About this Director, Talent Acquisition and Employee Success role at Tigera
Tigera—the pioneer behind Calico and Lynx—is defining the future of AI agent security, workload governance, and cloud-native networking. As autonomous AI agents, LLM frameworks, and microservices proliferate across enterprise infrastructure, Tigera delivers the deep visibility, runtime protection, and eBPF-driven enforcement control required to secure the next generation of computing.
From modern cloud-native architectures to cutting-edge AI agent ecosystems, our technology safeguards over 1 million Kubernetes clusters across multicloud and hybrid environments. Trusted by world-class innovation leaders—including NVIDIA, Royal Bank of Canada, Bloomberg, Chipotle, GoDaddy, and Upwork—we empower enterprises to build, scale, and innovate with AI safely and without compromise.
At Tigera, our customers are the heroes of our story. We aim high, move fast, foster continuous learning, and build a high-trust, highly collaborative environment where every voice shapes the future of AI security. If you are looking to help make a substantial impact, and our values and products align with your vision of your career growth, we want to hear from you!
About Your Role
We are seeking an experienced, strategic, and hands-on Director of Talent Acquisition & Employee Success to lead our People Team.
In this role, you will bridge the gap between high-level executive strategy and day-to-day People operations. You will oversee recruitment strategies, optimize HR practices for our company’s current growth stage, build frameworks that set employees up for long-term success. In addition, you will provide site leadership for our Vancouver office.
This role requires a balanced approach: a strategic leader who can advise executive leadership and mentor team members, and a hands-on "player" who steps in to support active recruitment and champion company-wide initiatives such as AI adoption.
For this role, we are looking to hire in Vancouver (Hybrid).
Vancouver Base Salary Range: CAD $150,000 to CAD $160,000.
This role will also have a small variable component attached to it.
You Will
Core Operations & People Leadership
- HR Practice Optimization: Review and refine core HR practices (e.g., performance management, PIPs, feedback mechanisms) to ensure alignment with the stage of our business.
- Team Management & Development: Direct, coach, and develop team members.
- Recruitment Strategy & Process: Elevate our talent acquisition strategy. Refine the recruitment interface between executive leadership and the People team, optimize dashboards, and implement continuous process improvements.
- Advisory & Difficult HR Situations: Provide guidance on complex HR matters to the People team members and serve as a trusted advisor to the executive leadership team.
- Operational & Financial Oversight: Review department expenses and provide general leadership across People operations, office management, and company events.
Strategic Focus Areas & Employee Success
- Employee Enablement & Performance: Establish robust mechanisms for long-term employee success, focusing heavily on structured onboarding, probation period management, goal setting, and continuous performance tracking.
- Vancouver Site Leadership: Serve as the primary site leader for the Vancouver office, driving culture, engagement, and operational oversight locally.
- Leadership Development: Build tailored leadership development strategies and programs; partner with executives and managers to identify growth areas and personalize manager enablement.
- Manager Collaboration & Retention: Collaborate closely with managers across functions to understand team priorities and build data-informed talent retention and acquisition strategies.
- Vendor Management: Oversee and optimize partnerships with key People operations platforms and vendors (e.g., TriNet, Rippling, Greenhouse, BambooHR).
Hands-On Execution & Innovation ("Player" Mode)
- Recruitment Support: Actively step into recruiting execution when capacity demands exceed team thresholds (helping scale capacity seamlessly beyond standard loads).
- AI Adoption & Role-Modeling: Build an AI-native people operation at Tigera by driving the use and adoption of AI technologies across the People function.
You Have
- Experience: 10+ years of progressive People Ops / HR leadership experience, with at least 3+ years in a Director-level role managing team members and vendor ecosystems.
- Site Leadership: Ability to provide an energetic, structured in-person presence as the primary Site Leader for our Vancouver office.
- HR Systems & Vendors: Demonstrated experience managing HRIS, ATS, and benefits platforms such as TriNet, Rippling, Greenhouse, and BambooHR.
- Strategic & Tactical Balance: Proven track record of high-level advisory to C-suite executives paired with a willing "player-coach" mindset to execute directly when needed.
- Framework Builder: Strong expertise in building scalable frameworks for performance tracking, onboarding, manager training, and retention.
- Modern Tooling: Passion for and familiarity with AI tools and modern People tech to streamline workflows.
Cultural & Execution Fit
- Hands-on, pragmatic and execution oriented
- Low ego, collaborative leadership style
- Strong written and narrative-style communicator
- Operates well in fast-paced and resource-constrained environments
With offices in San Francisco, San Jose, Vancouver (Canada), Cork (Ireland), and London (England), we have a thriving team of diverse individuals from all over the world. We believe in a collaborative, flexible work environment based on respect for, and commitment from, every employee. We also offer a competitive compensation package along with full health, vision, and dental benefits. These benefits, coupled with an amazing team of individuals who believe in our mission and value openness, collaboration, and teamwork, make Tigera an awesome place to work.
