People Operations Lead

Manifest OS•New York City, NY

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Manifest OS is the leading AI-native company on a mission to replace the billable hour and make legal services more accessible for American businesses and consumers. We power the next generation of AI-native law firms with one unified global brand, a proprietary technology platform, and a centralized back office — enabling lawyers to eliminate the administrative burden and focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for their clients. Manifest OS has raised a $60M Series A from Menlo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, First Round, and Quiet Capital. About the Team You'll be the first People Operations hire at Manifest, which means you're not joining a team — you're building the team that will drive People strategy and culture across the organization. You'll create the employee experience that will carry our company as it scales — we can't deliver exceptional outcomes for clients without first building an exceptional place to work. Reporting directly to leadership, you'll have both the freedom and the accountability that comes with being first. About the Role We're hiring our first People Operations Lead to build a world-class employee experience and a culture that makes Manifest the best place to work in legal tech. This role is primarily about people — how they feel walking in the door on day one, how connected they feel six months in, and how proud they are to be part of this team. You'll also build the foundational systems and infrastructure that keep things running cleanly as we scale, but your north star is culture, community, and belonging. You'll own the full People function from day one, which means you'll have both the freedom and the accountability that comes with that.

Requirements

4–6+ years in People Operations or HR, with meaningful time spent on culture, employee experience, or people programming — not just ops and compliance
A track record of planning and executing memorable, high-impact employee events and offsites that people actually talk about
Hands-on experience with a modern HRIS — not just using it, but configuring and trusting it
Someone who leads with warmth and builds genuine relationships across an organization
Someone who operates like an owner: you spot the gap before someone points it out, and you close it without waiting to be asked

Responsibilities

Own the onboarding experience end-to-end — design and run an onboarding program that makes every new hire feel genuinely welcomed, oriented, and set up to do their best work from day one.
Build the rhythm of our culture — plan and execute the events, rituals, and touchpoints that bring our team together: offsites, team dinners, happy hours, company-wide celebrations, and the small moments in between that make people feel like they belong somewhere special.
Shape our values and employer brand from the ground up — lead our company values-setting exercise and translate those values into lived experience, not wall art.
Champion employee engagement — design feedback loops (surveys, 1:1 listening sessions, stay conversations) that surface how people are actually feeling, and then act on what you hear.
Create the moments that matter — milestone recognition, tenure celebrations, team wins, personal life events.
Partner with managers to build great teams — coach people managers on how to run effective 1:1s, give meaningful feedback, and create the kind of team environments where people do their best work.
Stand up and maintain our core People infrastructure — configure our HRIS, ensure data integrity, and build the reporting that gives leadership real insight into the business.
Establish the operational backbone — own payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and the documentation that keeps us audit-ready as we grow.
Design and implement core HR processes — onboarding, offboarding, leaves, and more — across both our Manifest OS and Manifest Law offices, ensuring a consistent, seamless experience for every employee regardless of which side of the business they sit on.
Write the foundational People policies — first versions of our internal mobility framework, PIP process, performance calibration, and compensation review cycles.