HR & People Ops Partner

About Zen Den

Zen Den is an HR and People Ops partner built for the cannabis industry. We work as an extension of our clients' teams, supporting them across employee relations, compliance, payroll, benefits, recruiting, leave management, policies, onboarding, offboarding, and the day-to-day HR issues that come with running a business.

We're a small team that works hard, moves quickly, and takes ownership of what we do. Zen Den was founded by a former critical care nurse, and that mindset still shapes how we operate: stay calm when things get messy, pay attention to the details, communicate clearly, and finish what you start.

Our clients trust us with sensitive employee issues and real business risk. If we say we're going to handle something, we handle it.

The Role

We're looking for an experienced HR generalist to join Zen Den on an ongoing contract basis. Ideally, you're already doing fractional, consulting, or independent HR work and are looking to add another 5 to 15 hours per week.

This person will support multiple Zen Den clients and work across the full scope of HR. You may be coaching a manager through a performance issue one day, reviewing a leave request the next, helping with payroll, updating a handbook, interviewing candidates, managing a termination, or researching a state-specific compliance question.

You'll have support from our team, but we're looking for someone who can take ownership of work, use good judgment, and move things forward without needing constant direction.

What You'll Do

• Manage employee relations issues, performance concerns, corrective action, investigations, and terminations
• Support leave of absence and accommodation processes
• Research and apply federal and state employment requirements
• Draft and update employee handbooks, policies, and HR documentation
• Manage onboarding and offboarding
• Support payroll and benefits administration
• Assist with recruiting, interviewing, and candidate management
• Manage cannabis-specific employee registration, background checks, and compliance deadlines
• Communicate directly with client owners, managers, and employees
• Keep projects, deadlines, and follow-up organized across multiple clients

What We're Looking For

• Strong HR generalist experience
• Experience independently handling employee relations and performance management
• Working knowledge of employment law and the ability to research unfamiliar requirements
• Excellent judgment, communication, and documentation skills
• Strong organization and attention to detail
• Exceptional follow-through and personal accountability
• Comfortable managing multiple priorities without needing to be chased
• Comfortable working independently and asking questions when needed
• Located in the United States
• Available Monday through Friday during U.S. business hours
• Capacity for approximately 5 to 15 hours per week
• Strongly preferred: fractional or consulting HR experience, cannabis or other highly regulated industry experience, multi-state HR experience, payroll and benefits experience, and experience with investigations, leave, accommodations, and terminations

How We Work

This is fully remote, and most work can be completed flexibly. That said, HR happens during the workweek, so you need to be regularly reachable Monday through Friday for client questions, meetings, and time-sensitive employee matters.

We'll teach you our clients, systems, and cannabis-specific processes. We do not expect you to know every platform or every cannabis regulation on day one.

We do expect you to know HR, care about the quality of your work, and finish what you start.

If you're organized, proactive, a little Type A, and the idea of leaving something half-done makes you twitch, you'll probably fit in well here.