People Operations & Experience Manager

Ascend • San Francisco, CA

3d • Onsite

About The Position

Ascend is transforming the $10T global insurance industry by combining AI automation with embedded fintech.
While insurance represents 7.2% of global GDP, outdated financial infrastructure like PDFs, emails, and manual reconciliation continues to slow the industry down. Ascend is the first and market-leading finance automation platform built specifically for insurance, driving the industry’s rapid digital transformation.
In just five years:
Trusted by thousands of insurance businesses nationwide
Processes billions in transactions annually, growing 200%+ YoY
Built a world-class team of 70+ across San Francisco and Columbus
Ascend automates the insurance financial lifecycle, from collections to disbursements. We streamline operations and drive real profitability.
AI is rapidly driving the cost of software down, opening the door to faster innovation and broader access. At the same time, it is shifting where value is created. The strongest companies embed directly into financial workflows, capturing value at the point where money moves.
Ascend brings AI and fintech together to automate financial operations inside the transaction itself. Customers do not just adopt software. They unlock powerful financial efficiency with a proven 5-7x return on investment.
Insurance is a $10T+ industry running on legacy systems. AI alone won’t fix it, but AI-powered automation embedded into payments and transactions will.
Ascend’s mission is to become the leading financial automation platform for insurance by 2030—powering the entire industry’s financial operations while transforming the way trillions of dollars move.
We are looking for a strategically minded, operationally strong People Operations & Experience Manager to design, build, and lead a world-class People Ops function while elevating the day-to-day experience of our team.
This role blends People Operations, Office Operations, and executive support. You will serve as the foundation for scalable HR infrastructure while shaping the employee experience during a critical growth phase, scaling from 70 employees today to 150+ next year.
You will:
Lead People Operations systems and support across the full employee lifecycle
Own office operations and culture-building logistics
Partner closely with leadership on communication, scheduling, and administrative support
This is a builder role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, values clarity over chaos, and wants to architect systems that scale.

Requirements

• Excited about an office role (5 days a week)
• 3 to 5 years of People Ops experience in a fast-growing startup environment, ideally Series A or B, scaling from 50 to 150+ employees
• A strong operational builder who creates scalable processes, documentation, and self-service resources from scratch
• Comfortable handling diverse HR questions with sound judgment and knowing when to escalate
• Detail-oriented with experience using HRIS systems such as Rippling and a working knowledge of multi-state employment compliance
• A pragmatic self-starter who thrives in ambiguity and is excited about leveraging AI to improve HR operations

Nice To Haves

• fintech or insurtech experience
• visa process familiarity
• office operations experience

Responsibilities

• Dive deep into Ascend’s mission, product, values, and org structure
• Align with the Head of People on priorities, reporting cadence, and success metrics
• Independently manage day-to-day HR inquiries across policies, benefits, payroll, PTO, leaves, employment verification, and HR systems, escalating complex matters appropriately
• Convert existing documentation into a formal, compliant employee handbook and identify policy gaps
• Fully own onboarding and offboarding processes, including systems access and device logistics
• Centralize visa documentation and tracking while preparing employee-facing visa support materials
• Establish standardized monthly people reporting, including headcount, attrition, and new hire retention metrics
• Build a centralized reporting database to support executive visibility
• Create scalable self-service HR resources, including updated wiki documentation, FAQs, and templates
• Pilot an AI-supported internal knowledge base focused on visa and compliance questions
• Design and launch a lightweight employee feedback mechanism with ≥70% participation
• Implement standardized manager toolkits for feedback, growth conversations, and expectations
• Design and operationalize a defensible performance review framework
• Support leveling, promotion, and growth frameworks across teams
• Maintain multi-state employment and visa compliance while keeping documentation audit-ready
• Proactively identify patterns across teams that inform retention, growth, and policy decisions

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and meaningful equity
• 100% health premiums covered for you and your dependents
• 401k with employer matching options
• A fast growing team with an emphasis on promoting from within 80% of all hires in the last 12 months have already been promoted!
• Unlimited PTO
• Monthly company-paid commuter benefit options
• Parental and family leave
• Lunch provided when in office
• Dog-friendly office!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed