HR Operations Manager

Smartsuite; Newport Beach (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Capitolis is seeking an HR Operations Manager to run people operations, including employee lifecycle, HR cases, onboarding and offboarding, HRIS data, payroll and benefits coordination, and policy governance. The role ensures accurate records and timely attestations while serving as a trusted partner to managers and employees.

The position collaborates across Shared Services and Compliance teams to maintain data integrity, drive process improvements, and deliver real-time workforce metrics that

Responsibilities

• Run HR requests and case management
• Own onboarding, offboarding and employee lifecycle processes
• Maintain HRIS data quality and reporting
• Coordinate payroll, benefits and compliance activities
• Manage HR policies, acknowledgements and training completion
• Report HR service metrics and workforce data

Job description

SmartSuite for the HR Operations Manager

The HR Operations Manager runs people operations: employee lifecycle, HR cases and requests, onboarding and offboarding, HRIS data, payroll and benefits coordination and the policies and attestations HR owns. They give employees and managers one place to ask and get answers.

What you own

The HR Operations Manager runs people operations: employee lifecycle, HR cases and requests, onboarding and offboarding, HRIS data, payroll and benefits coordination and the policies and attestations HR owns.

• Run HR requests and case management
• Own onboarding, offboarding and employee lifecycle processes
• Maintain HRIS data quality and reporting
• Coordinate payroll, benefits and compliance activities
• Manage HR policies, acknowledgements and training completion
• Report HR service metrics and workforce data

Reporting lines

Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.

Reports to

Shared Services Director

Works closely with

Policy and Governance Manager

Security Awareness Lead

Ethics and Compliance Lead

Service Desk Manager

Social Impact Manager

How SmartSuite supports the HR Operations Manager

The HR Operations Manager runs the employee lifecycle, HR cases, HRIS data and the policies HR owns, with the Shared Services Director, the COO, auditors and regulators expecting every record to be accurate and every acknowledgement on file. SmartSuite gives people operations one workspace, so requests, milestones and attestations run on workflow and headcount reporting is trustworthy.

Run people operations from one employee record

Confidential cases with the right eyes only

HR Requests & Case Management holds each grievance, accommodation or pay query behind granular permissions, with audit trails and SSO/2FA, so a sensitive case is visible to the HR partner handling it and nobody else.

Lifecycle milestones that trigger themselves

Employee Lifecycle Management automates recurring milestones such as probation end, promotions and benefits updates, so the task reaches the manager on the date it is due instead of when someone remembers the anniversary.

One employee record for every document

Contracts, handbooks, certifications and training records sit against the employee record with controlled versions, so HRIS data quality is maintained at the source and a request for someone's file takes a search, not a hunt.

Stay connected to IT, compliance and the service desk

Shared workflows with the Service Desk Manager

Cross-department workflows and approvals connect HR with IT, Finance and Operations, so the account, equipment and access tasks the Service Desk Manager owns appear in the same workflow as your HR steps and nothing waits on an email.

HR policies in the compliance register

Policies HR owns are published, acknowledged and reviewed in the same register the Policy and Governance Manager and Ethics and Compliance Lead use, so an HR policy lapse surfaces as a compliance item, not a surprise at audit.

Security awareness completion as evidence

Training completion the Security Awareness Lead runs is captured as evidence linked to the control it satisfies, so when an auditor needs proof for SOC 2 or ISO 27001 the record is already attached.

Report workforce data the COO can trust

Engagement and attendance trends caught early

Real-time people dashboards surface engagement, attendance and performance trends as they form, so you can raise a retention concern with the Shared Services Director with evidence rather than anecdote.

Records retained the way regulators expect

Structured records and logs meet retention and regulatory requirements across hiring, reviews and terminations, so a pay-equity query or an employment claim is answered from the record rather than a reconstruction.

Workforce plans built on current data

Workforce Planning & Headcount Management reads the same employee records and skills data as the rest of the workspace, so the headcount case you take to the COO reflects today's organization, not last quarter's export.

Requests. Handles HR requests and cases through one portal with routing, SLAs and confidential handling.

Lifecycle. Runs onboarding and offboarding checklists with tasks across HR, IT and facilities.

Policy management. Tracks policy acknowledgements and training completion as evidence.

Reporting. Reports HR service metrics, headcount and engagement from live data.

Products this role uses most

HR Requests & Case Management

Capture and manage HR requests with structured workflows and real-time visibility across employee services.

Employee Lifecycle Management

Manage the full employee lifecycle with structured workflows and real-time visibility across hiring, onboarding, and transitions.

Onboarding & Offboarding Management

Automate onboarding and offboarding with structured workflows and real-time visibility across teams.

Workforce Planning & Headcount Management

Plan and manage workforce growth with real-time visibility into headcount, hiring and organizational structure.

Employee Engagement & Surveys

Capture employee feedback, measure engagement and drive improvement with surveys and real-time insights.

Industry reference

SHRM's HR operations competencies and the CIPD Profession Map define the role. Employment law sets the obligations the function administers: the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. Chapter 8) on minimum wage, overtime and payroll records, Title VII (42 U.S.C. 2000e-2) and the EEOC's rules on unlawful employment practices, Form I-9 verification and retention under 8 U.S.C. 1324a, and GDPR for employee data in the EU.

Pay transparency is the newest obligation: Directive (EU) 2023/970 required Member States to transpose it by 7 June 2026, with the first pay-gap reports from employers of 250 or more people due from 7 June 2027, so the HRIS data the HR Operations Manager maintains becomes the reporting base.

Related roles

Shared Services Director

Frequently asked questions

The HR Operations Manager runs people operations: HR requests and case management, onboarding, offboarding and the employee lifecycle, HRIS data quality and reporting, payroll, benefits and compliance coordination, and the HR policies, acknowledgements and training completion the function owns. They report HR service metrics and workforce data. The aim is to give employees and managers one place to ask a question and get an answer, with the record to show it was handled.

HR Requests & Case Management handles HR requests and cases through one portal with routing, SLAs and confidential handling. An employee or manager raises a request in one place, it is routed to the right HR person, a response time applies, and sensitive cases are restricted to the people who should see them. The HR Operations Manager sees the open queue by type and age, which is the basis for the service metrics they report.

Onboarding & Offboarding Management runs onboarding and offboarding checklists with tasks across HR, IT and facilities, so a new starter's equipment, access and induction steps are assigned to the right teams from one checklist and a leaver's return of assets and access removal are tracked the same way. Employee Lifecycle Management covers the changes in between. The Service Desk Manager works from the same tasks, so HR does not have to chase IT separately.

SmartSuite tracks policy acknowledgements and training completion as evidence, so when the Policy and Governance Manager, Security Awareness Lead or Ethics and Compliance Lead needs to show who has acknowledged a policy or completed required training, the record exists by employee and by policy. The HR Operations Manager can chase the gaps by department rather than reconciling a spreadsheet against the HRIS, and the evidence is ready when an auditor asks for it.

SmartSuite reports HR service metrics, headcount and engagement from live data, so the numbers the Shared Services Director or Chief Operating Officer sees are drawn from the request queue, the lifecycle records and the survey results as they stand. Workforce Planning & Headcount Management holds the headcount view, Employee Engagement & Surveys supplies the engagement data and HR Requests & Case Management brings the service picture together. The report is a view of the work, not a separate monthly compilation.

An HR team needs its current request categories, the onboarding and offboarding checklists it already uses and the list of policies that require acknowledgement. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows; for an HR team the first workflow is the request portal, then the checklists and attestations. The team keeps its HRIS for payroll and benefits, and uses SmartSuite for the requests, lifecycle tasks, policy evidence and reporting around it.

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