VP of People

VP of People

Our mission at Ello is simple and urgent : Maximize the potential of every child, everywhere.

We're building the world's first AI teacher to close that gap : one that listens, speaks, adapts, and inspires, just like the best human educators.

Our first product, Read with Ello, is already helping tens of thousands of kids each week learn to read. It listens as they read aloud, offers support when they stumble, and generates magical, personalized stories using generative AI. It worksand kids love it.

Now, we're scaling that success into something even bigger : a complete AI teacher for all children. We're building a real-time learning platform that combines language, speech, and memory to power personalized, interactive education for kids worldwide. We're moving fast : we ship weekly, test directly with kids and families, and push the boundaries of what AI can do in education.

With the resources of the world's top investors and the heart of a public benefit corporation, we're here to revolutionize how children learn globally. Featured on TIME's Best Inventions and Fortune's Change the World, Ello is a small, mission-driven team taking on one of the most critical challenges of our time : to democratize education.

About the Role

We're seeking an experienced and strategic VP of People to join our San Francisco-based leadership team and scale the people operations foundation to grow Ello from 45 to 200+ employees. You'll be our first executive People leadernot just scaling the function, but owning it. This is a unique opportunity to shape the systems, processes, and culture that will guide us through Ello's next chapter of growth. You'll bring the judgment, gravitas, and experience to be a true peer to our three co-founders, earning trust through clarity, care, and a track record of scaling organizations with both rigor and heart.

As our VP of People, you'll shape the entire employee experienceowning the full People stack from compensation and performance to recruiting, immigration, and culture. You'll partner closely with our three co-founders as both a strategic advisor and trusted coach, building scalable systems while maintaining the care and relationships that make Ello special.

This is a role for a seasoned People leader who has helped a company go from scrappy startup (

Our mission to maximize every child's potential begins with our people, so we're looking for a leader who shares our commitment to unlocking the full potential of every teammate. If you're a strong, values-driven leader who loves designing systems and processes that help people thrive, we'd love to meet you.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic partner to Ello's co-founders and leadership team, shaping org design, team structure, and people strategy as we scale
• Lead with values : evolve Ello's culture as we grow, maintaining and building it through each inflection point
• Build and scale People systemsacross performance, compensation, and recruiting

Build out comprehensive compensation frameworks and benefits programs that attract and retain top talent

About You

Bonus Points

We look for candidates who

Here are some reasons to be a part of our team

About Ello

Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. We're currently around 45 people, headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in So Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; and New York.

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator's W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors, including Goodwater Capital, Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, Ravensburger, Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures.

We're a small, collaborative team that takes each other's voices seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, our team must be representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.

We feel enormously privileged to be one of the few companies with the opportunity to take a shot at truly revolutionizing education with AI at this inflection point in technology. We don't take it for granted, so we work urgently to turn that vision into reality. We want to create an environment where we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things we're proud of and we believe it's possible to do both.

At Ello, diversity is a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to assess skills and experience directly. If you need accommodations throughout the interview process, please contact recruiting@ello.com.