Sr. People Operations Specialist

About Hightouch

Hightouch is an Agentic Marketing Platform powered by the industry-leading Composable CDP. With complete brand context, customer data, and performance history in one place, every marketer can build and ship end-to-end campaigns themselves — moving faster, staying on brand, and getting AI marketing that actually works. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in San Francisco, Hightouch was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Customer Data Platforms and is trusted by leading enterprises including Domino's, Spotify, Aritzia, Cars.com, Ramp, and PetSmart.

Our team is ambitious, impact-driven, efficient and we believe humility, kindness, and compassion are essential to our success. If you're energized by velocity, obsessed with raising the bar, and want to build alongside people who care deeply about each other and our customers, we'd love to meet you.

About the role

As our Sr. People Operations Specialist, you’ll be accountable for the success of the day-to-day operations that keep Hightouch’s People function running. Our People Operations Coordinator runs the day-to-day, and you’ll make sure it’s built to scale and step in on anything complex.

You'll report to our People Ops Manager and work closely with the rest of the People team, including our People Partners. You'll know where People Ops ends and People Partnership begins, and make handoffs between the two seamless. You'll also partner with our Talent, Payroll, IT, and Workplace teams. This role is perfect for someone with high autonomy: you see what needs to happen next and make it happen without waiting to be asked, handle sensitive information with discretion, and know when to make a call and when to escalate.

What you'll do

• Own the employee lifecycle: Own our onboarding and offboarding processes and systems so they hold up at high volume, and run offboarding end to end, from system workflows and COBRA to final pay timing with Payroll.
• Own leave and benefits administration: Manage leaves of absence end to end (FMLA, state programs like NY PFL, disability, and international leave), and handle the complex side of benefits administration, from tricky life events to carrier issues, so employees feel supported and informed.
• Keep our data clean: Own data hygiene, audits, and workflow execution in Rippling, and build reports when the team needs them.
• Be the escalation point: Take on the complex and sensitive employee questions that go beyond first-line support, and turn recurring ones into clear documentation and self-service resources.
• Be the team's subject matter expert: Be the go-to expert on benefits, leave, and HR compliance, bringing deep knowledge and sound judgment to every question and process.
• Operationalize compliance: Own required postings and notices, I-9 and E-Verify audits, state registrations, and compliance training, and support our annual filings.
• Build for scale: Write internal process docs, build out our Notion knowledge base, and use AI and automation to streamline recurring work.

What we're looking for

• You bring 4-5 years of People Operations or HR operations experience, ideally from a high-growth environment, where you've seen what excellent People Operations looks like and can adapt those best practices to Hightouch.
• You know benefits and leave administration inside and out, including multi-state U.S. leave programs, and you can explain them clearly to employees.
• You're fluent in HR systems and have a high bar for data accuracy. Rippling experience is a big plus.
• You understand multi-state U.S. employment compliance and have supported international employees, ideally through an EOR.
• You think in systems: always looking for ways AI, automation, and better workflows can eliminate manual work.
• You operate with high autonomy, take ownership, and follow through.
• You handle sensitive information with discretion and know when to make a call and when to escalate.
• You sweat the details and care about accuracy, but you also move with urgency to keep pace with the business.