About Skillz

Skillz is driving the future of entertainment by accelerating the convergence of sports, video games and media for a booming mobile-first audience worldwide. The company’s platform empowers mobile game developers and players with access to fun and fair competition for real prizes, shifting the paradigm to make esports accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Skillz helps developers build multi-million dollar game franchises by turning content into competitive social gaming properties for the world’s 2.6 billion gamers. The company has already worked with 20,000 game developers, leveraging its patented technology to host billions of casual esports tournaments for 30 million players worldwide.

Last year, Skillz was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and CNBC Disruptor 50 (for the second time). In 2018, Skillz was listed as one of Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies. In 2017, Inc. Magazine ranked Skillz the No. 1 fastest-growing private company in America.

The company is backed by leading venture capitalists, media companies, and professional sports luminaries, ranging from Liberty Global, Accomplice, Wildcat Capital, Telstra Ventures, and a founder of Great Hill Partners to the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets, and Sacramento Kings.

Job OverviewOur mission wouldn’t be possible without the very thing making Skillz happen: its people. We hire the top 1% of all candidates; now, we need a People leader to define how we’ll build, develop and support our growing team as we enter an incredibly exciting new phase of growth. As a newly created Executive team position, the Chief People Officer will be responsible for defining and executing transformational, systematic talent strategy to match the growth of our rapidly scaling business.

Your team will empower Skillz to continue doubling in size every year: by hiring the Skillzians we need to scale, and by building and implementing the robust yet innovative solutions, processes, and development programs aligned with our business objectives. Relationship building is critical to your leadership style, and you thrive most when provided the leeway to build and execute a retention-focused talent strategy. You enjoy a mission-driven, fast-paced environment where the work you put in daily directly impacts organizational growth. You are an expert on the inner workings of a business and are proactive in driving the organization towards continuous improvement.

What You Will Do

Lead and continue to build a strong team of Talent Acquisition and PeopleOps professionals
Develop thoughtful organizational design and measurable recruitment processes to strategically staff all functional areas of the business - across all current and future Skillz locations - with top talent
Build our culture by driving and managing business-critical People strategy for the Skillz of today and tomorrow
Define and lead scalable, effective, and proactive People initiatives, including but not limited to: performance management; employee engagement and retention; leadership and people development; total rewards; diversity & inclusion; and culture, workplace and employee experience
Collaborate closely with the Executives and Managers as a thought leader for recruiting philosophies, processes, tools and tactics aligned with the objectives of the business
Enable healthy scaling, productivity and business expansion by defining and executing hiring and people strategy aligned with our business objectives and company values

Your Skillz

15+ years of experience building and leading high-performing People teams
BS required, advanced degrees and/or relevant certifications a plus
Proven track record of balanced experience and leadership success for each functional area of a People org, including Talent Acquisition and PeopleOps
At least 5 years of experience managing Director+ functional leads
Proven success scaling growing organizations from 100 - 1000+ including global expansion
Demonstrated ability to build global People strategies with consideration for talent priorities 3-5 years ahead
Analytical mindset; you seek to understand and solve a problem and instinctively ask for data
Tremendous emotional intelligence and judgment, enabling your success as a trusted partner