Senior Manager, People Operations

Iceye Us•Irvine, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

At ICEYE, we design, build and operate the largest fleet of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in the world. Using advanced technology, our constellation collects topographical data about any location on Earth, day or night, through any weather conditions. Headquartered in Southern California, our customers are society’s heroes – intelligence professionals, warfighters, first responders, and scientific researchers. As a trusted mission partner, the United States and its allies depend on us for critical information when it matters most. Role Description We are looking for a Senior Manager, People Operations to help build the operational backbone of our People function as the company scales. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role: you will design and stand up the processes, systems, and programs a growing organization needs, while also personally executing the day-to-day work of People Operations. You'll partner closely with the Head of People to translate strategy into repeatable, well-documented operations, building for the company we're becoming while keeping the trains running for the company we are today. This role is best suited to someone who is energized by both ends of the job: architecting scalable programs and processes, and rolling up their sleeves to execute them directly while the team is still lean. As we add headcount to the People team, you'll be expected to shift progressively from execution toward oversight, but until then, this is a builder-operator role.

Requirements

Minimum of 6 years of progressive experience in HR/People Operations, including direct ownership of HRIS administration and lifecycle processes.
Bachelor's degree required.
Demonstrated ability to operate at both the strategic and tactical level — comfortable designing a process and then executing it personally.
Experience building People programs and infrastructure from the ground up, ideally in a growth-stage or scaling company.
Working knowledge of HRIS/PEO platforms; TriNet experience is a plus.
Demonstrated organizational and documentation skills, you default to creating a repeatable process rather than solving the same problem twice.
Fair and compliant judgment on employee relations matters and a solid working knowledge of employment law fundamentals.

Nice To Haves

SHRM-CP/SCP or HRCI (PHR/SPHR) certification a plus.
Experience in aerospace, defense, or another regulated/cleared environment is a plus, but not required.
A collaborative, low-ego approach.
Comfortable working cross-functionally with IT and Cyber to administer and get the most out of internal systems; experience managing an LMS or performance management platform.

Responsibilities

Build the Foundation: Design, document, and implement core People Operations processes (employee lifecycle, HRIS data management, records, compliance tracking, reporting) that can scale as headcount grows.
Own the Employee Experience: Own onboarding and new hire orientation end-to-end, submit LOAs to our PEO and serve as the front-line point of contact for employee questions and support.
Own the Systems: Serve as the primary administrator of our HRIS/PEO platform (TriNet), ensuring data integrity and accurate in-house payroll verification prior to processing
Support Compensation & Job Architecture: Support administration of the compensation and job architecture framework, including data accuracy, leveling documentation, and market-pricing updates alongside the Head of People.
Build Reusable Tools: Develop and maintain hiring packets, exit packets, and other People artifacts that don't yet exist in a formalized way.
Manage Documentation & Knowledge: Own and maintain our Confluence page and policy library, keeping documentation current, well-organized.
Own Internal Systems: Partner with IT and Cyber to fully leverage our internal systems, and own administration of our internal LMS and performance management systems.
Coordinate on Compliance: Partner with the Facility Security Officer and Talent Acquisition to ensure People Operations processes align with clearance and compliance requirements specific to our industry.
Own Compliance Reporting: Own preparation and submission of required annual and periodic compliance reporting (e.g., EEO-1, and other federal/state filings)
Support Employee Relations: Build and own the intake process for employee relations matters (documentation, routing, tracking). Day-to-day ER decisions remain with the Head of People.
Report and Measure: Track People Operations metrics and provide regular reporting to help the Head of People make data-informed decisions.
Anticipate Scale: Identify where manual processes will break as we scale, and proactively propose and build the fix before it becomes a bottleneck.