Human Resources Manager

Principium Psychiatry; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Principium Psychiatry in Midtown Manhattan is seeking a senior, hands-on Director of People Operations to become the primary owner of our people function. This full-time, in-person role reports directly to the Founder and CEO and offers significant autonomy, visibility, and influence as we scale our multi-state mental health services.

You will own payroll workflows, onboarding and offboarding, benefits administration, and compliance, coach managers, and build robust HR systems to support

Qualifications

• 7–12+ years of progressive HR or People Operations experience.
• Experience building or significantly improving HR systems and processes.
• Strong judgment regarding confidentiality, documentation, and escalation.
• Ability to communicate clearly with clinicians, employees, managers, vendors, counsel, and senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead as primary internal owner of People Operations and HR.
• Advise founder/CEO on workforce, organizational, and employee matters.
• Oversee payroll workflow and timekeeping in coordination with partners.
• Own onboarding, offboarding, benefits setup, and policy adherence.
• Maintain employee records and ensure compliance across multiple states.
• Develop reporting on staffing, attendance, PTO, onboarding, turnover and HR metrics.

Skills

People Operations

HR systems

Employee relations

Payroll workflow

Onboarding

Compliance

Manager coaching

Education

PHR/SPHR/SHRM certification preferred

Tools

HRIS systems

Payroll software

Job description

Director of People Operations

Principium Psychiatry | Midtown Manhattan | Full-Time, In Person
Build the people function that helps scale a growing mental healthcare company

Principium Psychiatry is seeking a senior, hands-on People Operations leader to become the primary owner of our people function.

Principium is a growing, multi-state mental healthcare company providing sophisticated outpatient psychiatric services, including medication management, psychotherapy, telehealth, ketamine treatment, Spravato, TMS, ECT, intensive outpatient programming, and forensic psychiatric services.

We are a well-run company with strong existing systems, employment documentation, and operational infrastructure. As we expand our clinical team, offices, states, and service lines, we are ready to transfer ownership of People Operations to an experienced leader who can strengthen what already exists and build the infrastructure required for our next stage of growth.

This is a high-trust role reporting directly to the Founder and CEO. It offers significant autonomy, visibility, and influence over how the company grows.

The Opportunity

What You Will Own

People Operations Leadership

• Serve as the primary internal owner of People Operations and HR.
• Report directly to the Founder and CEO and advise on workforce, organizational, and employee matters.
• Resolve routine issues independently and resolve only matters requiring CEO judgment, legal review, compensation approval, or significant policy decisions.
• Bring consistency, maturity, discretion, and follow-through to the people function.
• Help determine how the function should evolve and when additional People Operations support should be added.

Employee Relations and Manager Support

• Serve as the first point of contact for employee concerns and workplace issues.
• Coach managers on performance, attendance, conduct, communication, feedback, and difficult conversations.
• Lead or coordinate investigations, corrective-action processes, and performance documentation.
• Distinguish routine matters from sensitive, legal, or high-risk concerns.
• Coordinate with employment counsel when appropriate.
• Help managers apply policies consistently while maintaining sound judgment and humanity.

Payroll Workflow, Timekeeping, and Leave

• Own the people-side payroll workflow in coordination with our payroll service, bookkeepers, accountants, and finance partners.
• Review employee timekeeping, including part-time clinician and non-exempt employee hours.
• Ensure payroll inputs are consistent with employment agreements, company policies, and applicable wage-and-hour requirements.
• Own PTO, sick leave, vacation, medical appointments, attendance, and schedule-change workflows.
• Address employee questions, discrepancies, and edge cases promptly and accurately.li>
• Maintain clear documentation and reliable controls.

Onboarding, Offboarding, and Employee Administration

• Own onboarding for clinicians and business-team employees.
• Coordinate employment documents, payroll and benefits setup, policy acknowledgments, systems access, and first-day readiness.
• Build a polished and consistent onboarding experience that reflects Principium’s standards.
• Own offboarding, including documentation, final payroll inputs, benefits transitions, company property, and access removal.
• Maintain complete and organized personnel records.

Benefits, Policies, and Compliance

• Own employee-facing benefits administration and coordinate with brokers and vendors.
• Maintain the employee handbook, policy library, and acknowledgment processes.
• Support HR compliance across New York, Connecticut, California, and additional states as the company expands.
• Translate legal and regulatory requirements into clear, workable company processes.
• Ensure policies are communicated, documented, and implemented consistently.

Recruiting and Organizational Growth

• Partner with the CEO and leadership on workforce planning, role design, compensation structures, and hiring strategy.
• Support recruiting for clinicians and business-team employees.
• Own offer documentation, hiring workflows, and the transition from candidate selection to successful onboarding.
• Help Principium build an increasingly sophisticated talent and management infrastructure.
• Develop reporting and visibility around staffing, attendance, PTO, onboarding, turnover, and other people metrics.

What Success Looks Like

• Employees and managers have a trusted, responsive People Operations leader.
• Routine employee-administration issues no longer require direct CEO involvement.
• Managers receive practical, consistent guidance.
• Payroll, PTO, leave, onboarding, benefits, and employee-relations workflows are accurate, timely, and well documented.
• Sensitive matters are recognized early and escalated appropriately.
• Existing systems become increasingly scalable and sophisticated.
• Principium can add clinicians, employees, offices, and service lines without creating disproportionate administrative burden.
• The People Operations function grows into a durable organizational capability.

Who You Are

You are an experienced HR or People Operations leader who combines mature judgment with a willingness to remain close to the work.

You bring:

• Approximately 7–12+ years of progressive HR or People Operations experience.
• Broad ownership across employee relations, payroll workflow, benefits, onboarding, leave administration, policies, documentation, compliance, and manager support.
• Experience building or significantly improving HR systems and processes.
• Strong judgment regarding confidentiality, consistency, documentation, and escalation.
• The ability to operate independently without relying on a more senior internal HR leader.
• Comfort working directly with a founder, CEO, or senior executive team.
• A practical, business‑minded approach to HR.
• The ability to communicate clearly with clinicians, employees, managers, vendors, counsel, and senior leadership.

Experience in healthcare, behavioral health, professional services, multi‑site operations, founder‑led companies, or growing small‑to‑midsize organizations is strongly preferred. Multi‑state HR experience is also highly valued.

PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, or related certification is preferred but not required.

The Person We Are Looking For

You are not looking to occupy one narrow lane inside a large HR department. You want meaningful ownership.

You enjoy building systems, but you do not distance yourself from the workflows those systems are meant to support. You can think strategically while remaining accountable for execution. You understand that the credibility of a People leader comes from judgment, responsiveness, consistency, and follow-through.

You should be able to tell the CEO:

“I’ve handled it. Here is what occurred, here is the documentation, here is the applicable policy, and here is the one decision I need from you.”

Location and Schedule

This is a full‑time, in‑person role, Monday through Friday, at our Midtown Manhattan office on East 42nd Street, immediately near Grand Central Station.

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