People Ops Generalist: Scale Culture & Compliance

Thinking Machines Lab; 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

Paid parental leave

Relocation support

Job summary

Thinking Machines in San Francisco is seeking a People Operations Generalist to own the early employee lifecycle, from offer acceptance to onboarding, while building robust compliance systems that scale with our growth. You’ll drive immigration case management with outside counsel and design onboarding programs that reinforce our culture and processes.

You will partner across finance, legal, IT, and hiring managers to ensure smooth operations, visibility, and continuous improvement in a

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in HR operations or people operations.
• 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 end-to-end, from offer acceptance through onboarding.
• Design compliance systems that are rigorous, reliable, and seamless; manage I-9 verification, eligibility documentation, background checks, and compliance training.
• Enable global talent access by managing immigration cases across visa types with outside counsel, including RFE responses.
• Build and manage onboarding curricula, manager training, and coaching engagements; create playbooks and feedback loops for continuous improvement.
• Evaluate and maintain HRIS, payroll, and adjacent systems; balance vendor capabilities and integration needs as the organization grows.
• Support the benefits experience by administering enrollment and coordinating with brokers and vendors during renewals.
• Create documentation, dashboards, and self-service resources for consistency and scalable operations.
• Partner with finance, legal, IT, and hiring managers to ensure velocity while maintaining quality and compliance.
• Build for scale by developing infrastructure, operations, and a team that can grow with the company.

Skills

HR operations

People operations

Compliance knowledge

Immigration processes

HRIS platforms

Attention to detail

Ambiguity tolerance

Written communication

Judgement and discretion

Tools

Rippling

Workday

SequoiaOne

Job description

Thinking Machines in San Francisco is seeking a People Operations Generalist to own the early employee lifecycle, from offer acceptance to onboarding, while building robust compliance systems that scale with our growth. You’ll drive immigration case management with outside counsel and design onboarding programs that reinforce our culture and processes.

You will partner across finance, legal, IT, and hiring managers to ensure smooth operations, visibility, and continuous improvement in a