Rachel Ernst

I'm a high-energy People leader with 20+ years turning people strategy into business results at venture-backed startups and high growth companies. My specialty is helping companies scale without losing their culture. At Reflektive, I built the people operations foundation that took us from 65 to 220 employees in 18 months. I've designed total rewards structures, organizational design frameworks, and performance management systems that let fast-growing companies function. I love performance management, employee engagement, and talent development when things are messy and fast-paced. At Udemy, I overhauled our global performance program and it became the foundation for promotions, compensation, and succession planning. I also served as interim head of Total Rewards, leading enablement of a revised compensation philosophy. At Reflektive, I built our engagement product while coaching executives through scaling challenges. I wrote for Forbes, spoke at industry events, and managed top enterprise customers. I supported Quantcast's growth from 265 to 900 employees, leading learning and development then building their HR business partner function. I won Fidelity's Leadership Award for change management with 98% retention. I believe the best performance systems are human-centered. They inspire growth, create safe feedback, and ensure fairness—which improve business performance and enable sustainable scaling.