Human Resources Assistant

Who we are: At Arkana Laboratories, everyone has an important role to fill. Come join us and be a part of a team dedicated to making life better for those who need it most.

This place is packed with super-smart people who do their best work together. We work hard every day to advance our understanding of disease and provide world-class care to our patients in hopes of leaving our corner of the world a little better than we found it. While we are committed to improving the lives of thousands of patients, we never lose sight of the realization that they are the reason we get to create change in our field.

Built on generosity, teamwork, and the freedom to try new things, we take great pride in our work. Great ideas come from everywhere in this company and we celebrate each success and failure for the opportunity it gives us to keep reaching. For more than twenty years after our founder, Dr. Patrick Walker, wrote his goals on the back of a napkin, our people, culture, and values have remained strong.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The HR Assistant is a critical role of Arkana’s lean, high-performing HR team. This role ensures that every employee touchpoint—from the moment someone accepts an offer to the day-to-day questions that come through the help desk—is handled with accuracy, warmth, and professionalism. Attention to detail and a genuine care for people’s experience are not nice-to-haves here; they are the job.

Everything we do at Arkana is grounded in three values: Pulling the Sled, Generosity, and Do Better, Try Harder. In this role, that means consistently doing the work that keeps the team moving, treating every person’s experience with genuine care, and having the confidence to try new approaches—knowing that learning from what doesn’t work is just as valuable as getting it right the first time.

Being in HR means people trust you with things they would not share with anyone else. That trust is something this team takes seriously and works hard to earn every day. Part of honoring it means keeping sensitive information—employee records, compensation, and personnel matters—within the appropriate channels, always. The right candidate does not need to be reminded of this. They already understand that discretion is a form of respect.

This position is not new and is a result of an HR team promotion.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

HRIS & Employee Records – 30% (Core)

Maintain accurate employee data in the HRIS; process status changes including new hires, terminations, promotions, and transfers; ensure electronic files are complete, compliant, and consistently structured.

Onboarding Coordination – 25% (Core)

Support the full post-offer onboarding experience—coordinating with internal stakeholders, preparing materials, and ensuring new hires are informed and set up for success before and on their start date.

ZenDesk Administration – 20% (Core)

Serve as ground-control for the HR help desk (ZenDesk) queue: triage and route incoming tickets, ensure timely resolution, and partner with IT to build forms and workflows that reduce manual intake.

SharePoint & Content Management – 10%

Maintain HR and leadership intranet pages, post timely updates and announcements, and ensure employees can easily self-serve common information needs.

Admin & Meeting Support – 10%

Coordinate 90-day new-hire lunches with the CPO, manage expense reporting, provide meeting logistics support, create, modify and terminate employee security badges and serve as backup across the HR team as needed.

Payroll Support – 5%

Participate in a shared payroll rotation, providing backup support for payroll preparation and auditing. This role is not the primary payroll owner but is expected to be capable of stepping in when needed.

WHO YOU ARE

The right person for this role brings more than a matching resume. They bring a particular way of working and thinking that makes the entire HR team more effective—and they naturally embody the values Arkana is built on.

Pulling the Sled

• Proactively reliable – You follow through without being chased, flag and raise issues before they escalate, and show up consistently—not just when it’s convenient

• Calm under complexity – HR work is rarely one thing at a time. Payroll is due, a new hire starts on Monday, and the ticket queue is full. You manage competing demands without letting quality slip

Generosity

• People-first mindset – Behind every ticket, record, and onboarding checklist is a real person. You see the human in the administrative task and treat every interaction as part of someone’s experience at Arkana

• Discretion as instinct – The confidentiality expectations outlined above aren’t a stretch for you—they’re second nature

Do Better, Try Harder

• Systems thinker – You work simultaneously and proficiently across Complete Payroll (HRIS), ZenDesk, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365. You’re not intimidated by systems, you’re curious about them and look for ways to use technology to make processes cleaner, faster and better for the customer

• Detail-oriented, not just careful – There’s a difference between being careful and being genuinely precise. You catch the one transposed digit in a payroll file before it becomes a problem—not after

• AI-curious – Arkana is actively pursuing ways to integrate AI into HR workflows. You’re not just open to this, you’re genuinely interested in how AI can improve employee experience and eager to explore and apply new tools. You understand that experimentation means some things won’t work the first time, and that’s part of the process

WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS TO ARKANA

It shapes the first impression. The onboarding experience this role supports is often what new colleagues remember most about joining Arkana. A smooth, warm, well-organized start signals that this is an organization that genuinely values its people—and that impression lasts.

It keeps the team moving. The HR team at Arkana operates at a high level. Without strong administrative support, team members spend time on tasks that should not require their attention—and strategic work slows down. This role creates space for the team to do its best work.

It is Arkana’s values in action. Pulling the Sled in the daily discipline of keeping systems and records running. Generosity in the care brought to every employee interaction. Do Better, Try Harder in the willingness to experiment and improve how we work. This position demonstrates those values in every record updated, every ticket resolved, and every new hire welcomed through the door.

It holds the data together. Accurate HR records are not just an administrative task, they are the foundation for every compensation decision, compliance filing, and workforce report Arkana produces. Errors here ripple outward in ways that are costly and time-consuming to unwind.

You should have:

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field

HR Certification required or willingness to obtain (either through SHRM or HRCI) within 12-18 months

Experience: a minimum of 2 years in a similar role (or equivalent experience and/or education combined) preferred

Technology Skills: Proficient in MS 365 and SharePoint. Strong willingness and desire to learn and apply principals of AI to support areas of HR where this could improve efficiency and overall employee experience

Schedule: Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. This position is onsite at the main office in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Position Pay Rate

Little Rock, Arkansas Pay Ranges
$50,000—$55,000 USD

What we offer: We know that health is more than doctor visits and life is more than work. We work hard at Arkana but in turn provide competitive salaries and generous benefit offerings.

Specifically, we offer the following benefits to full-time employees:

• Competitive salary

• Generous paid time off and Paid Holidays

• Minimal cost health insurance for you and affordable options for your family

• 401(k) with immediate eligibility and match

• Company-paid life insurance

• Company-paid long term disability coverage

• Affordable vision and dental plans

• Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account availability

• Wellness plan and complimentary yoga classes

• Monthly in-office massages and employer-sponsored lunches

Please see Careers for further information.