Manager, People Operations

What you’ll do

This role will lead and scale the People Ops function for the Americas, building the systems, processes, and team that deliver a seamless employee experience from onboarding through offboarding while ensuring accuracy, compliance, and operational excellence across HRIS, payroll, benefits/LOA, immigration, and EOR workflows.

You’ll be a hands-on builder and people leader who standardizes SOPs, elevates service quality, and partners closely with Payroll, IT, Compliance, Finance/AP, and our global People & Talent team to keep our operations tight, data-driven, and audit-ready.

This hybrid role is based in San Francisco.

What you’ll do

• Lead and develop the regional People Operations function; own end-to-end employee lifecycle operations (onboarding/orientation, background checks, HRIS data integrity, payroll inputs/changes, benefits and leaves, offboarding) with a strong focus on delivery quality and compliance.
• Drive operational excellence by codifying and maintaining regional SOPs, managing the PNT Jira helpdesk queue, and setting clear workflows and standards that are consistent with global guidance.
• Partner cross-functionally with Payroll, IT, Compliance, and Finance/AP on accurate and timely transactions, audits, vendor coordination, invoicing/POs, and change control (e.g., Sequoia/PrismHR, Deel/Papaya).
• Oversee immigration/global mobility processes and EOR transitions, aligning stakeholders and vendors to ensure compliant, on-time execution and a great employee experience.
• Maintain regional compliance standards (e.g., I-9/E-Verify, ACA reporting, mandatory trainings), and proactively improve controls and documentation for audits and reviews.
• Support our Americas expansion as we establish sites in Toronto, Mexico and Brazil.

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum qualifications for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications

• 6 or more years of People Operations experience with 2+ years leading or mentoring a team in a high-growth tech environment
• Hands-on ownership across the employee lifecycle (onboarding/orientation, HRIS data integrity, payroll inputs, benefits and leaves, offboarding) with strong US compliance knowledge (I-9/E‑Verify, ACA, mandated trainings).
• Proficiency with HRIS and ticketing; experience with BambooHR and managing a helpdesk queue/SLAs is a plus.
• Vendor and program management experience with PEO/EOR and benefits/payroll partners (e.g., Sequoia/PrismHR, Deel, Papaya).
• Clear, concise communication skills; ability to build SOPs, document processes, and enforce standards in a fast-moving, global environment.
• Comfort working with cloud technologies such as Slack, Zoom, Google Suite, Confluence, and BambooHR.
• Ability to be resilient, learn quickly and adapt to the organizational culture and ways of working in a dynamic environment.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience scaling People Ops in a global fintech environment.
• Experience successfully proposing new solutions across a landscape of diverse decision makers with determination.
• Experience coordinating immigration/global mobility workflows and vendor partners (e.g., counsel, trackers, approvals) for the US.
• Experience managing EOR transitions and cross-border onboarding in the Americas (US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil).

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Equal opportunityAirwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.