Head of People Operations

Skylight; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Disability insurance

Life insurance

401(k) match

Paid time off

Professional development allowance

Stock options

Remote-friendly work environment

Job summary

Skylight, a digital consultancy serving government clients, seeks a Head of People Operations to scale our people functions across three business units. You will lead talent acquisition, HR, and culture initiatives to attract, empower, and retain mission-driven professionals.

This full-time, fully remote role requires navigating U.S. labor laws, building fair people practices, and partnering with leadership to align people strategy with Skylight's public service focus.

Qualifications

• Experience leading people operations in a fast-growing organization.
• Proven ability to attract, empower, and retain mission-driven staff.
• Strong knowledge of labor laws and compliance in the U.S.
• Experience recruiting design and technology professionals.

Responsibilities

• Oversee talent lifecycle from planning to onboarding and retention.
• Lead recruiting and partner with the Head of Recruiting to scale the function.
• Own labor law compliance, payroll partnerships, and benefits benchmarking.
• Develop and maintain a professional capability framework for roles at Skylight.
• Drive engagement programs and performance management across the company.
• Create succession plans and training programs to scale culture.

Skills

People operations leadership

Experience scaling ops

Stakeholder management

HRIS/ATS proficiency

Data-driven decision making

Job description

About Skylight

Skylight is a digital consultancy using design and technology to help government agencies deliver better public services.We're at the forefront of a civic movement to reinvent how all levels of government serve families, patients, and many others in today's digital world.If you want to play a part in driving this critical movement forward, we'd love for you to join our growing team of public interest technologists.The work we do matters.

About the job

Since launching several years ago, our team has grown rapidly. We find ourselves in an exciting position to further deepen our partnerships within the government contracting space, to continue to attract and retain amazing teammates, and to scale our capacity to make an even bigger difference in the world. Currently, our company is organized into three main groups: Executive Office (sets and operationalizes the strategic direction of the company), Federal Health & Civilian (focused on federal health and civilian missions), and Defense & Security (focused on defense, national security, and public safety missions). As our Head of People Operations, you'll be responsible for leading people operations across the company so we can continue to attract, empower, and retain amazing public interest technologists. Your work will be central to improving and scaling our ability to make a genuine difference in the world. Our Head of People Operations must have proven experience navigating the evolving legal, regulatory, and social landscapes while preserving organizational values and maintaining trusted relationships with employees, leaders, customers, and government stakeholders.

What you'll do

Talent acquisition

• Manage the talent life cycle, from workforce planning through onboarding, as part of the broader employee life cycle
• Provide leadership to the Head of Recruiting, who reports to this role, and grow the talent function over time
• Understand the current and future talent needs of the organization, and build and maintain a strategic talent pipeline
• Manage the onboarding process

HR

• Ensure awareness of and compliance with relevant labor laws, and lead employee relations, including sensitive and legal matters
• Perform benchmark research on compensation and benefits, and partner on HR functions such as payroll
• Manage and optimize our HRIS (Rippling)
• Create organizational charts and define each position's responsibilities
• Manage the offboarding process

People & culture

• Own company-wide employee engagement: design and run engagement programs that reach across business units
• Manage our performance management system (e.g., individual performance planning, performance evaluation, internal promotions, continuous feedback)
• Support the development and ongoing improvement of a professional capability framework for describing and measuring how to progress and be successful in various roles at Skylight
• Discuss career-pathing options with high-potential employees and their team leaders
• Organize and oversee individual and team training programs (both internal and external)
• Design programs that build culture, drive engagement, and retain great people as we scale
• Create and implement succession plans

Across all three pillars

• Partner closely with business unit leaders and the executive team to align people strategy with the needs of the business
• Build fair, consistent people practices that reach a broad range of talent pools, reduce bias in how we evaluate candidates, and partner with organizations that widen our candidate reach
• Implement data-driven approaches to continually improving our people operations and talent outcomes
• Understand and drive the adoption of emerging best practices related to people operations

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

• Experience as a people operations leader or similar role
• Experience scaling people operations in a fast-growing organization
• Demonstrated experience building high-performing, mission-driven workplace cultures where employees feel respected, supported, and empowered to do their best work
• Sound judgment balancing transparency and visibility with confidentiality, privacy, and risk
• Experience recruiting design and technology professionals, such as product managers, product designers, user researchers, content strategists, software engineers, and DevOps engineers
• Experience working with remote teams
• Awareness of relevant labor laws and how to comply with them
• Ability to operate at strategic and tactical levels
• Excellent interpersonal, motivational, and relationship management skills
• Organized, detail-oriented, and quality-minded
• Superior written and oral communication skills
• Strong data and analytical skills
• Comfortable navigating Human Resources Information Systems, Applicant Tracking Systems, and tools that support performance management and other HR functions
• Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services
• A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values
• Ability to travel for work from time to time

Nice-to-have qualifications

• Experience with Rippling or a comparable HRIS
• Experience in a government contracting, consulting, or professional services environment

Other requirements

• All work must be conducted within the U.S.
• You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. now and in the future without sponsorship.
• As a government contractor, you may be required to obtain a public trust or security clearance.
• You may be required to successfully complete a company background check.

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Salary

The salary range for this position is $170,000 to $240,000, based on experience and qualifications.

Benefits

Your well-being is important to us, so we focus on supporting you in a variety of ways:

• Medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Life and AD&D insurance
• Dependent care FSA, healthcare FSA, health savings account
• Dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match up to 10% of your salary with no vesting period
• Paid time off, including 20 vacation days, 11 federal holidays, and flexible sick leave
• Up to 12 weeks paid time off for all eligible new birth, adoption, or foster parents
• Performance rewards, including annual salary increase, annual performance bonus, spot bonuses, and stock options
• Business development / sales bonuses
• Referral bonuses
• Annual $2,000 allowance for professional development
• Annual $750 allowance for tech-related purchases
• Annual swag budget of $100 to display your Skylight pride with some merchandise (hoodies, hats, and more)
• Flexible, remote-friendly work environment
• An environment that empowers you to unleash your superpowers for public good

Interview tips

• Visit our join page to learn more about how our interview process works.
• Check out our Career Pathways framework to learn more about the different roles within Skylight and the skills needed to do them.

We participate in E-Verify and upon hire, will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you're authorized to work in the U.S.

We're an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination.