Director, People Operations & Total Rewards

Brio Water Technology•Glendale, CA

2h•$170,000 - $220,000

About The Position

The Director, People Operations & Total Rewards owns compensation, benefits, payroll and HR technology, bringing practices that developed separately across the businesses into a precise, trusted system that can scale. This technology-first leader uses Rippling, integrations and AI to automate manual work and improve the efficiency and accuracy of payroll, benefits and HR operations without adding headcount. The role reports to the SVP of Human Resources, sits on the HR leadership team, and works closely with Finance, Legal and leaders across the companies. The Director leads the People Operations & Total Rewards team and HR technology operations, oversees the function's budget and vendor spend, and helps shape the HR roadmap.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive HR experience.
5+ years leading total rewards, payroll or HR operations.
3+ years managing teams.
Deep, hands-on knowledge of California wage and hour and leave law, plus multi-state experience.
Experience designing salary structures and running merit and incentive cycles for 1,000+ employees.
A proven record of automating HR, payroll or benefits, with measurable results.
Hands-on experience with HRIS workflows, reports, and Excel or Google Sheets.
Use of AI tools in day-to-day work.
Strong analytical skills and ability to explain pay and benefits to executives and employees.
Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business, Finance or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Owned payroll and HRIS; Rippling experience or experience leading a payroll or HRIS conversion is a strong plus.
CCP, CBP, GRP, SPHR or SHRM-SCP certification.
Experience in multi-brand, franchise, manufacturing, home services or retail environments.
Incentive pay design experience for commissioned sales and skilled trades or installers.
Experience bringing HR functions together after an acquisition or reorganization.
Bilingual in English and Spanish.

Responsibilities

Build a standardized compensation philosophy, job architecture and salary structure across the companies.
Run annual merit, bonus and promotion cycles, modeling budgets with Finance.
Design incentive plans that are easy to explain and audit.
Lead pay transparency and regular pay equity reviews.
Advise executives on leadership compensation, offers and retention.
Deliver accurate, on-time payroll for every entity.
Stabilize Rippling payroll following the January cutover.
Ensure California wage and hour practices, including overtime, regular rate, meal and rest premiums, and final pay.
Own tax filings, year-end processes and payroll audits.
Develop a benefits strategy that balances competitiveness and cost.
Run benefits renewals and open enrollment with the broker and carriers.
Manage 401(k), PEO and other vendor relationships.
Own leave of absence administration and ACA, COBRA and ERISA compliance.
Own the Rippling roadmap, integrations, security roles and data integrity.
Lead the HR Technology Manager and HR Help Desk.
Standardize onboarding, job changes, offboarding and records across the companies.
Keep policies, the employee handbook and required notices current.
Deliver trusted people analytics on headcount, labor cost, turnover and pay equity.
Identify manual HR and payroll processes and automate them.
Apply AI to Help Desk answers, document generation and audit checks, with privacy and accuracy controls.
Build the HR automation roadmap with IT and Finance.
Report on hours saved, errors removed and cycle times reduced.
Build and develop a technology-fluent People Operations & Total Rewards team.
Partner with HR business partners, Talent, Finance and Legal as one HR team.
Manage the function's budget and vendor spend.