VP of People

About Loyal

Loyal is a clinical-stage veterinary medicine company developing drugs intended to extend the lifespan and healthspan of dogs. Our mission is to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

We’ve already achieved significant milestones on our path to earning FDA approval for the first lifespan extension drug for any species. We have three products in our pipeline and are on track for FDA conditional approval within the next year.

Loyal is a well-funded startup in growth mode. Our team includes scientists, veterinarians, engineers, operators, and creatives. This role will play a key role in supporting our growth strategies.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced VP of People. You will report to our Founder/CEO and own Culture, People Ops and Recruiting functions via IC work and management of the current Loyal team. You should be excited about building structure where it is needed, eradicating it where it doesn’t, and making judgment calls that balance both empathy for the team and holding an extremely high talent density. 

This is not a role for someone who wants to copy-paste HR playbooks - we are looking for someone who will think from first principles about how great organizations work. You should expect that many of the formulas you have developed in your previous roles do not work at Loyal, and be excited by this! 

We are especially excited about candidates who have experience working with deep tech or scientific teams, in addition to consumer and engineering talent. 

What you’ll do

The mission of this role is to mature & scale our people philosophy and execution, in partnership with our Founder/CEO and executive leadership team, to set up Loyal for success as we move towards commercial launch of our first longevity drug.

This will include: 

Building systems to scale and reinforce high performance and culture standards. Hiring, leveling, performance management, compensation, equity, and feedback. Be the steward of Loyal’s culture in moments that matter most: rapid growth, conflict, failure, and change.

Be a thought partner to leadership. Act as a people business partner to support team leaders in people management. Create feedback loops that surface problems quickly and enable course correction at both individual and organizational levels.

Care deeply about the individual, without losing the organization: design policies and structures that both maximize Loyal’s probability of success and support our team individually. 

Own the full Loyal team member lifecycle: from recruiting and onboarding to development, performance, and exits. 

Operations: employment law, compliance, and risk handled well without over-bureaucracy. 

About you

• You have previously been a People leader at a scale-up company, perhaps as the leader or the leader’s right hand.
• You may have previously been at a deep tech, healthcare, or biotech company
• You are a doer not a manager: you like building and are excited to stay deep in IC work in addition to managing a small team. 
• You have both high empathy and a high bar - you don’t see these as in conflict.
• You are ambitious and excited to work hard.
• You communicate clearly and concisely.
• You spike on internal communications and can give casual, clear, and compelling company-wide presentations.
• Deep understanding of compensation, performance management, and organizational design.
• You have helped a company cross a major inflection point (e.g., pre- to post-commercialization, or research-heavy to product-driven).
• You can operate with incomplete information and still move decisively.

What success looks like

• Leaders trust you as a true partner.
• The organization scales without cultural drift or performance dilution.
• People systems fade into the background because they work.
• People understand what “good” looks like here and how to succeed.
• We move faster because expectations are clear.
• The company feels demanding but fair.
• We treat people like adults.

Salary range: $250,000 - $350,000

Loyal benefits

• Full-coverage health insurance — medical, dental and vision — for you and your dependents
• $1,000 home office equipment stipend
• $1,200/year learning budget for books, courses, etc.
• $250/month wellness budget for gym, cleaners, spa, food, etc.
• All 3-day weekends are turned into 4-day weekends 🎉
• Unlimited vacation and paid holidays
• Paw-ternity leave — adopt a dog and get a day off with your new family member 🐶
• Competitive salary
• Company equity options grant for new hires

Loyal is founded and led by a first-gen female CEO and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. 

Our values

Lean into moonshots

We don’t settle for incremental change. We have the bravery to take risks and shoot for the impact we want to have.

Opportunity is at the intersection

We lean into combining disciplines, expertises, and perspectives not normally adjacent. We design our organization to facilitate cross-pollination and cross-collaboration. We reject silos.

Expertise without ego

Titles do not determine who has a voice. We work on hard technical problems and have a ton of fun while at it.

Learning by doing

Our path is novel and many things we are doing have never been done before. We lean into MVPs and are open to unexpected outcomes.

Lead with context

We value leading with context. We equip people with the context and background necessary to make their own decisions and act in the best interest of Loyal. We empower teams to succeed.

Empathy and respect for all life

Our patients are not just numbers. Our work is intentional, thoughtful, and guided by respect for life. We take our responsibility to pets and pet parents seriously.