Operations Manager

highlightai; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Flexible PTO and parental leave

Team meals and relocation assistance

Job summary

Highlight is building a shared intelligence layer for the modern workforce. The company seeks an Operations Manager who blends recruiting support with operational coordination to keep systems clean and scalable.

You'll own end-to-end processes in Talent, People Ops, and Operations, helping scale a fast-growing AI startup while working closely with recruiters and leadership to implement structured workflows and documentation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in people operations, HR, recruiting, or a related generalist operations role.
• Prior experience at an early-stage or high-growth company.
• Working knowledge of HR compliance fundamentals (benefits administration, basic labor law, employee classification). You don't need to be an HR expert, but you know what you don't know and when to escalate.

Responsibilities

• Conduct initial candidate screens to assess fit before looping in hiring managers.
• Coordinate interview logistics with contract recruiters from start to finish, ensuring a smooth, professional experience for every candidate.
• Keep candidates engaged and informed throughout the hiring process.
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in the applicant tracking system.
• Work with hiring managers to define role requirements and build structured interview plans.

Skills

Recruiting support

Onboarding

HR compliance

Vendor management

Operations coordination

Tools

Ashby

Greenhouse

Lever

Ramp

QuickBooks

Job description

Highlight is building a shared intelligence layer for the modern workforce. Highlight unifies context across every person and tool on your team, seamlessly bridging information silos. It evolves with your organization to proactively route knowledge and reliably automate workflows.

We're looking for a high agency Operations Manager who wants to build the operating system of a fast growing AI company. This role blends recruiting support with overall operational coordination - you'll help build our team while also keeping the day-to-day business systems clean, accurate, and on track. It's a great fit for someone who thrives on structure, enjoys variety, and wants broad exposure to how a fast-moving startup actually functions.

As our current target demographic focuses on recruiters, you’ll get to use our product daily and have a direct impact on our roadmap.

In the early months, you'll focus on executing core workflows reliably. As you settle in, you'll take on more ownership over improving processes and making our systems faster and more scalable.

What You'll Do

Talent & Recruiting Support

• Conduct initial candidate screens to assess fit before looping in hiring managers

• Coordinate interview logistics with contract recruiters from start to finish, ensuring a smooth, professional experience for every candidate

• Keep candidates engaged and informed throughout the hiring process

• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in the applicant tracking system

• Work with hiring managers to define role requirements and build structured interview plans

People Ops

• Own the employee lifecycle end-to-end: onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between (paperwork, systems access, equipment, first-week experience)

• Administer benefits enrollment and act as the first point of contact for employee questions on benefits, PTO, and policies

• Help build and maintain people policies and the employee handbook as the company scales

• Own HR compliance basics (I-9s, state filings, labor law posters, etc.) and flag when something needs legal/outside expertise

• Support culture and engagement, e.g.: team events, all-hands, recognition programs

Operations Support

• Own recurring operational workflows including invoicing, vendor payments, expense tracking, and reimbursements

• Manage office facilities needs, including vendor coordination, maintenance requests, supply ordering, and workspace setup

• Support billing cycles, accounts receivable follow-up, and collections tracking

• Create and maintain internal documentation and SOPs to keep the team aligned as it scales

• Take on general HR, office, and operations tasks as needed

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in people operations, HR, recruiting, or a related generalist operations role

• Prior experience at an early-stage or high-growth company

• Working knowledge of HR compliance fundamentals (benefits administration, basic labor law, employee classification). You don't need to be an HR expert, but you know what you don't know and when to escalat

• Exceptional organizational skills and an eye for detail

• Genuinely energized by startup environments, comfortable building process where none exists yet rather than waiting for it to be handed to you

• High discretion when handling sensitive employee, candidate, or company information

• Strong prioritization and time management: comfortable triaging across recruiting, people ops, and general operations without dropping the ball

• Comfortable working with numbers and financial systems (invoicing, AR, reimbursements, expense tracking)

• Warm, professional interpersonal skills as you're often an employee's or candidate's first point of contact and a key touchpoint across teams and vendors

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting technical recruiting (engineering, ML/AI, security roles)

• Familiarity with ATS platforms (Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever) or finance/HR tools (Ramp, QuickBooks, Rippling, Gusto)

Benefits

• Competitive salary and generous equity package

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Flexible PTO and parental leave

• Paid team lunches and dinners during the week

• Relocation package