People Operations Manager

Buckingham Search • Gurnee, IL

2d • Onsite

About The Position

This is a high-impact opportunity for an experienced HR professional to establish and scale a strong internal People Operations function within a growing, acquisition-focused organization. Reporting to the CFO, this individual will be the go-to HR leader for the business, balancing day-to-day employee support with the operational work needed to build sustainable people programs, systems, and processes. The ideal candidate is highly hands-on, comfortable working independently, and energized by creating structure in an evolving environment. This role will initially have no direct reports, with the potential to build out support as the function and organization grow.

Requirements

• 5+ years of progressive HR experience in a broad generalist, People Operations, or HR leadership capacity.
• Experience independently managing core HR operations, including employee relations, compliance, benefits, payroll, and HR administration.
• Prior involvement in, or ownership of, an HRIS and/or payroll system implementation.
• Strong knowledge of federal, state, and multi-state employment laws, payroll practices, leave administration, and wage-and-hour requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to create practical processes, policies, and programs in a fast-moving or growth-stage environment.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage competing priorities, external vendors, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Comfortable partnering closely with Finance, leadership, managers, and outside advisors.
• Excellent communication skills, discretion, and the ability to handle sensitive information with sound judgment.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience will be considered.
• SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, or CPP certification is a plus.
• Bilingual English/Spanish skills are strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary HR resource for employees and leaders across the full employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding through performance management, development, and offboarding.
• Lead full-cycle recruiting activities, including job postings, sourcing, interview coordination, offers, candidate communication, and onboarding.
• Create a thoughtful, compliant, and consistent new-hire experience, including orientation, employment documentation, I-9/E-Verify, state reporting, and benefits enrollment.
• Develop, maintain, and improve the employee handbook, HR policies, and people-related procedures to support a multi-state workforce.
• Manage employee relations matters with discretion and sound judgment; conduct investigations and partner with outside counsel or advisors when needed.
• Administer leave programs, accommodations, disability, return-to-work processes, and related employee communications in compliance with federal and state requirements.
• Oversee the company’s benefits programs and broker relationships, including annual renewals, employee communications, enrollment, and open enrollment.
• Manage payroll operations and related controls, including multi-state payroll considerations, wage-and-hour compliance, tax setup, reporting, reconciliation, and coordination with Finance.
• Own annual performance review, compensation planning, merit increase, and incentive processes.
• Build and manage required compliance training, employee education, safety-related programs, and completion tracking.
• Prepare and maintain accurate records for employment-related filings and reporting, including EEO-1, ACA, OSHA, unemployment, workers’ compensation, and other applicable requirements.
• Support acquisitions through HR due diligence, employee-data review, workforce analysis, and integration of new employees into payroll, benefits, HR systems, and policies.
• Evaluate, select, and implement an HRIS/payroll platform that will support the organization’s next phase of growth.
• Lead the system implementation process from vendor evaluation through configuration, data cleanup, testing, integrations, training, and go-live.
• Act as the internal system owner following implementation, managing reporting, workflows, updates, vendor relationships, and continuous improvement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level