Sr. Manager of People Operations

The Opportunity

Pindrop is hiring a Sr. Manager of People Operations to serve as the operational backbone of our People function during a period of significant growth. Reporting to the Sr. Director of People Operations, this is not a maintenance role. It is a build role. You will own the design, governance, and continuous improvement of the processes, workflows, and standards that power the employee lifecycle — from hire to departure — across a workforce scaling from 325 toward 500+ employees over the next two years.

You will work in close partnership with a dedicated UKG Ready Specialist who owns the technical system layer. Your job is to own everything built on top of it: the processes the systems support, the standards the team follows, and the operational discipline that makes the whole function run without error.

This is the right role for someone who is energized by precision, ownership, and building — and who wants to leave a function materially better than they found it.

SCOPE NOTE

This role partners closely with a UKG Ready Specialist who owns system configuration, workflow builds, and technical integrations. The Sr. Manager of People Operations owns the process layer — what happens in the system, not how the system is built. Clear role boundaries are established from day one to ensure both roles are set up for success.

What You’ll Do

Design & Govern Employee Lifecycle Processes

Own the design, standardization, and continuous improvement of global onboarding, offboarding, and employee lifecycle workflow processes for employees and contractors

Build and maintain process documentation: every workflow, SOP, and operational standard is documented, version-controlled, and accessible — institutional knowledge lives in the system, not in people’s heads

Identify and prioritize automation opportunities across People Operations workflows, partnering with the UKG Ready Specialist and cross-functional stakeholders to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and increase scalability.

Partner with HRBPs, functional leaders, and the UKG Ready Specialist to ensure processes are aligned with business needs and executed consistently across the organization

Evaluate and recommend practical uses of AI and automation within People Operations while ensuring appropriate governance, privacy, and compliance controls.

Ensure processes are built for scale — designed to support a 500-person organization even when we are at 325

Enable Payroll & Benefits Operations

Partner closely with the Payroll & Benefits Manager to ensure accurate and timely data flow into payroll and benefits systems, with strong internal controls that catch errors before they become problems

Support annual benefits renewals, vendor negotiations, and plan design improvements in collaboration with the Sr. Director

Provide escalation support for critical payroll or benefits issues, serving as a reliable backup when primary owners need coverage

Partner with Finance and leadership on cost transparency and vendor performance reporting

Serve as a Key Operational Leader

Establish and enforce process standards across the People Operations team, in partnership with functional owners

Provide day-to-day operational leadership and guidance to the team — the person others come to when a process is unclear, a system is behaving unexpectedly, or an edge case needs a decision

Act as the escalation point for systems and process-related issues, resolving problems before they reach the Sr. Director

Develop and maintain operational coverage models, documentation, and cross-training plans that reduce single points of failure and improve business continuity across People Operations.

Support company-wide initiatives that require People Operations execution: M&A activity, compensation cycles, workforce reductions, audits

Own HR Reporting & Data Integrity

Build and maintain People Operations dashboards and reporting for the team and leadership — headcount, turnover, time-to-onboard, compliance completion rates, and other operational metrics

Partner with the UKG Ready Specialist to ensure reporting infrastructure is accurate and timely, with clear data ownership between the system layer and the analytics layer

Ensure EEO-1 reporting, I-9 compliance, and other regulatory filings are accurate and on time

Maintain employee file compliance standards across paper and digital records

Act as Operational Continuity for the Sr. Director

Serve as the operational leader of the function in the absence of the Sr. Director, ensuring continuity of critical People Operations processes, stakeholder support, and decision-making.

Build documented knowledge transfer across every function the Sr. Director currently owns, ensuring no critical process is a single point of failure

Grow into increasing scope as the function matures: this role is explicitly designed with ceiling, not just current need

Who You Are

A systems-minded operator who thrives on building processes that are clean, scalable, and efficient

Detail-obsessed and precise — you hold yourself to a high bar on accuracy and take it personally when something is wrong

Equally comfortable working independently and collaborating cross-functionally — you do not need to be told what to do next; you see what needs doing

Energized by building, not maintaining — this role requires someone who creates structure where none exists, not someone who manages existing infrastructure

A communicator who can translate operational complexity into clear, concise guidance for the team and leadership

Calm under pressure — People Operations handles payroll, compliance, and sensitive employee data; the right person for this role does not panic when things go wrong, they solve problems

Required Experience

7+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, or a closely related role at a technology company

Demonstrated experience owning employee lifecycle processes end-to-end — onboarding, offboarding, job changes, comp changes — with documented SOPs

Experience with HRIS platforms at an operational ownership level — you have been responsible for data quality, process execution, and compliance in an HRIS, not just a user of one. UKG Ready experience is not required; deep operational experience with any enterprise HRIS (Workday, HiBob, ADP, Paylocity, etc.)

Experience supporting payroll and benefits operations, including internal controls and data flow between HR and payroll systems

Track record of cross-functional partnership with Finance, IT, Legal, and Security on HR compliance, systems, and process initiatives

Experience building and maintaining HR reporting and dashboards with a data integrity mindset

Working knowledge of federal and state HR compliance requirements: I-9, EEO-1, FMLA, multi-state employment law

Preferred Experience

Experience at a high-growth SaaS or AI-native company where the pace of change outstrips the pace of process documentation

Experience with HRIS implementation or migration — having owned the evaluation, rollout, or transition of an enterprise HR system

Experience supporting M&A activity from a People Operations perspective: system integration, org restructuring, headcount reconciliation

Familiarity with UKG Ready — even if not deep ownership — including an understanding of its architecture, module structure, and configuration approach

Experience managing a small team or providing operational leadership to HR coordinators and specialists

HR certification: PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP

This position will be posted for 30 days after 07.21.26

Please note that the base pay range is a general guideline only. Pindrop considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, a candidate's work experience, education/training, and key skills, as well as market and business considerations, when extending an offer.

US Base Pay Range

$130,000—$150,000 USD