People & Talent Lead Catena · Remote (US) · Full-Time The Short Version We're 15 people, moving fast, and building the connectivity layer that freight has been missing for 20 years. We need someone who can make the team run at its best — not a policy manager or an HR generalist, but an operator who owns the people function end-to-end and raises the bar on how we hire, onboard, and develop talent. This is our first dedicated people hire — and a founding-level role in everything but title. What You'll Own Recruiting — not just posting jobs. You'll help define what "great" looks like for each role, run tight interview processes, maintain the candidate experience we'd want if we were the ones applying, and help close strong people. You won't do this for every hire — but when we're recruiting, you're the center of gravity. Onboarding — we move fast and new hires need to ramp faster. You'll design the systems and rituals that get someone productive and culturally embedded in their first 30–60 days. Then you'll keep improving it. Performance & Feedback — we want honest, structured, useful performance conversations. You'll help build and run the review cycles, goal-setting frameworks, and manager enablement that make feedback land well and drive real development. Company Operations — team offsites, internal documentation, benefits, HR systems, employee lifecycle management. The connective tissue that keeps a distributed team aligned and the basics working smoothly. What This Role Is Not This is not a compliance role. It's not a headcount factory. It's not about managing HR tickets or writing policy documents no one reads. You'll spend very little time in the administrative weeds. You'll spend a lot of time thinking about how to make a small, high-performing team operate at its ceiling — and then building the systems to get there. Who Fits This Role The best candidates will have worked in high-growth startups (10–100 people) and understand what it means to build people infrastructure without a playbook. You've probably held a title like People Ops Lead, Recruiting Lead, Startup Ops, or Chief of Staff — or you've worn several of those hats at once. Specifically, you: - Think like an operator first. You see a broken process and want to fix it, not document it. - Are comfortable with ambiguity. At 15 people, priorities shift. You stay oriented. - Have real recruiting reps. You've run searches, managed pipelines, and helped close candidates — not just coordinated scheduling. - Handle sensitive situations with judgment and discretion. Small teams mean high stakes on people decisions. - Write clearly and communicate directly. You won't have a big team to absorb miscommunication. - Take ownership seriously. You'll be the person who catches things before they become problems. 5+ years of experience in people ops, HR, talent, or startup operations. Why Catena, Why Now Catena has raised $8.25M from Shaper Capital, Floating Point, Plug and Play, Liquid 2, and leading industry angels. Customers are already using us in production — many of them are also investors, which tells you something. We're operators who've worked inside carriers, brokerages, TMSs, and financial institutions. We care about accuracy and real outcomes. The team we're building reflects that. If you join now, you'll help set the cultural and operational foundation for a company with real momentum. That's rare. Compensation: Competitive salary, meaningful equity, full benefits, 401k match. Remote-first. Optional travel for team offsites and occasional on-sites.

• Serve as a trusted thought partner, consultant and coach to senior leaders across your client group and leader and managers within our People, Legal and Finance organization • Be the primary point of contact on all people-related matters for global team members at all levels • Partner with your leaders and managers to foster and drive a high performance culture and environment, driving initiatives that improve employee performance, engagement and retention • Provide support, guidance and thought leadership on areas such as performance management, change management, employee relations, workforce and talent planning, career development, manager development, etc. • Collect and analyze data to deliver insights and drive recommendations that support the business • Assess organizational health and effectiveness on a regular basis and identify opportunities to drive improvements and efficiencies • Drive the project management and execution of critical People programs such as performance reviews, compensation planning, talent reviews, and engagement surveys

• Own and lead the HR Due Diligence process for M&A transactions, including defining required data requests, overseeing data gathering and analysis, identifying people-related risks that must be addressed pre- or post-closing, addressing equity and compensation-related considerations, delivering employment agreements to key employees, and partnering with Corporate Development’s Integration team to articulate and execute the People integration plan. • Lead People M&A efforts from pre-diligence through deal signing, close, and post-close integration, ensuring continuity and alignment across the full lifecycle of the transaction. • Deeply understand Deel’s people programs, policies, and operating model in order to design and execute scalable M&A playbooks. • Develop and execute a holistic People M&A strategy and roadmap including diligence, compliance, workforce planning, integration, and operational readiness. • Serve as the primary People partner to Corporate Development and executive stakeholders throughout the deal lifecycle. • Evaluate M&A targets from a people perspective, deploying diligence requests, analyzing responses, identifying risks, and providing recommendations. • Lead the design and execution of the people integration strategy, partnering with Finance, Legal, PMO, IT, and other functions. • Orchestrate resources across HR COEs to ensure successful delivery of integration workstreams. • Assess talent capabilities within acquired organizations, develop retention strategies, and manage workforce transitions where necessary. • Ensure seamless integration of HR policies, processes, systems, and structures. • Manage HR-related transition service agreements (TSAs) where applicable. • Lead change management and communication strategies to support cultural integration and employee engagement. • Define project goals, timelines, and success metrics and manage progress through PMO governance structures. • Identify operational, regulatory, and compliance risks in partnership with Legal and ensure alignment with labor laws and regulatory requirements. • Act as a thought partner and influence-based leader, navigating complex stakeholder environments and enabling cross-functional alignment.

• Own recruiting processes and candidate experience • Design onboarding systems for new hires • Build and run performance conversations and review cycles • Manage company operations like team offsites and internal documentation