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.

About the Role

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.

• 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

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

• 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
• 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
• 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