Director, People Operations & Systems

We are building a lean, AI-enabled People function, and the Director of People Operations & Systems will own the infrastructure that allows it to operate accurately, efficiently, and at scale. This leader is accountable for our People systems ecosystem, people data integrity, payroll governance and controls, employee lifecycle operations, and the continuous redesign of People workflows through AI, automation, and self-service.

This is a builder role. You will inherit systems and processes that need to evolve, lead our transition to a modern HR technology environment, and create an operating model that reduces manual work while strengthening accuracy, controls, and the employee and manager experience. You will be close enough to the work to understand it deeply and step in when necessary, but your primary job is to build systems, controls, talent, and workflows that do not depend on you personally executing every transaction.

You will lead core People Operations capabilities, including payroll and benefits/compliance team members, and serve as the senior operational partner to Finance, IT, Legal, Security, Talent, and People leadership. The right person combines strong HR systems and payroll judgment with a first-principles mindset: you see a clunky process and ask not only how to automate it, but whether it should exist in its current form at all. What You Will Own

People Systems & Technology

Own the People technology ecosystem and roadmap, including HRIS architecture, system governance, integrations, access, vendor performance, and continuous improvement

Serve as the internal business owner for our planned HRIS modernization, leading requirements, data migration, configuration decisions, testing, training, rollout, and adoption in partnership with implementation experts and cross-functional stakeholders

Ensure People systems are designed around scalable workflows, clear controls, manager and employee self-service, and reliable downstream data

Partner with IT and Security on integrations, access controls, system changes, and audit requirements across the People technology stack

People Data, Analytics & Controls

Own the integrity and governance of People data, including organizational structure, job architecture fields, compensation-related data, employee records, and reporting structures

Build proactive data-quality controls that identify discrepancies before they create payroll, reporting, compliance, or employee-experience issues

Develop scalable dashboards and self-service reporting that give leaders timely insight into headcount, hiring, turnover, compensation, and talent trends

Reduce reliance on recurring manual reports by redesigning reporting workflows and automating repeatable data delivery wherever practical

Payroll Governance & Operational Risk

Lead the payroll capability and provide senior oversight of payroll operations, with accountability for accuracy, timeliness, controls, documentation, audit readiness, and effective issue resolution

Manage and develop the payroll team member responsible for day-to-day payroll execution; remain sufficiently close to the work to review controls, interrogate payroll outputs, understand multi-state requirements, and step in during high-risk or exceptional situations

Establish clear review and escalation mechanisms across People and Finance, including independent controls for high-risk payroll changes and exceptions

Redesign payroll and payroll-adjacent workflows as systems and automation mature, shifting the function toward governance, exception management, auditing, and continuous improvement rather than manual processing

Employee Lifecycle & People Operations

Own the effectiveness of the operational infrastructure supporting onboarding, offboarding, employment changes, contractor lifecycle processes, I-9/E-Verify, and Employer of Record operations for international team members

Ensure workflows are accurate, compliant, well controlled, and increasingly self-service; the role owns the effectiveness of the operating system even when another team member or system executes individual steps

Partner with Finance, IT, Legal, Security, Talent, and People Business Partners to create clean handoffs and clear decision rights across employee lifecycle processes

Maintain a resilient operating model with clear documentation, backup coverage, escalation paths, and ownership for recurring People operations

Benefits, Compliance & Team Leadership

Lead and support the Benefits & Compliance capability, ensuring the team has clear priorities, escalation support, strong vendor partnerships, and an effective compliance operating rhythm

Own operational compliance infrastructure and audit readiness while partnering with subject-matter experts, Legal, Finance, brokers, and external advisors where specialized judgment is required

Clarify roles, decision rights, controls, and service expectations across People Operations; coach team members to operate at the appropriate level and build durable functional capability

Build capacity through systems, partners, automation, and role clarity rather than defaulting to additional headcount

AI-Enabled Operational Transformation

Continuously identify manual handoffs, administrative bottlenecks, recurring reporting cycles, and control points that can be eliminated, simplified, automated, or redesigned

Use AI and automation as core tools for operating-model redesign—not simply individual productivity—including exception detection, data-quality auditing, workflow orchestration, employee/manager self-service, and recurring operational processes

Evaluate workflows from first principles before automating them: remove unnecessary steps, clarify ownership, reduce middle-person handoffs, and preserve human judgment where risk or complexity requires it

Measure whether redesigned workflows improve capacity, speed, accuracy, control, or employee/manager experience, and iterate based on results

Cross-Functional Partnership

Serve as the senior People Operations partner to Finance and Accounting on payroll controls, People data, workforce reporting, systems changes, and operating risk

Partner with IT and Security on systems architecture, integrations, access, and controls; with Legal on employment and compliance matters; and with Talent and People leadership on processes that depend on high-quality People data and infrastructure

Translate complex operational issues into clear recommendations, tradeoffs, and decisions for People leadership and executive stakeholders

Requirements

8-12+ years of progressive People Operations, HRIS, HR technology, payroll operations, or related experience, including senior ownership of complex operational environments

Demonstrated experience leading a major HRIS implementation or transformation. Direct Rippling experience is strongly preferred; ADP Workforce Now experience is a plus

Strong payroll fluency, including controls, multi-state considerations, audits, exceptions, and the relationship between upstream HRIS data and payroll accuracy

Experience leading and developing operational team members and creating clear accountability across functions

Strong systems and data orientation: you can move between process architecture, data quality, reporting, integrations, controls, and practical execution

Evidence of redesigning workflows