Benefits & Leave Specialist

About the role

As a Benefits and Leave Specialist at Leaf Home, you will administer and support employee benefits, retirement, leave of absence, and accommodation programs. This role delivers compliant, consistent, and employee-focused administration across benefit and leave programs, including day-to-day administration of the Company’s 401(k) retirement plan, while ensuring alignment with company policies and regulatory requirements. You will partner with HR Business Partners, Payroll, HRIS, and external vendors to support benefits operations, retirement plan administration, leave case management, and the employee experience while aligning with Total Rewards strategy and governance.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end leave of absence cases, including intake, eligibility determination, documentation, approvals, tracking, and return-to-work coordination.
• Lead accommodation (ADA) processes, including documentation, evaluation, and coordination with managers and internal partners.
• Administer employee benefits programs, including enrollments, life events, eligibility, and ongoing maintenance.
• Identify and support process improvements across benefits and leave administration.
• Support day-to-day administration of the Company’s 401(k) retirement plan, including employee inquiries, eligibility and contribution matters, plan transactions, vendor coordination, reconciliations, compliance activities, and annual audit support.
• Escalate complex plan or fiduciary matters to Benefits leadership and appropriate advisors.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for employees and managers regarding benefits, retirement, leave, and accommodation questions that are not answered by third-party support.
• Ensure clear and timely communication.
• Ensure compliance with FMLA, ADA, state leave programs, retirement, ERISA, and company benefit policies through consistent administration practices.
• Partner with Payroll, HRIS, HRBPs, and vendors to ensure accurate data flow, deductions, and case coordination.
• Coordinate with external vendors (benefits providers, disability carriers, 401k leave administrators) to manage claims, issues, and escalations.
• Maintain and audit documentation, records, and reporting to ensure accuracy, compliance, and audit readiness.
• Support open enrollment processes, including system updates, employee communication support, and issue resolution.

Requirements

• 3–5 years of experience in benefits or leave administration.
• Strong working knowledge of federal and state leave laws, including FMLA, ADA, and applicable state programs.
• Experience managing sensitive employee situations with professionalism and confidentiality.
• Strong case management, organization, and documentation skills.
• Ability to interpret policies and apply them consistently across scenarios.
• Proficiency in HRIS systems and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status).

Preferred Qualifications

• HR certification (PHR, SHRM-CP, or similar).
• Experience supporting multi-state leave administration.
• Experience working with disability vendors and leave management systems.

Physical Requirements

• Normal office environment.
• Performs indoor work in a climate-controlled environment.
• Sedentary work.
• Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body.
• Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time.