People Operations Generalist

Outset; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Equity options

Job summary

Outset is hiring a People Operations Generalist to help build and scale an exceptional employee experience. Join a fast-growing startup and partner with leaders to optimize onboarding, benefits, payroll, HRIS, and people analytics in a dynamic San Francisco environment.

You will own core processes, advise managers on employee relations, ensure policy compliance, and contribute to a data-driven People function that supports rapid headcount growth while maintaining confidentiality and trust.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in Human Resources, People Operations, HR Generalist, or a similar role.
• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business, Psychology, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience working at a company during a period of rapid headcount growth or organizational change
• Demonstrated experience supporting multiple stages of the employee lifecycle, such as onboarding, benefits, HRIS administration, employee relations, performance management, and offboarding.
• Working knowledge of employment practices, HR compliance requirements, and employee-record confidentiality. Experience supporting multi-state or distributed workforces is a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain policies clearly and build trust across levels of the organization.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail, follow-through, and comfort managing several priorities at once.
• A hands‑on, resourceful mindset: you are comfortable creating structure where none exists and improving processes as the company grows.
• Experience with HRIS, applicant-tracking, payroll, and collaboration tools; familiarity with Rippling and Ashby a plus

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously improve core People Operations processes across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, employee data management, internal transfers, leaves, and employment changes.
• Serve as a trusted point of contact for employees and managers on day-to-day people policies, workplace questions, and employee experience matters.
• Partner with managers to provide practical guidance on basic employee-relations matters.
• Help administer benefits, leave programs, payroll inputs, HRIS processes, and employee records, ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and a positive employee experience.
• Maintain and improve HR policies, employee handbook content, process documentation, templates, and internal people resources.
• Assist with performance management and talent processes, including review cycles, goal-setting, calibration preparation, employee surveys, and engagement follow-up.
• Use people data to identify trends, improve processes, and prepare recurring reports on headcount, attrition, hiring, engagement, and other people metrics.
• Contribute to scaling the People function by identifying manual or unclear processes and building practical, repeatable solutions.

Skills

HR Generalist

People Operations

Payroll

HRIS

Benefits administration

Employee relations

Onboarding

Offboarding

Data reporting

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Experience equivalent

Tools

Rippling

Ashby

Job description

Outset invented a better way to do research: AI-powered user interviews.

Global brands like Hubspot, Microsoft, Uber and Nestle use Outset to achieve deeper, qualitative insights about their users at unprecedented speed and scale.

The research industry is massive (>$140B and growing) and ripe for disruption. Incumbents are outdated, slow, and burdened by high-cost services. That's our opportunity.

Outset is backed by top Silicon Valley investors and raised a $30M Series B in December 2025—less than six months after our Series A—led by Radical Ventures with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s venture arm), 8VC, Y Combinator, and Adverb Ventures.

The raise follows a breakout year, with our business growing 8x as enterprise customers across industries adopt our category, AI‑moderated research, as the new standard for understanding people.

We’re a tight-knit team serving some of the world’s largest enterprises.

We’re looking for a proactive, people-first People Operations Generalist to help build and scale an exceptional employee experience. This role is ideal for someone with 3–6 years of progressive HR or People Operations experience who thrives in a fast-paced startup environment, enjoys solving ambiguous problems, and can balance empathetic employee support with strong operational execution.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously improve core People Operations processes across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, employee data management, internal transfers, leaves, and employment changes.

• Serve as a trusted point of contact for employees and managers on day-to-day people policies, workplace questions, and employee experience matters.

• Partner with managers to provide practical guidance on basic employee-relations matters.

• Help administer benefits, leave programs, payroll inputs, HRIS processes, and employee records, ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and a positive employee experience.

• Maintain and improve HR policies, employee handbook content, process documentation, templates, and internal people resources.

• Assist with performance management and talent processes, including review cycles, goal-setting, calibration preparation, employee surveys, and engagement follow-up.

• Use people data to identify trends, improve processes, and prepare recurring reports on headcount, attrition, hiring, engagement, and other people metrics.

• Contribute to scaling the People function by identifying manual or unclear processes and building practical, repeatable solutions.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in Human Resources, People Operations, HR Generalist, or a similar role.

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Experience working at a company during a period of rapid headcount growth or organizational change

• Demonstrated experience supporting multiple stages of the employee lifecycle, such as onboarding, benefits, HRIS administration, employee relations, performance management, and offboarding.

• Working knowledge of employment practices, HR compliance requirements, and employee-record confidentiality. Experience supporting multi-state or distributed workforces is a plus.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain policies clearly and build trust across levels of the organization.

• Highly organized with strong attention to detail, follow-through, and comfort managing several priorities at once.

• A hands‑on, resourceful mindset: you are comfortable creating structure where none exists and improving processes as the company grows.

• Experience with HRIS, applicant-tracking, payroll, and collaboration tools; familiarity with Rippling and Ashby a plus