Founding Senior HR Generalist / People Operations Lead

Thomas Talent Network; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential client in San Francisco, CA is hiring its first dedicated HR professional to own and strengthen core HR operations as the company scales. This greenfield role focuses on employee lifecycle management, compliance, and partner relationships with benefits providers and counsel.

As the first HR hire, you will build scalable processes, own in-person workplace needs under California law, and partner with Finance on payroll accuracy.

Qualifications

• Must have 4–6 years of HR experience in a startup or venture-backed company.
• Experience owning core HR operations and employee lifecycle processes.
• Familiarity with California employment law and in-person workplace requirements.
• Knowledge of payroll processes and working with payroll providers.

Responsibilities

• Own the full employee lifecycle from onboarding to offboarding.
• Maintain employment documents and records (offers, agreements, separations).
• Keep HRIS (Rippling) accurate as the source of truth.
• Lead HR processes with external vendors and outside counsel as needed.
• Ensure payroll accuracy in partnership with Finance.
• Build scalable HR workflows and documentation for growth.
• Broaden programs over time to include culture and employee experience.

Skills

HR operations

Employee lifecycle

California employment law

Payroll coordination

Vendor management

Tools

Rippling

Job description

Confidential client — a Series A AI company (11-50 employees) building AI agents for the world's largest B2C companies across voice, chat, and email. Recently closed a significant Series A round; the team runs lean, ships fast, and is scaling toward becoming the enterprise standard for AI-powered automation. Full-Time, In-person, San Francisco, CA. Experience: 4-6 years. Salary: $160,000-$185,000/yr. Visa sponsorship: None available.

About the Role:

Hiring its first dedicated HR professional to own and strengthen core HR operations as the company grows. This is a greenfield opportunity to bring clear ownership and scalable processes to a function currently shared across Operations and the business.

The role is hands-on and execution-focused. You will own the day-to-day HR function, with emphasis on employee lifecycle management, compliance, and effective partnership with benefits providers and employment counsel. Building strong operational foundations is the immediate priority. Once fundamentals are in place, there is appetite to expand into broader people initiatives such as culture, manager enablement, and employee experience.

The right person is comfortable operating independently, enjoys bringing order to complexity, and is excited to be the first HR hire with meaningful ownership and room to grow.

What You'll Own:

• Own the full employee lifecycle: onboarding end to end (equipment, accounts, orientation, first-week experience), role changes, offboarding, and terminations
• Maintain employment documentation and records, including offer letters, employment agreements, and separation materials
• Keep the HRIS (Rippling) clean, current, and accurate as the source of truth
• Serve as the primary internal owner for HR processes, including work with external vendors and outside counsel
• Apply working knowledge of California employment law to guide HR decisions, especially around in-person workplace requirements
• Handle employee transitions, terminations, and severance with consistency, care, and sound judgment
• Own benefits administration (health, retirement) and manage broker and provider relationships
• Partner closely with Finance — and sometimes lead — on payroll accuracy and compliance
• Build and document HR workflows that scale, introducing structure where processes are informal or evolving
• As the function matures, take on broader people programs (performance management, manager enablement, employee experience)

Must-Have Requirements:

• 4-6 years of HR experience; flexibility for candidates whose early career was in office management or recruiting coordination before moving into HR
• Prior experience as the first or second HR hire at a Series A or B venture-backed startup
• Experience at a venture-backed company with $10M+ in funding, ideally the most recent role
• California employment law fluency, with familiarity with in-person workplace considerations
• Strong HRIS fluency (Rippling a plus)
• Strong understanding of payroll fundamentals, with experience partnering with or leading payroll providers
• Demonstrated experience handling employee transitions, terminations, and severance in a thoughtful, compliant way
• Comfortable being the primary HR owner in a fast-moving environment, with the discernment to bring in counsel when the stakes require it
• Based in the SF Bay Area and willing to work in-person

Company stage: Series A. Work type: In-person (San Francisco, CA). No visa sponsorship available.