implement improvements quickly
- Help define and reinforce culture through hiring and day-to-day operations

## What We’re Looking For

- Experience owning HR in a startup or high-growth environment
- Strong operator mindset—you’re comfortable doing the work, not just delegating
- Experience across HR ops + recruiting + employee experience
- Comfortable working in-office, highly collaborative environment (5 days/week)
- Ability to move fast, handle ambiguity, and manage multiple priorities

What Won’t Work

- Purely strategic HR leaders who rely on large support teams
- Candidates who haven’t been hands-on in recent roles
- Slower-paced, large-company HR profiles without startup exposure

## Why This Role is Unique

- Build the entire HR function from scratch
- Direct exposure to leadership and company strategy
- Clear path to Director/Head of People as the company grows
- High ownership across operations, hiring, and culture

More Details

The base salary for this role is between $160-210k. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered: skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

- Status: Full-Time
- Type: In-Office
- Location: Cupertino, CA
- Department: People
- Reports to: COO

## Benefits

- Comprehensive health coverage including medical, dental, and vision
- Flexible PTO
- Support for personal development

At Orkes, we are committed to building a team that reflects a rich tapestry of perspectives, identities, and professional experiences. We believe that diversity is not just a checkbox, but a driving force behind innovation, creativity, and success. By embracing a variety of backgrounds, we cultivate an inclusive environment where every team member feels valued and empowered to bring their authentic selves to work.

Join us at Orkes and be a part of a team where your unique perspectives are not only welcomed but celebrated. Together we are shaping the future technology by leveraging the strength that comes from embracing diversity in all its forms. Your Journey with us is an opportunity to contribute to something greater and make a lasting impact.

## About Orkes

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Orkes provides a modern workflow orchestration platform that enables developers to build, run, and observe durable, distributed applications and AI agents at scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A / Seed; raised $29.3M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Cupertino, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Jeu George (CEO), Viren Baraiya (CTO), Dilip Lukose (CPO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Software Development / Workflow Orchestration / AI Agent Platforms
- **Target customers**: B2B – Developers and engineering teams at enterprises (Fortune 500) and SMBs building distributed, event-driven applications.
- **Mission**: “Empower developers to build and scale distributed applications with high levels of observability, security, and durability.” [orkes.io/about-us](https://www.orkes.io/about-us)

## Products & Services
- **Orkes Cloud**: Fully managed, security-hardened orchestration platform with enterprise features – durable execution, real-time monitoring, audit logs, human-in-the-loop, and AI agent integration. (SaaS)
- **Conductor Open Source**: The popular open-source orchestration engine originally created at Netflix, extended and maintained by Orkes. (Open Source / Community)
- **Conductor Agent SDK**: Native SDKs (Python, Go, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, etc.) for building AI agents and workflows that combine deterministic execution with AI reasoning. (API / SDK)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**: Annual Revenue ~$2.4M (LinkedIn estimate); Total Funding $29.3M
- **Funding Rounds**:
  - Seed Round (2022‑02‑28): $9.3M led by Vertex Ventures and Battery Ventures
  - Series A (2024‑02‑21): $20M led by Nexus Venture Partners
  - Series B: led by AVP (investor count and amount not specified)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Nexus Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, Battery Ventures, AVP
- **Growth Signals**:
  - 59 employees (+10.8% YoY) as of mid‑2026
  - 18,840 LinkedIn followers (+67.6% yearly)
  - 13 active job postings (+1200% YoY in job posting trends)
  - Used by “thousands of organizations globally” and Fortune 500 companies
  - Operates in 9 countries (US, India, UK, Australia, Singapore, Argentina, UAE, Paraguay, Netherlands)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founding Team**: Built by the original creators of Netflix Conductor OSS – deep domain expertise in orchestration at massive scale.
- **Open Source Foundation**: Trusted by a broad community; enterprise features built on top of battle-tested open‑source code.
- **AI + Determinism**: Unique ability to combine AI agent reasoning (model‑agnostic) with deterministic, durable workflow execution – bringing trust, explainability, and governance to AI‑powered processes.
- **Enterprise Ready**: Up to 99.99% availability SLA, fine‑grained RBAC, complete audit trails, and support for AWS, Azure, GCP, or on‑prem deployments.

## Strategic Focus
- Becoming “the operating system for AI agents and workflows” – building a unified platform where agents and workflows are first‑class citizens.
- Leading the convergence of AI reasoning and deterministic execution for mission‑critical business operations.
- Scaling enterprise adoption across industries while growing the open‑source Conductor community.
- Expanding developer relations, content engineering, and global sales presence (visible from active job postings for Community Developer Lead, Content Engineer, Solutions Architect, etc.).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Values**: Developer‑first, transparent communication, passion for solving real‑world problems, bias for action (“fail fast”), and high collaboration. Strong emphasis on open‑source contribution and authenticity. [orkes.io/about-us](https://www.orkes.io/about-us)
- **Work Environment**: Fully distributed / remote‑first with flexible hours. Offices in Cupertino, Santa Clara, Seattle, and other hubs. “We believe in a remote‑first, truly distributed workforce.” [orkes.io/careers](https://orkes.io/careers)
- **Compensation & Perks**: Top‑of‑market salaries, stock options, flexible PTO, comprehensive medical/dental/vision coverage.
- **Engineering Culture**: Opportunity to work on cutting‑edge orchestration infrastructure used by Fortune 500 companies; active contribution to open source; modern tech stack (SDKs in multiple languages, cloud‑native, AI integration).
- **Growth Trajectory**: Rapidly scaling (job postings up 1200% YoY) with strong funding and a dedicated team – ideal for those who want high impact in a fast‑growing startup.

## Sources
1. [orkes.io/about-us](https://www.orkes.io/about-us)
2. [orkes.io/careers](https://orkes.io/careers)
3. [orkes.io](https://orkes.io/)
4. [LinkedIn – Orkes](https://www.linkedin.com/company/orkes-inc)
5. [Greenhouse – Jobs at Orkes](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/orkes)

## Other roles at Orkes

- [Lead Technical Recruiter](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-technical-recruiter-orkes-santa-clara-8p0g93fp5n4f) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Solutions Architect](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-architect-orkes-northwestern-europe-middle-europe-4cbpwy6bxk9y) — Northwestern Europe / Middle Europe
- [Senior Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-engineer-orkes-santa-clara-c9782jhgtay8) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Senior Frontend Engineer (Full-Stack Capable)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-frontend-engineer-full-stack-capable-orkes-santa-clara-2y3bwzwvrvqs) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Senior Backend Engineer (Full-Stack Capable)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-backend-engineer-full-stack-capable-orkes-santa-clara-g9n4vn25286s) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Community Developer Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/community-developer-lead-orkes-santa-clara-ca-or-seattle-s69x65rrkyv1) — Santa Clara CA OR Seattle, WA
- [Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-orkes-cupertino-9cazvzt5dzw4) — Cupertino, CA
- [Site Reliability Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/site-reliability-engineer-orkes-australia-middle-europe-7z0g4j6gervq) — Australia / Middle Europe
- [Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-orkes-cupertino-43wypw5n8xv0) — Cupertino, CA
- [Demand Generation Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/demand-generation-manager-orkes-united-states-sc0gjg3xrmkr) — United States