People Ops & Systems Lead

Whatnot•New York, NY

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a People Operations & Analytics Lead to build and lead Whatnot's global people operations infrastructure as we scale from 1,000 to 1,500+ employees in 2026 and expand into new international markets. This role owns the full People Operations function — onboarding and offboarding, employee lifecycle administration, HRIS and people systems strategy, compliance and documentation, and the shared services model that enables the entire People organization to operate with excellence at scale. You'll need to be both a systems architect (designing scalable processes, selecting and implementing technology, building analytics capabilities) and an operational executor (ensuring flawless delivery of core people services, managing compliance risk, solving urgent employee issues). You'll report directly to our Chief People Officer, and work in tight partnership with our Head of Total Rewards, People Business Partners, Finance, Legal, and IT to build the operational backbone of our People function — ensuring every employee has a seamless experience from offer through exit, that people data drives business decisions, and that our systems enable growth. We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, or Los Angeles hubs.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive People Operations, HRIS, or People Analytics experience at high-growth tech companies, including significant time building operations infrastructure through hypergrowth and ideally pre-IPO phases
Expert-level Workday experience across HCM, Compensation, Payroll, and Time Tracking. You've implemented, configured, and scaled Workday across multiple modules and know how to make it sing.
Strong analytics chops including SQL, dashboards (Looker/Tableau), and statistical analysis. You turn messy data into insights that change how leaders make decisions.
Track record scaling operations from scrappy to mature. You've built the processes, systems, documentation, and teams that take companies from "figuring it out" to "running like clockwork."
International operations experience dealing with employment law across countries, coordinating global payroll, managing work authorization, and navigating multi-country compliance.
Balance strategic vision with hands-on execution. You're equally comfortable presenting a 3-year roadmap to the CPO and jumping into Workday to debug a security role issue.
Exceptional at stakeholder management and influence. You partner effectively with People leadership, Finance, Legal, and drive alignment on priorities across distributed teams.
Experience building and leading teams, hiring and developing operations professionals, analysts, and systems specialists.
Strong judgment on risk, compliance, and tradeoffs. You know when to move fast and when to slow down, when to automate and when the human touch matters.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end employee lifecycle operations globally, including onboarding, changes (transfers, promotions, leaves), offboarding, documentation management, background checks, I-9/work authorization, and compliance administration.
Build and scale the People Help Desk as the front door for all employee questions and requests — ensuring fast response times, proactive issue resolution, knowledge base development, and continuous improvement of self-service capabilities.
Lead People systems strategy and implementation, including Workday, Complete, equity platforms, and integration across Finance, IT, and productivity tools.
Partner with People Business Partners and Total Rewards to deliver People analytics and insights — quarterly business reviews, attrition analysis, organizational design modeling, headcount planning, and ad hoc strategic analysis.
Design and implement scalable people operations processes — documentation, workflows, approval chains, compliance checkpoints — that maintain quality and employee experience while enabling rapid growth and international expansion.
Manage global compliance and reporting in partnership with Legal.
Build and lead the shared services model for the People team defining scope, staffing, SLAs, and ways of working that allow People Business Partners and Centers of Excellence to focus on strategic work rather than transactional execution.
Drive people systems optimization across vendor management, change management for system implementations, integration planning, security and access management, and continuous enhancement of system capabilities.
Build, hire, and develop a high-performing People Operations team setting vision, developing talent, and fostering operational excellence.
Lead special projects including international expansion (new country setup, entity formation, systems configuration), and transformation initiatives (shared services launch, new HRIS implementations).