People Operations Manager

- Own onboarding and offboarding end-to-end: offer letters, I-9 verification, background checks, tools provisioning, system access setup, HM coordination, 30/60/90 check-in process, and a clean, documented exit process every time

- Run payroll operations - adding new employees, processing changes, troubleshooting issues, and ensuring every run is accurate and on time

- Manage the benefits program day-to-day: open enrollment, carrier coordination, employee questions, a potential PEO migration, stipend maintenance, usage tracking, and feedback loops

- Own people compliance across all active states: SOS registrations, unemployment insurance, quarterly and annual filings, employee records, handbook maintenance, and working fluency with tools like Mosey, Corpnet, and AbstractOps

- Own employee engagement including pulse surveys, feedback initiatives, and sentiment tracking across a distributed team. Surface themes to leadership and turn feedback into actionable improvements

- Support performance management cycles: mid-year and end-of-year reviews, manager check-ins, scorecard coordination, and keeping feedback loops tight without adding unnecessary process

- Coordinate and manage office gatherings, employer branding events, and more intimate team outings

- Spearhead future office relocation efforts including broker relationships, touring spaces, coordinating buildouts, and ensuring seamless move-in processes

- Administer equity in Carta, partnering with the CoS and Finance on option grants, termination processing, and cap table hygiene

- Partner with COO and Recruiting Lead on headcount planning, leveling, and compensation frameworks

- Partner with Recruiting Lead on candidate experience and recruiting operations including interview coordination, offer letter workflows, ATS hygiene, and keeping the recruiting-to-people handoff clean

- Use AI tools actively to automate repetitive workflows, draft communications, and build more scalable processes - this is an expectation, not a nice-to-have

- 4+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, or related program management roles

- Experience at one or more scaling startups where you operated without a full HR team behind you

- Hands-on fluency with the core People Ops toolset: Gusto or Rippling, Carta, PEOs such as Sequoia or equivalent, and compliance platforms like Vanta, Mosey, or AbstractOps

- Ownership mentality: you've run a people ops or back-office function yourself, not just supported someone who did

- Comfort operating across people, finance, and admin functions without needing clean lane boundaries - this role crosses all three

- Clear, direct communicator who can navigate sensitive employee and manager conversations with judgment and empathy

- Fluency with AI tools as a genuine part of your workflow. you use them to move faster, write better, and build processes that don't require headcount to scale

- Have familiarity with federal contracting compliance from a people/HR perspective

- Have worked with SOC 2 or similar security frameworks in a people ops context

- You're a strategist who hands off execution. At Kaizen, you define the process and then you run it.

- You can't get excited about the mission. The agencies on our platform serve tens of millions of people. The infrastructure you build here matters to them.

- You think AI tools are a productivity gimmick rather than a core part of how modern operators work