People Operations Manager

Location: Orange County, CA (Remote)

Experience: 5+ years

Employment Type: Full-time, Exempt

Reports to: COO / Executive Leadership

About Us:

At Adquadrant, we help consumer brands grow profitably by bringing media, creative, and measurement together with AI.

Our model is built on a simple idea: marketing should be managed like growth capital. We focus on contribution margin, not vanity metrics, and design strategies where technology and human expertise work side by side. The result is an operating system for growth that gives brands clarity, efficiency, and creative that actually performs.

Our strongest alliances are with Google and Meta, where we collaborate directly on AI, measurement, and commerce innovation to give our clients first-mover advantage. We are one of the few U.S. agencies with dual-badged status at TikTok, both as a Marketing Partner and a TikTok Shop Partner, which means our clients gain access to programs and capabilities before they reach the broader market. We also maintain active partnerships with Snap, Pinterest, and other emerging platforms, ensuring brands we work with benefit from priority support, exclusive insights, and opportunities their competitors don’t see.

If you want to architect the future of performance marketing, you belong here.

About the Job:

We’re looking for a high-performing Operations Manager who can own the operational backbone of the business and act as a trusted partner to leadership. This role requires strong judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage complex people and compliance matters across multiple states. You will run critical HR operations, payroll, compliance, and internal systems while continuously improving how the company operates as it scales.

This is not a coordinator role. You will be accountable for outcomes, accuracy, and follow-through.

What You’ll Own

People Operations & Culture

Personally own and execute the full employee lifecycle across the organization, including hiring coordination, offer letters, onboarding, training logistics, offboarding, terminations, severance processes, and exit interviews.

Drive employee engagement, recognition, and culture initiatives from planning through execution, with clear budget ownership.

Run employee surveys, including employee NPS, and translate results into clear insights and recommendations for leadership.

Serve as a visible, steady culture carrier who balances empathy with accountability while reinforcing a consistent, compliant, and high-performing organization.

HR & Compliance

Own, implement, and continuously maintain all HR policies, procedures, and employment practices, ensuring day-to-day compliance with federal, California, and multi-state employment laws, including wage and hour regulations, exempt vs non-exempt classifications, state-specific onboarding, tax considerations, leave laws, and termination requirements.

Act as the internal point person for employment law and compliance matters, including ADA accommodations, discrimination policies, and regulatory changes.

Directly handle employee relations issues, including investigations, documentation, corrective action, and performance improvement plans.

Execute performance management programs, including annual reviews, calibration cycles, employee feedback, and ongoing performance documentation.

Personally manage leave administration across all applicable programs, including FMLA, CFRA, Pregnancy Disability Leave, Paid Family Leave, California Bereavement and Reproductive Loss Leave, and Military Leave, ensuring accurate tracking, documentation, and coordination with payroll and benefits providers.

Partner closely with leadership on salary negotiations, compensation reviews, salary banding, and ongoing compensation tracking, with hands-on execution and follow-through.

Payroll & Benefits

Run semi-monthly payroll end to end with full accountability for accuracy, timeliness, and compliance, including time tracking, PTO, overtime, commissions, stipends, and employee referral payouts.

Actively manage time and attendance for exempt and non-exempt employees, ensuring compliance with meal periods, rest breaks, and state-specific wage requirements.

Administer benefits programs directly, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k), along with ongoing billing reconciliation.

Lead and execute open enrollment, qualifying life events, and COBRA administration.

Manage workers’ compensation, EPLI, and general business insurance programs in coordination with vendors and leadership.

IT & Systems Administration

Own and operate HR and people systems, including payroll, benefits platforms, time tracking, ATS, and access controls.

Personally manage employee IT operations, including new hire computer provisioning and retrieval, device setup, Mosyle administration, password management tools, and Slack user and channel administration.

Administer platform access for all hires and terminations to ensure secure, clean transitions and strong security hygiene.

Maintain accurate, auditable personnel records, operational documentation, and internal trackers across all systems.

Support finance workflows through hands-on management of expense reports, reimbursements, stipends, and commission coordination.

Recruiting

Personally own recruiting execution across the business, including managing first-round interviews for select roles, coordinating and scheduling interviews with hiring managers, maintaining the candidate pipeline, and negotiating with and managing external recruiters as needed.

What Success Looks Like

Payroll and benefits are accurate, compliant, and on time across all states.

Multi-state hires, leaves, and terminations are handled cleanly with no compliance gaps.

Managers trust Operations as a proactive partner, not just a task executor.

Leadership has confidence in operational data, documentation, and readiness.

What We’re Looking For

Required

5+ years of experience in Operations, People Operations, or HR Operations.

Hands-on experience managing multi-state employment compliance.

Strong working knowledge of California employment law and payroll practices.

Direct ownership of payroll, benefits administration, and HR systems.

High attention to detail, sound judgment, and comfort handling sensitive information.

Strongly Preferred

Experience in a high-growth or agency environment.

Exposure to frequent hiring, terminations, and employee relations across states.

Experience improving or scaling operational processes.

High emotional intelligence and the ability to operate calmly under pressure.

Compensation

Annual salary range of $100,000 - $130,000

Culture & Benefits: 

Our people come first. No jerks. No egos. Just people who like to work hard and enjoy winning as a team. 

Excellent Health Benefits (health, dental, and vision insurance)

401K + company match

Unlimited Vacation Policy

Paid Sick Leave

2 Mindfulness Days Annually

2PM Fridays each week

$300/ year to equip your work space with new equipment

$30/ month for home internet

An extremely supportive and fun company culture

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.