Autumn Mather

Autumn embeds with growing small and mid-market companies across technology, biotech, medical devices, gaming, utilities, and government, especially when HR is stretched thin or still being built from the ground up. In those moments, CEOs often get pulled into every employee issue personally, leaving little bandwidth to lead the business. Autumn steps in alongside leadership to handle the high-stakes calls with care and precision: sensitive workplace investigations, complex employee relations, defensible terminations, and coaching managers through tough conversations. A department director at a global gaming company noted that her ability to speak the language of the business set her apart from traditional HR partners and earned her a trusted seat in strategic planning. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper, Autumn gives leaders the clarity, backup, and practical structure they need to make confident people decisions.

What Autumn Does Best

• Employee relations and risk management: Stepping into sensitive investigations, complaints, and terminations that require thorough documentation and sound judgment. She resolves interpersonal conflicts early so small issues do not escalate into costly distractions.
• Manager coaching and development: Equipping new and experienced managers to navigate hard conversations and leadership transitions with confidence. She builds clear toolkits, practical standards, and straightforward documentation habits that stick.
• HR infrastructure and compliance: Helping growing businesses move past transactional PEO setups into structured, scalable HR operations. She audits existing processes, maps out practical roadmaps, and implements handbooks, compensation bands, onboarding workflows, and HRIS platforms that stay with the team.
• Specialized recruiting and vendor optimization: Finding niche talent in competitive markets while reviewing HR software and benefits programs to make sure every dollar spent actually serves the team.

Recent Engagements

• 25-person privately held medical supplies and biotechnology research company: The company had outgrown basic PEO payroll and benefits administration and needed real internal HR structure. Following a reduction in force and a leadership transition, Autumn ran a full HR audit and built a clear operational roadmap. She updated employee handbooks for state and federal compliance, benchmarked compensation, rewrote job descriptions, partnered with Finance on sales commission policies, led open enrollment, managed severance agreements, took ownership of the HRIS, and closed out an open workers' compensation claim. When the company was ready to hire again, she led recruiting and onboarding from start to finish.
• 10 to 20 person independently owned social media marketing agency: Leadership needed embedded backup for employee relations, manager coaching, and recruiting so they could focus on client growth. Autumn built practical manager toolkits, set clear documentation standards, ran full-cycle recruiting, and served as the go-to partner for benefits administration. Through regular check-ins, she gave managers a trusted sounding board, helping leadership spot and solve the root causes of morale dips and turnover early.
• 10-person privately held medical device manufacturing company: The client needed a dedicated HR partner, targeted recruiting for a specialized role, and better cost control across benefits and HRIS platforms. Autumn evaluated vendor options, sharpened job scorecards and interview criteria to fill the key role, advised executives on day-to-day workplace relations, and worked with their PEO to clarify responsibilities and upgrade onboarding.

Experience

• Head of Human Resources • Technology Company (Cincinnati, OH): Led the HR function reporting directly to executive leadership, overseeing HRIS implementation, benefit program restructuring, performance management, legal compliance, immigration support, full-cycle recruitment, and employee relations.
• Head of Human Resources • Game Development Studio (acquired by a global technology company during tenure, Austin, TX): Managed HR operations, talent acquisition, strategic planning, and payroll and benefits administration for the studio, guiding the team and leading all human resources activities through its acquisition and integration into a global technology company.
• Senior HR Business Partner • Public Utility and Government Entity (Austin, TX): Supported operational and technical divisions across a 900-employee organization, managing recruitment, compliance, compensation, employee relations, investigations, organizational design, and leave administration, while partnering with Emergency Response on operational readiness.
• People Operations Manager • Health Tech Startup (New York, NY): Stepped in as the first People Operations hire and built performance management, culture and engagement programs, benefits and payroll administration, onboarding, and offboarding from scratch as the company scaled.
• Human Resources Generalist • Global Gaming and Entertainment Company (Austin, TX and New York, NY): Partnered with business leaders across esports and media divisions on organizational strategy, performance management, executive coaching, restructuring, workplace investigations, and HRIS deployment.
• Associate Human Resources Generalist • Global Gaming and Entertainment Company (Austin, TX): Served as primary HR partner for Customer Service operations, managing employee relations, leave programs, payroll and benefits administration, and staff training.

Education & Credentials

• MBA, Texas A&M University, Central Texas • 2016
• BBA, Human Resources Management, Texas A&M University, Central Texas • 2013
• SPHR, HR Certification Institute
• SHRM-SCP, Society for Human Resource Management

Outside Work

Autumn lives in Cincinnati with her husband and daughter, whose Disney phase is currently the whole family's Disney phase. She loves cooking Italian and Korean food, keeps a running list of local restaurants to try, goes to concerts, plays golf, hosts game nights, and has recently fallen hard into punch needling.