HR Operations & AI Enablement Manager

BetterUp; Austin, New York, San Francisco, Washington (TX, NY, CA, District of Columbia); Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

BetterUp in the United Kingdom seeks an HR Operations & AI Enablement Manager to reimagine how HR operations work, owning the processes, systems partnership, and compliance while using AI to remove manual work.

You’ll lead and develop a team of 3–5, serving as the bridge between HR Ops, Legal, Payroll, IT, Recruiting, Total Rewards, and our Workday and AI Automation engineers. You’ll pilot lightweight fixes and drive practical governance for responsible AI usage.

Responsibilities

• AI & automation enablement: bring AI-first lens to HR Ops and design lightweight fixes or scope for AI Automation Engineer
• HR operations & continuous improvement: lead onboarding/offboarding, benefits, leave management, and employee records with clear SLAs
• Systems partnership & data: represent HR Ops needs in Workday roadmap and ensure data integrity and privacy
• Compliance & risk management: ensure HR practices comply with laws and document policies
• People leadership & cross-functional collaboration: manage 3–5 person team and partner with HR, Legal, Payroll, IT

Job description

About BetterUp

Let’s face it, a company whose mission is human transformation better have some fresh thinking about the employer/employee relationship.

We do. We can’t cram it all in here, but you’ll start noticing it from the first interview.

Even our candidate experience is different. And when you get an offer from us (and accept it), you get way more than a paycheck. You get a personal BetterUp Coach, a development plan, a trained and coached manager, the most amazing team you’ve ever met, and most importantly, work that matters.

This makes for a remarkably focused and fulfilling work experience. Frankly, it’s not for everyone. But for people with fire in their belly, it’s a game-changing, career-defining, soul-lifting move.

We are a hybrid company with a focus on in-person collaboration when necessary. Employees are expected to be available to work from one of our office hubs at least two days per week, or eight days per month. Our US hub locations include: Austin, TX; New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; and the Washington, DC metro area. Please ensure you can realistically commit to this structure before applying.

Role Overview

We're looking for an HR Operations & AI Enablement Manager to reimagine how HR Operations works at BetterUp. You'll own the operational backbone of the HR function (the processes, systems partnership, and compliance work that make every employee interaction reliable, fast, and consistent) and you'll use AI and automation to remove as much manual work from it as possible.

You’ll lead and develop a team of three to five, act as the escalation point for complex employee issues, and be the connective tissue between HR Ops, Legal, Payroll, IT, Recruiting, Total Rewards, and our Workday and AI Automation engineers. You'll also pilot lightweight fixes yourself and partner with engineers when something needs real build work.

This is a high-impact role for someone who has run and scaled HR operations before, thinks in systems, measures what they ship, and wants to bring that judgment to a team that is still building its playbook.

This role reports to the VP of Total Rewards and HR Operations, and manages a team of 3-5.

What You’ll Do

AI & automation enablement

• Bring an AI-first lens to HR Ops: identify manual, repetitive, or error-prone work and either fix it directly with lightweight tools or scope it for the AI Automation Engineer
• Redesign end-to-end HR Ops workflows (such as onboarding and offboarding) with automation and AI embedded where they create real leverage, not novelty for its own sake
• Pilot and evaluate emerging AI tools relevant to HR Ops (for example AI-assisted case triage, employee-facing Q&A, and agents), and build the case for what is worth scaling
• Define and report the impact of what we ship: hours saved, cycle time reduced, errors prevented, employee experience improved
• Act as HR Ops' go-to resource for "can we automate this," partnering with the AI Automation Engineer for anything that needs custom code
• Coach the team to adopt AI tools and build their own automation habits
• Establish practical governance and best practices for responsible AI use in HR Ops, including data privacy and employee information

HR operations & continuous improvement

• Lead and continuously improve end-to-end HR processes (onboarding, offboarding, benefits administration, leave management, and employee records) with clear SLAs and consistent execution
• Solve problems at the root cause and across the whole People function, so fixes work for Recruiting, HR Business Partners, Compensation, and Benefits, not just for HR Ops
• Own HR case management and employee support processes, serving as the escalation point for complex or ambiguous issues
• Ensure HR policies and procedures are clearly documented, consistently applied, and aligned with compliance requirements
• Administer and oversee benefits operations, working with the VP of Total Rewards and HR Operations on strategy

Systems partnership & data

• Represent HR Ops' needs in the Workday and People Technology roadmap: define requirements, test changes, and drive adoption, without owning system configuration directly
• Own HR data integrity and reporting accuracy within HR Ops' processes, and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations
• Partner with the Workday Engineer, AI Automation Engineer, and IT to troubleshoot process-level issues and scope enhancements
• Help build BetterUp’s HR analytics capability, turning HR Ops data into insight and not just process exhaust

Compliance & risk management

• Ensure HR Ops practices comply with employment laws, data privacy regulations, and HR best practices across the jurisdictions BetterUp operates in
• Maintain HR documentation and records to legal and company standards
• Lead or support HR audits, compliance reporting, and policy updates, and stay proactive rather than reactive

People leadership & cross-functional collaboration

• Manage and develop the HR Ops team: let them run their domains, hold them accountable for outcomes, and push their thinking toward end-to-end process design
• Serve as a thought partner to senior HR, Legal, Payroll, and IT stakeholders, keeping HR Ops aligned with business objectives
• Partner with the HRBP team on complex employee inquiries involving payroll, benefits, or policy interpretation
• Own vendor and third-party relationships for HR Ops tools and services: contract accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and strategic fit

What Success Looks Like

• Manual, repetitive HR Ops work is measurably reduced through automation and AI, and we can show the numbers
• HR Ops processes run against clear, documented SLAs with consistent execution across onboarding, off-boarding, and case management
• Recurring problems are solved at the root