People Operations Lead

Full-time | On-site/Hybrid | ₹4–7L CTC | 3–5 yrs experience | Startup background preferred

About Ethics Empire

Ethics Empire is a service-based consulting firm in Surat delivering Business Management, Marketing, HR Management, and Accounting services to clients who deserve better than what the market currently offers. We exist to fill the gap — using technology and genuine expertise to deliver a quality of service that simply does not exist at scale right now.

We are building our entire operation on Zoho One — CRM, Books, People, Projects, Desk, and more — not as a support function, but as the business itself.

Our people function does not exist yet. No policies, no processes, no onboarding system. We are hiring the person who will build all of it — while simultaneously helping us hire the team that will deliver our services.

Why this role exists

Most companies treat HR as administration. At Ethics Empire, the first HR hire shapes what kind of company we become — before the culture sets, before the habits form, before it gets hard to change.

This is not a role you inherit. It is a role you define. If you have been waiting for the chance to build something that actually matters from the ground up — this is it.

What you will own

• End-to-end hiring for technical and non-technical roles

You run the full funnel — sourcing, screening, coordinating, closing. No recruiter to hand off to.

• Offer structuring and compensation benchmarking

Build fair, competitive offers without breaking an early-stage budget

• Compliance setup from scratch

PF, ESIC, offer letters, employment contracts, NDAs — done correctly from day one

• Onboarding design

Every hire gets a structured first-30-days experience. You build that structure.

• Policy drafting

Leave, code of conduct, performance expectations — minimal, clear, enforceable

• Zoho People — as a user, and ideally as someone who can configure it

Our IT lead owns the implementation. You own the people data layer and how HR actually runs inside it. Hands-on configuration experience is a strong plus.

Who this role is built for

Experience

3–5 years in HR, at a startup or fast-scaling company

Hiring track record

Closed roles independently — not just supported someone else doing it

Compliance

Hands-on with Indian labour law basics: PF, ESIC, Shops Act

Mindset

Comfortable starting with nothing. Builds systems while using them.

Communication

Writes clear policies, sharp JDs, and tight offer letters

Ownership

Sets their own priorities. Doesn't wait to be told what needs doing.

Who will struggle here

Candidates from large corporate HR teams who inherited systems, managed processes others designed, or need an established structure to operate inside. This role has none of that. You are the structure. If that sounds like too much — it probably is.

The honest version of this role

Year one will be hard. You will be building the people system while simultaneously hiring the people who go into it — handling compliance, onboarding, and policy work all at once, with pressure to get it right the first time and no legacy process to fall back on. If that sounds like exactly the kind of ownership you have been waiting for, we want to talk.