People Operations Lead

About the role

You will own the end-to-end integrity of people operations by serving as the central architect of our operational infrastructure and systems of record. This role requires you to translate complex, fast-moving business needs into stable, scalable HR processes that remove friction from the employee lifecycle. You will act as the primary steward of data integrity, ensuring that critical information driving executive decisions is accurate, timely, and actionable. You will partner directly with the Chief People Officer to design and execute the policies, tools, and reporting that define a professional, scalable people organization. You will manage the full scope of payroll, benefits, and compensation operations with a high degree of ownership and accountability. You will also own the immigration and compliance workflows that protect the company and our employees. You will build and own the people analytics that tell the story of the organization to the executive team and the board. Ultimately, you will move OSMO from scrappy, reactive support to a proactive, data-informed partnership that empowers confident growth.

Key facts

What you'll do

Run and configure the HRIS and ATS as the definitive systems of record, managing integrations, permissions, and data flow to ensure operational reliability.

Build and maintain core people analytics reporting, including headcount, attrition split voluntary and involuntary, first-year attrition, tenure, span of control, cost per head, time to fill, and function-level cuts.

Own the monthly and quarterly reporting rhythm, delivering clear, data-driven insights and narratives to the executive team and the board.

Manage vendor relationships and hold external partners to strict service levels, ensuring accountability for performance and outcomes.

Administer the full immigration visa process for current and potential employees, navigating complex regulations and timelines with precision.

Own leave administration end to end, including FMLA, NY and NJ state programs, disability, parental leave, workers' compensation intake with EHS, and the logistics of ADA accommodations.

Manage ACA reporting, Form 5500, non-discrimination testing, and COBRA compliance with meticulous attention to regulatory detail.

Own I-9s, employment verifications, personnel files, and records retention, maintaining rigorous compliance and audit readiness.

Maintain the employee handbook, state-specific addenda, required notices, and the annual compliance calendar, keeping multi-state registrations current as we hire into new states.

Handle EEO-1, OSHA 300 logs with EHS, and coordinate audit response to ensure workplace safety and regulatory adherence.

Answer employee questions on pay, benefits, leave, and policy, and escalate sensitive issues to the Chief People Officer with discretion and care.

Run annual renewal and open enrollment, managing broker management, plan design options, cost modeling, employee communications, and execution of enrollment.

Administer medical, dental, vision, 401(k), and ancillary plans day to day, including eligibility, carrier feeds, invoicing, and discrepancy resolution.

Maintain job architecture by managing job codes, families, levels, and FLSA classifications, ensuring accuracy in the system of record.

Run the annual compensation cycle, including benchmarking refresh, budget modeling, manager tooling, calibration inputs, offer letters, and system entry.

Price roles against survey data and provide offer recommendations to hiring managers to support competitive and informed hiring decisions.

Run multi-state payroll for exempt and non-exempt employees in partnership with Finance, owning accuracy, timing, and the audit trail for all payroll operations.

Build and administer timekeeping, scheduling, and attendance processes ahead of the manufacturing ramp, managing overtime, shift differentials, meal and rest periods, retro pay, and wage-and-hour exposure across NY and NJ.

Requirements

Bring 6+ years of hands-on experience in people operations, HR operations, or total rewards, with demonstrated end-to-end ownership of payroll processes.

Possess proven ability to execute multi-state payroll for both exempt and non-exempt populations, where hourly, overtime, and timekeeping are familiar territory and not a learning curve you should be on.

Show a track record of benefits ownership, guiding programs through renewal, open enrollment, and daily administration without reliance on a broker to execute the work for you.

Demonstrate mastery of compensation operations, including discretion with benchmarking, band construction, merit cycle execution, and equity administration.

Exhibit a data-driven mindset with strong analytical capability, building your own models and trusting advanced spreadsheet work as a baseline while leveraging SQL or BI tooling as a strategic advantage.

Comfortably operate with general guidance in a fast-paced environment, bringing structure to ambiguous problems while adhering to existing frameworks and processes.

Have experience supporting both exempt and non-exempt populations, which is a real plus given our manufacturing teams and operational complexity.

Nice to have

Experience supporting a lean People Operations team is a valuable background for understanding efficiency and impact.

Experience supporting a manufacturing, lab, or warehouse workforce through a ramp is helpful for aligning people operations with production realities.

HRIS implementation or migration experience can be an asset in managing system configuration and data integrity.

Prior partnership with Finance on payroll reconciliation, headcount modeling, or equity administration is a beneficial context.

Multi-state employee relations and compliance exposure provides an advantage in navigating regulatory landscapes.

Practical notes

This is a full_time position based in Elizabeth, NJ.

The base salary range for this role is $140,000 to $160,000.

This role reports to the Chief People Officer.

You must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or at any point in the future.

This role is not eligible for relocation assistance.