HR Manager

Chabot Space & Science Center; Oakland, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 63,000 - 67,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA seeks an experienced HR Manager to strengthen the employee experience across recruiting, onboarding, benefits, compliance, and culture.

Reporting to the Chief of Staff, the 75% exempt, 30-hr‑week role oversees full‑cycle recruiting, benefits administration, onboarding, employee relations, training, and policy support, with on‑site presence and limited remote flexibility.

Responsibilities

• Manage full-cycle recruiting for open roles: post positions, screen candidates, coordinate interview panels, and check references.
• Partner with hiring managers on job descriptions and interview questions.
• Extend offers and coordinate start dates with the hiring manager and finance.

Job description

Chabot Space & Science Center seeks an experienced, organized, and relationship-oriented HR Manager to support and strengthen the employee experience across recruiting, benefits, onboarding, employee relations, training, compliance, and culture. This role helps ensure that Chabot’s people practices are consistent, responsive, legally sound, and aligned with the organization’s mission, values, and evolving strategic priorities.

The HR Manager will serve as a trusted resource for staff and managers, balancing day-to-day support with the judgment to identify patterns, elevate risks, and recommend improvements. The position works closely with the CEO, Chief of Staff, Finance, hiring managers, outside vendors, and administrative partners to strengthen Chabot’s internal systems and employee lifecycle.

The role owns tactical HR work across hiring, onboarding, benefits administration, compliance, and employee relations, while partnering with leadership and outside advisors on specialized HR matters.

Reporting to the Chief of Staff, the HR Manager provides hands-on HR leadership and day-to-day people operations support across the organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage full-cycle recruiting for open roles: post positions, screen candidates, coordinate interview panels, and check references.
• Partner with hiring managers on job descriptions and interview questions.
• Extend offers and coordinate start dates with the hiring manager and finance.

Benefits Strategy & Administration

• Own the annual benefits review: evaluate current plan performance, utilization, and cost trends against staff needs.
• Research alternatives when current offerings fall short (plan design, carriers, ancillary benefits) and bring recommendations with cost comparisons to Chief of Staff and Finance for approval.
• Lead open enrollment planning and staff communication each year, once decisions are finalized.
• Own the vendor/broker relationship and negotiate renewal terms.
• Selects and negotiates benefit plans, coordinate with support from finance on enrollment processing and billing.

Onboarding & Employee Lifecycle

• Own the non-administrative side of onboarding: new hire orientation, culture and mission introduction, 30/60/90 check-ins.
• Manage and maintain electronic office personnel records of employees and prepare paperwork with supporting documentation.
• Coordinate onboarding insurance/TriNet.
• Conduct exit interviews and share themes with Chief of Staff.

Employee Relations

• Serve as the first point of contact for employee concerns and workplace issues.
• Coach managers through accountability and performance conversations.
• Oversee the Performance Review process.
• Support consistent application of policies across departments.

Training & Development

• Coordinate required trainings (harassment prevention, safety, etc.) and track completion.
• Identify recurring skills or knowledge gaps surfaced through employee relations work and propose training responses.
• Support managers in onboarding new supervisors into people-management basics.

Policy & Compliance Support

• Maintain and update the employee handbook.
• Track compliance deadlines (postings, required training, leave law changes).
• Flag legal or compliance risk to Chief of Staff early rather than resolving independently.
• Manage relationship with TriNet, a professional employer organization, and/or a fractional HR consultant for specialized compliance support, including leave law, multi-state issues, handbook updates, and other technical HR matters.

Culture & Engagement

• Support staff recognition and engagement efforts.
• Flag recurring culture or management patterns from 1:1s and exit interviews to Chief of Staff, so they can feed into ongoing organizational diagnosis rather than being handled as one-off HR cases.

Compensation & Status

• This is a 75%, exempt, position scheduled for 30 hours per week, 4 days a week, Tuesday through Friday.
• Salary range: $63,000- 67,000, per year, commensurate with experience.
• This position is eligible for benefits, including medical, dental, vision, paid time off, holidays, and other benefits offered.
• This position is based at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California, with a regular on-site presence required and limited with some flexibility for remote work as appropriate.

Chabot Space & Science Center has been Oakland’s home for science since 1883. Founded as an astronomical observatory, we sit on 13 trail-laced acres in Redwood Regional Park, within the largest stand of coastal redwoods in East Bay. Our research-level observatory houses three telescopes, including the largest observatory complex free for public viewing in the Western United States, and our 20-inch telescope helped relay information to NASA during the Apollo 13 descent.

Chabot is at an inflection point. We’re reconnecting with our community, sharpening our focus on science education, and building the foundation for what comes next. Our work is to connect everyone in this region to the power and wonder of science, wherever that connection shows up: for a family on a Saturday, a student on a field trip, a young adult looking through a telescope for the first time, a scientist, or an educator. As part of that work, Chabot has deepened its partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center, and continues to grow our own workforce development academy, opening career paths in science and technology for youth across Oakland and East Bay. There’s real work ahead. We want to offer more for the teachers and students who rely on us, and build stronger, more consistent connections with the communities around us.

Chabot features a 241-seat full dome planetarium, hands-on exhibits, space artifacts, a giant screen theater, and an Observatory Deck with three historic telescopes.

What Guides Us

Chabot is embarking on a strategic planning process in fall 2026 to better understand and serve our community.

What guides us is straightforward: our job is to provide value to our community around science engagement, literacy, and identity. Every decision we make, every program we run, every interaction we have should serve that purpose.

CHABOT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Chabot is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our employees are people with differing strengths, experiences, and backgrounds who share a passion for bringing science to the full range of our community – sparking excitement about a universe of possibilities beyond our planet. Diversity not only includes race and gender identity but also age, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, religion, and many other parts of one’s identity. All our employees’ points of view are key to our success, and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

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