Human Resources Generalist

Howard Hughes Medical Institute•San Diego, CA

1d•$72,577 - $90,722•Hybrid

About The Position

This broad generalist role covers the full employee lifecycle at HHMI. You'll sit within the People & Culture team supporting labs across the US, working alongside HR Business Partners and HR Generalists. In a given week, you might run new hire orientation, coordinate an exit interview, follow up on a leave status, and help draft a job profile with Compensation. The work combines established processes with situations that require judgment. You'll often be the first person a new hire meets and someone managers rely on when sensitive situations arise. The role requires discretion, sound judgment and care.

Requirements

Broad generalist experience. You've worked across onboarding, offboarding, benefits, compensation, leave and employee relations rather than within a single HR specialty.
Judgment with confidential matters. You know when to escalate, how to maintain confidentiality and how to document sensitive matters clearly
Able to manage competing priorities. You can manage multiple priorities without losing track of detail or follow-through.
A process improvement mindset with strong technology fluency. You notice when a process is more manual or complicated than it needs to be and are comfortable using AI and other tools to improve it, with sound judgment around accuracy, confidentiality and risk.
Comfort balancing projects with ongoing HR work. You can contribute to broader P&C initiatives, help move work from idea through implementation and still stay on top of the operational details that keep HR running.
Three to five years of progressive HR experience, including at least two years in a generalist-type role.
A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Workday specifically, not just an HRIS in general.
Exposure to compensation, job architecture, benefits and leave administration work.

Responsibilities

Own onboarding end to end: preboarding, orientation and 30- and 90-day check-ins.
Run the offboarding process, from resignation through exit interviews, and identify themes in exit survey data for the HRBP team.
Support employee relations casework alongside HR Business Partners: intakes, development plans, memos, and Performance Improvement Plans.
Identify opportunities to improve HR processes and workflows, then help design and implement better ways of working.
Actively use AI and other technology to improve how HR work gets done, from reducing manual steps and improving documentation to creating better tools and experiences for employees and managers.
Participate in P&C projects that cut across HR and other functions, contributing both subject-matter knowledge and hands-on implementation support.
Handle the details around restructurings, position eliminations and lab closures when they happen: talking points for supervisors, severance paperwork and clear, accurate communications.
Be the point person for new job profiles, working with Compensation and P&C leadership from first conversation through approval.
Coordinate benefits and leave questions with the Benefits team and HHMI's leave administrator, as well as retirement enrollment.
Support recruitment activities in Workday and the performance review cycle, and build the checklists and SOPs that keep the rest of HR consistent.