MacKenzie Winkel

About MacKenzie Winkel

If you were to ask me my dream job I would probably say finding cool new swimming holes in the forest, traveling or making dinner for my friends (and getting paid for it). But if you were to ask me my most realistic tech world dream job I would say I\'ve very lucky to have stumbled into it early in my career: People Operations, Recruiting, and HR strategy. I started in EdTech recruiting, then moved into a People Operations role at an early-stage EdTech startup, where I became the first and only HR hire. In that role, I learned (and am still learning) what it means to think both strategically and practically while building scalable people practices in a startup environment. Recently, I’ve also taken on additional projects supporting early-stage tech startups during high-growth seasons, helping teams strengthen their hiring processes, people systems, and internal operations. Being the sole HR leader for startups means wearing many hats. My work spans the full employee lifecycle, including- Talent acquisition and recruiting strategy- Performance management and manager coaching- Compensation benchmarking and leveling frameworks- Employee relations and workplace support- Culture and engagement initiatives- HRIS implementation and people systems- Organizational design and scaling distributed teams- Exploring AI automation and tools to improve recruiting and people operations workflows I’m especially energized by startup environments where HR needs to be both strategic and hands-on partnering closely with founders and leadership teams to build strong teams, thoughtful culture, and scalable people practices.But still if anyone wants to pay me to sit in a river or make an aesthetic dinner for my friends, please reach out!

Experience

1. People Operations Manager

   Chalktalk

   Sep 2022 — Present

   Built and led the People Operations function as the sole HR leader for a K-12 EdTech company- Supported a distributed workforce across multiple countries, overseeing recruiting, onboarding, employee relations, performance management, and people programs- Partnered with the CEO and leadership team on people strategy, organizational growth, and employee engagement- Designed and implemented core people infrastructure including HRIS, onboarding programs, performance processes, and compensation frameworks- Led full-cycle recruiting, partnering with hiring managers to scale the team

Education

• Liberty University

  Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA, Communication and Media Studies