People Operations Lead - Global Compliance & Culture

Bison; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 275,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave

Relocation support

Job summary

Thinking Machines is hiring a People Operations Generalist in San Francisco to shape how we scale our talent operations. You’ll own the early employee lifecycle, design rigorous compliance systems, and enable global talent access across visa types with outside counsel.

You’ll build onboarding curricula, manager coaching, and cross-functional playbooks to support growth. The role reports to the Head of Operations and requires navigating a fast-paced, high-growth environment with visa sponsorship

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in HR operations, people operations, or a related field.
• Strong knowledge of employment compliance, including I-9 requirements, state and federal regulations, and recordkeeping best practices.
• Experience supporting immigration processes in coordination with outside counsel.
• Hands-on experience with HRIS platforms (e.g., Rippling, Workday, SequoiaOne) and comfort evaluating new tools.
• Meticulous attention to detail, paired with an instinct for designing systems that fail gracefully and surface issues early.
• Ability to operate with ambiguity and make principled tradeoffs in fast-moving environments.
• Clear, concise written communication skills. You can take complex policies and make them accessible.
• Exercise sound judgment and discretion when handling sensitive employee information and complex situations.

Responsibilities

• Own the early employee lifecycle, from offer acceptance through onboarding and training completion.
• Design compliance systems that are rigorous, reliable, and seamless for hiring managers and employees.
• Enable global talent access by coordinating immigration case management with outside counsel across visa types.
• Build onboarding curricula, manager training, and coaching engagements, including sourcing coaches and measuring impact.
• Build infrastructure by evaluating, implementing, and maintaining HRIS, payroll, and adjacent systems.
• Support the benefits experience by administering enrollment and coordinating with brokers and vendors.
• Create clarity through documentation: playbooks, decision trees, dashboards, and trackers across onboarding and immigration.
• Partner across finance, legal, IT, and hiring to ensure velocity, quality, and compliance.

Skills

HR operations

Employment compliance

Immigration processes

Policy design

Ambiguity tolerance

Written communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Rippling

Workday

SequoiaOne

Job description

Thinking Machines is hiring a People Operations Generalist in San Francisco to shape how we scale our talent operations. You’ll own the early employee lifecycle, design rigorous compliance systems, and enable global talent access across visa types with outside counsel.

You’ll build onboarding curricula, manager coaching, and cross-functional playbooks to support growth. The role reports to the Head of Operations and requires navigating a fast-paced, high-growth environment with visa sponsorship