Director, People Operations

Primary Responsibilities:
- Lead strategy and operating priorities for People Operations; oversee day-to-day HR operations across onboarding, HRIS administration, benefits coordination, employee lifecycle administration, reporting, vendor management, and compliance.
- Lead execution of recurring HR programs (compensation cycles, performance management, talent processes, employee lifecycle events) with cross-functional partners.
- Manage employee/manager inquiries and resolve operational issues; ensure accurate employee data; coordinate recurring activities (benefit audits, onboarding, compliance reporting).
- Lead/support New Employee Orientation (attend, present, provide onboarding details, answer questions).
- Govern and configure ADP Workforce Now and related HR platforms (data integrity, workflows, integrations, automation, reporting).
- Own and continuously improve onboarding experience and manager enablement.
- Serve as functional expert for complex HR operational inquiries (policies, processes, systems, service delivery expectations).
- Develop and improve scalable HR service delivery (intake, knowledge, service expectations, issue resolution, operational metrics).
- Partner on HR IT/technology roadmap; govern appropriate use of AI-enabled tools.
- Establish governance for HR documentation, SOPs, decision rights, and process ownership.
- Lead employment documentation/recordkeeping and compliance practices (privacy, policy administration) with Legal/Compliance/Payroll/Finance.
- Oversee HR vendor relationships, SLAs, contracts, invoicing, renewals, performance, and spend.
- Lead HR automation/process transformation initiatives.
- Lead HR operations reporting, dashboards, and operational insights.
- Manage immigration-related processes with external counsel and internal stakeholders.
- Provide strategic and operational leadership for benefits administration.
- Lead, coach, and develop People Operations team/workstream owners.

Qualifications (Required/Preferred):
- Bachelor’s degree in HR/Business Administration or related field; advanced degree or HR certification preferred.
- 10+ years progressive HR/People Operations or HR shared services experience in biotech/pharma/life sciences/high-growth environments; hands-on operations plus strategic process leadership.
- Deep experience with HRIS/ATS/HR technology, automation, reporting, and data governance; ADP Workforce Now and Greenhouse ATS strongly preferred.
- Experience evaluating/implementing/governing AI-enabled HR tech (privacy, compliance, bias mitigation, change management, adoption).
- Strong knowledge of HR compliance, employment documentation, employee data management, benefits, vendor management, recordkeeping, audit readiness, leave coordination, immigration, and HR operations best practices.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive change/adoption.
- Strong analytics/business judgment; communicate insights via dashboards and executive narratives.
- Excellent discretion, judgment, relationship-building, and communication.
- Experience leading people/teams/workstreams.
- Strategic thinking, continuous improvement, automation/scalability mindset; proactive, solutions-oriented leadership.