People Operations Lead

About Savvy Wealth:

Wealth management is a $545 billion industry in the US, yet remains archaic and inefficient with low technology penetration. 75% of financial advisors don’t offer digital communication beyond email, and 62% still build financial plans manually in Excel. This leads to a poor client experience and results in financial advisors spending over 70% of their time on non-client facing, manual work.

Savvy is changing that. We’re building the most advisor-centric platform in wealth management: a digital-first solution that modernizes human financial advice. Advisors who partner with Savvy tap into AI-powered software, automated sales and marketing, and seamless back office workflows to scale faster and spend more time with clients.

We’ve raised over $105M to date from Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Mark Casady (former LPL Financial CEO), and other top-tier investors. Our team is made up of repeat founders and operators who’ve helped build Airbnb, Square, Brex, Carta, Facebook, $200B+ RIAs, and more.

Savvy is at a pivotal point in its growth trajectory, having established strong product-market fit in providing a modern platform to financial advisors. We’ve surpassed $2.2 billion in AUM in less than three years, grown 600%+ in the last 18 months, and are entering the next phase of the company which involves rapid expansion of our product offering and continued revenue growth. Come help us scale!

The Role:

This is a unique opportunity to join Savvy during a pivotal growth stage and directly shape the backbone of our employee experience. As our People Operations Lead, you’ll build the foundational programs that set every employee up for success and ensure our people processes are as seamless and modern as the platform we deliver to advisors.

Your work will touch every corner of the company - from making sure payroll runs flawlessly, to designing recognition programs that celebrate our culture, to ensuring onboarding leaves every new hire saying, “Wow, Savvy is different.” In short, you’ll be central to building an employee experience that mirrors the excellence we promise to clients.

Responsibilities:

Payroll & Benefits Ownership

• End-to-End Payroll Ownership: Serve as the primary owner of the full payroll lifecycle, acting as the final audit checkpoint to ensure accuracy, timeliness, and reliability.

• Vendor & Broker Management: Own relationships with payroll providers and benefits brokers, partnering with them to resolve complex issues while leading strategy, renewals, and open enrollment.

• Compliance & Trust: Ensure payroll and benefits operations comply with all applicable federal and state regulations, serving as a trusted, authoritative resource for employee questions.

Onboarding & Employee Lifecycle Operations

• Onboarding Partnership: Partner with Talent, IT, and Finance to continuously improve Savvy’s onboarding experience, identifying and eliminating friction so new hires reach productivity within their first 90 days.

• Cross-Functional Coordination: Act as the connective tissue across teams to ensure a seamless Day 1 experience, with clear ownership, handoffs, and accountability.

• Lifecycle Consistency: Maintain and refine workflows for promotions, role changes, and offboarding to ensure consistency, accuracy, and strong data hygiene.

Systems & Data Strategy

• HRIS Ownership (Rippling): Own and optimize Savvy’s people systems, ensuring workflows are automated, scalable, and integrated across tools.

• Source of Truth: Build and maintain people reporting (e.g., headcount, retention, workforce metrics) that leadership relies on for decision-making.

• Scalable Operations: Proactively identify operational bottlenecks and design repeatable processes that allow the business to scale without unnecessary manual work.

Policy & Finance Partnership

• Policy Management: Own the evolution of the employee handbook and internal policies, ensuring alignment with multi-state labor laws and Savvy’s growth.

• Finance Collaboration: Partner closely with Finance on payroll reconciliation, headcount planning, budgeting, and audit support.

• Clear Communication: Ensure all employee-facing communications related to policies, payroll, and benefits are timely, clear, and professional.

Must have:

• You have 6+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Generalist, or similar roles in fast-paced, high-growth environments.

• You’re hands-on with payroll and benefits administration, ideally in Rippling or similar HRIS.

• You know how to write clean, compliant policies and communicate them clearly to employees.

• You’re process-oriented, detail-obsessed, and thrive on creating scalable systems.

• You’re service-minded, approachable, and responsive — employees trust you to have answers.

• You’re adaptable and love solving challenges in an environment where priorities shift quickly.

Nice to have:

• Experience leading a PEO to in-house payroll/benefits transition.

• Exposure to designing onboarding and recognition programs in a scaling company.

• Familiarity with multi-state payroll and compliance requirements.

• Experience with HR analytics or reporting to support decision-making.

Why You’ll Love This Role:

• You’ll own a high-impact transition: Leading the PEO-to-HRIS cutover is a career-defining chance to build systems from the ground up.

• You’ll shape the employee experience: From onboarding to recognition, your work directly influences how every employee feels at Savvy.

• You’ll be connected to everything: This role touches every function, making you one of the most plugged-in people at the company.

• You’ll help build the foundation: Policies, programs, and processes are still being defined — your fingerprints will be all over how Savvy operates at scale.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and equity package

• Unlimited PTO + paid company holidays

• Access to holistic medical, dental, and vision plans

• Company 401(k), Commuter, and HSA/FSA plans

• NYC office in the heart of Manhattan

• Lunch and snacks provided in the office

• Access to virtual mental health care (Spring Health), vision related benefits (XP Health), and health concierge (Rightway) to help you find the right care

• Access to counseling for stress management, dependent care, nutrition, fitness, legal, and financial issues (Guardian WorkLifeMatters EAP)