Senior People Operations Manager

Heady • New York, NY

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Heady is a digital product consultancy that provides full-service strategy, design, full-stack development, and growth enablement for a wide range of industries. The People Ops Manager role is focused on shaping and supporting the employee experience across every stage of the journey at Heady. This role sits at the intersection of people, culture, operations, communication, and strategy. You’ll work closely with leadership across employee engagement, recruiting, onboarding, offboarding, performance management, culture initiatives, and day-to-day people operations. You’ll help create structure where needed and ensure our people feel supported, connected, and aligned as we continue to grow. You will play an important role in helping bridge communication and collaboration across our distributed workforce, including employees and contractors across multiple regions and time zones. We’re looking for someone who understands the nuances of supporting global teams and can proactively identify opportunities to improve communication, processes, engagement, and overall team health. This is a highly collaborative and hands-on role. We’re looking for someone who is equally comfortable thinking strategically and jumping into the day-to-day details, whether that’s supporting a manager through a sensitive employee conversation, planning a company event, improving an onboarding process, managing performance review cycles, or auditing internal policies and systems. This is a hybrid role based in Brooklyn, NY, with in-office collaboration on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in our Dumbo office. As Heady continues to grow and evolve, we may transition to a 3-day in-office schedule over time.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in People Ops, HR, employee experience, culture, or similar people-focused roles, ideally within a fast-paced startup, agency, or growing organization.
• Experience supporting distributed and global teams and understand the importance of creating connections across different locations, cultures, and time zones.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, dependable, and comfortable managing multiple moving pieces at once.
• Enjoy thinking strategically while also jumping into executional work and day-to-day support.
• Experience using platforms such as TriNet and Lattice is a plus.
• Communicate clearly, thoughtfully, and directly.
• Comfortable navigating sensitive conversations with professionalism, empathy, and sound judgment.
• Genuinely enjoy supporting people and creating thoughtful employee experiences.
• Employees naturally feel comfortable coming to you for support and guidance.
• Bring empathy, strong interpersonal instincts, and professionalism to your work while still maintaining boundaries, discretion, and accountability.
• Pay attention to nuance, team dynamics, communication patterns, and organizational shifts.
• Notice the small things that impact culture and employee experience.
• Don’t wait to be told what needs attention. Proactively identify opportunities for improvement and take initiative to solve problems.
• Thrive in environments where priorities can shift quickly and where no two days look exactly the same.
• Bring a steady, calm, and grounded presence to your work and are able to help others navigate change with thoughtfulness and stability.
• Enjoy partnering across teams and functions and understand how to balance employee advocacy with business needs.
• Excited by change and interested in how emerging technologies, tools, and AI can improve communication, operations, employee experience, and the future of work.

Nice To Haves

• Experience using platforms such as TriNet and Lattice is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted resource for employees across day-to-day support, questions, guidance, and employee experience initiatives.
• Help foster an environment where employees feel supported, heard, and connected.
• Bridge communication and cultural gaps across our distributed workforce, including employees and contractors across multiple regions and time zones.
• Own employee engagement efforts, including pulse surveys, feedback initiatives, and sentiment tracking.
• Identify themes, surface insights to leadership, and help turn feedback into actionable improvements.
• Coordinate employee events, team gatherings, celebrations, and culture-building initiatives that strengthen connection across the company.
• Support internal communications, trainings, announcements, and engagement efforts that help keep teams informed, connected, and energized.
• Own and manage key people processes including onboarding, offboarding, mid-year check-ins, end-of-year reviews, and feedback cycles.
• Help managers stay organized, thoughtful, and accountable throughout the performance management process.
• Ensure Heady remains organized, compliant, and operationally sound across core HR processes and requirements, including onboarding documentation, I-9s, payroll support, benefits administration and renewals, compliance trainings, HR systems, employee records, and internal policies and platforms.
• Regularly audit People Ops processes, policies, documentation, and systems to ensure they remain organized, scalable, compliant, and employee-friendly.
• Partner closely with leadership on organizational planning, employee support, hiring strategy, engagement trends, and evolving team needs.
• Support organizational communication and change management initiatives as Heady continues evolving its offerings, systems, and ways of working.
• Proactively stay on top of trends, themes, and subtle shifts across the organization.
• Identify communication gaps, manager support needs, process inconsistencies, or morale concerns.
• Stay informed on evolving workplace, People Ops, and AI-related trends, bringing ideas and recommendations to leadership.
• Support recruiting operations, interview coordination, candidate experience, and hiring logistics.
• Ensure candidates have a thoughtful and welcoming experience throughout the hiring process.
• Improve recruiting processes, draft job descriptions, partner closely with hiring managers, and support hiring strategy and organization across the company.
• Support office operations, help coordinate logistics, assist with internal initiatives, or solve unexpected problems that arise throughout the day.
• Work closely with leadership, department heads, recruiters, managers, and external partners to ensure alignment across people, business, and operational needs.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage - effective from Day 1
• Flexible PTO (we encourage at least 4 weeks per year) plus 13 paid company holidays
• 401(k) eligibility after 3 months of service
• A dedicated Continued Learning Program to support professional development
• Sabbatical Benefit eligibility after 3 years of service
• Generous and inclusive Parental Leave plans
• 2 days of in-person collaboration in our Dumbo office (Tuesdays + Wednesdays)
• Happy Hours, birthday cakes, rooftop hangs, Halloween + Holiday parties and more!

What This Job Offers

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