Role Overview 

Astera Labs is seeking a dynamic HR Director to lead our EMEA human resources team, overseeing operations across our Israel Design Centers in Haifa and Tel Aviv, as well as our R&D center in Aachen, Germany. This is a critical leadership role that will shape the people strategy for our rapidly expanding EMEA presence as we continue to scale our world-class engineering teams building the connectivity solutions powering the AI revolution. 

As HR Director, you will operate as a true business leader who happens to specialize in people strategy—not a support function, but a driver of business outcomes. You will partner with EMEA site leadership to accelerate product development timelines, improve engineering productivity, and build the organizational capabilities required to win in the AI infrastructure market. Equally critical, you will serve as the connective tissue between EMEA and our global corporate teams, ensuring seamless alignment on programs, policies, and priorities while representing EMEA needs in global discussions. This role demands a commercially-minded leader who connects every HR initiative to measurable business impact, whether that's reducing time-to-hire for critical roles, improving retention of top performers, or building leadership bench strength to support our expansion. You will build and scale a high-performing HR team while partnering closely with our global HR function to deliver results. 

Key Responsibilities 

Business Partnership & Strategic Impact 

• Drive EMEA people strategy that directly accelerates business outcomes including product delivery, engineering velocity, and market expansion 

• Operate as a member of the EMEA leadership team, contributing to business decisions beyond traditional HR scope 

• Translate business challenges into people solutions—identify where talent, organizational design, or capability gaps are limiting growth and take action 

• Establish and track HR metrics tied to business performance, holding the function accountable for measurable results 

Global Alignment & Collaboration 

• Partner closely with global corporate teams including HR, Finance, Legal, and IT to ensure EMEA alignment on company-wide initiatives and programs 

• Serve as the primary HR liaison between EMEA sites and headquarters, advocating for regional needs while maintaining global consistency 

• Collaborate on the design and rollout of global HR programs, adapting implementation for local markets while preserving intent 

• Build strong cross-functional relationships across geographies to enable effective decision-making and execution 

Talent Strategy & Competitive Advantage 

• Build a world-class semiconductor talent pipeline that gives Astera Labs a competitive edge in EMEA markets 

• Partner with engineering leadership to forecast talent needs and proactively address skill gaps before they impact delivery 

• Design compensation and retention strategies that protect critical talent and reduce regrettable attrition 

• Drive workforce planning that aligns headcount investments with product roadmap priorities 

Team Building & Scaling 

• Build, develop, and lead a high-performing HR team across Israel and Germany oriented around delivering business results 

• Effectively manage and develop remote teams across international borders, fostering collaboration and accountability across multiple sites 

• Drive scalable HR processes and infrastructure to support rapid growth without sacrificing speed or quality 

• Create clear accountability and performance expectations within the HR function 

HR Operations & Compliance 

• Ensure execution excellence in HR operations including employee relations, compensation, benefits, and performance management across EMEA 

• Maintain compliance with local labor laws and regulations in Israel and Germany 

• Continuously improve operational efficiency to free up capacity for strategic priorities 

Culture & Performance 

• Champion a high-performance culture that attracts ambitious talent and drives accountability 

• Implement initiatives that improve employee engagement and productivity, not engagement for its own sake 

• Foster an environment where top performers thrive and underperformance is addressed swiftly 

Basic Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field 

• 10+ years of progressive HR experience with significant time in HR leadership roles 

• 3+ years of experience managing and developing HR teams 

• Demonstrated ability to manage remote teams across international borders and multiple time zones 

• Experience in the semiconductor or high-tech hardware industry 

• Strong knowledge of Israel labor law and HR practices; familiarity with German employment regulations 

• Proven track record of scaling HR functions in high-growth environments 

• Demonstrated business acumen with a history of tying HR initiatives to measurable business outcomes 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Master's degree in Human Resources, MBA, or related advanced degree 

• Experience supporting engineering-heavy organizations in fast-paced, product-driven companies 

• Multi-country HR management experience across EMEA 

• Experience partnering with US-headquartered companies and navigating global/regional dynamics 

• Hebrew language fluency; German language skills a plus 

• Experience with M&A integration or establishing new site operations 

• HR certification (SHRM-SCP, CIPD, or equivalent) 

The mission of Speechify is to make sure that reading is never a barrier to learning.

Over 50 million people use Speechify’s text-to-speech products to turn whatever they’re reading – PDFs, books, Google Docs, news articles, websites – into audio, so they can read faster, read more, and remember more. Speechify’s text-to-speech reading products include its iOS app, Android App, Mac App, Chrome Extension, and Web App. Google recently named Speechify the Chrome Extension of the Year and Apple named Speechify its 2025 Design Award winner for Inclusivity.  

Today, nearly 200 people around the globe work on Speechify in a 100% distributed setting – Speechify has no office. These include frontend and backend engineers, AI research scientists, and others from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, leading PhD programs like Stanford, high growth startups like Stripe, Vercel, Bolt, and many founders of their own companies.

Overview

The responsibilities of our Platform team include building and maintaining all backend services, including, but not limited to, payments, analytics, subscriptions, new products, text to speech, and external APIs.

This is a key role and ideal for someone who thinks strategically, enjoys fast-paced environments, is passionate about making product decisions, and has experience building great user experiences that delight users.

We are a flat organization that allows anyone to become a leader by showing excellent technical skills and delivering results consistently and fast. Work ethic, solid communication skills, and obsession with winning are paramount. 

Our interview process involves several technical interviews and we aim to complete them within 1 week. 

What You’ll Do

• Design, develop, and maintain robust APIs including public TTS API, internal APIs like Payment, Subscription, Auth and Consumption Tracking, ensuring they meet business and scalability requirements
• Oversee the full backend API landscape, enhancing and optimizing for performance and maintainability
• Collaborate on B2B solutions, focusing on customization and integration needs for enterprise clients
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to align backend architecture with overall product strategy and user experience

An Ideal Candidate Should Have

• Proven experience in backend development: TS/Node (required)
• Direct experience with GCP and knowledge of AWS, Azure, or other cloud providers
• Efficiency in ideation and implementation, prioritizing tasks based on urgency and impact
• Preferred: Experience with Docker and containerized deployments
• Preferred: Proficiency in deploying high availability applications on Kubernetes

What We Offer

• A dynamic environment where your contributions shape the company and its products
• A team that values innovation, intuition, and drive
• Autonomy, fostering focus and creativity
• The opportunity to have a significant impact in a revolutionary industry
• Competitive compensation, a welcoming atmosphere, and a commitment to an exceptional asynchronous work culture
• The privilege of working on a product that changes lives, particularly for those with learning differences like dyslexia, ADD, and more
• An active role at the intersection of artificial intelligence and audio – a rapidly evolving tech domain

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Speechify is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. 

Speechify does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.