Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Embarc Advisors is a fast-growing advisory firm delivering M&A, capital raising, outsourced corporate development, and strategic CFO services to lower-middle-market companies. The People Operations Manager oversees day-to-day people operations, including PEO coordination, recruiting, onboarding, compliance, benefits, payroll, and professional development. The role also leads workforce planning, performance metrics, compensation, vendor negotiations, HR budgeting, and AI-driven process optimization in a fully remote environment.
Responsibilities
- Serves as the firm's primary point of contact with its PEO for HR administration, benefits enrollment, payroll processing, and compliance filings
- Coordinates open enrollment, benefits changes, and leave administration in partnership with the PEO
- Maintains accurate employee records and ensures data consistency between internal systems and the PEO platform
- Fields employee HR inquiries and resolves or escalates to the PEO as appropriate
- Manages full-cycle recruiting: job postings, sourcing, screening, interview coordination, and offer administration
- Partners with practice leads to establish hiring criteria and structured, work-sample-based interview processes
- Administers employee referral programs and recruiting-related reporting (pipeline, time-to-fill, source effectiveness, cost-per-hire)
- Owns new-hire onboarding, paperwork, systems-access coordination with the PEO, orientation, and 30/60/90-day ramp plans
- Designs and delivers professional development and training programs; tracks completion and effectiveness
- Supports career-pathing and competency frameworks in partnership with practice group leaders
- Manages termination processing (voluntary and involuntary), including PEO coordination, final-pay compliance, and COBRA/benefits-continuation notices
- Conducts exit interviews and tracks attrition trends (voluntary vs. involuntary) by practice group
- Ensures terminations follow documented, legally compliant processes consistent across all states of operation
- Ensures compliance with multi-state employment laws in partnership with the PEO and outside counsel as needed
- Coordinates 401(k) plan administration, enrollment, contributions, compliance testing, and annual filings, with the plan provider and/or PEO
- Coordinates immigration and work-authorization matters in partnership with the PEO, outside counsel, and affected employees, including sponsorship needs, required documentation, filing timelines, and ongoing compliance
- Oversees payroll accuracy in partnership with the PEO, including multi-state tax withholding, and resolves discrepancies promptly
- Maintains and updates the employee handbook and HR policies to reflect current multi-state requirements
- Partners with the COO to build and manage the annual HR, benefits, PEO, and recruiting operating budget, tracking expenses against plan and flagging variances
- Leads negotiations with the PEO, benefits carriers, 401(k) provider, and recruiting vendors to secure favorable pricing, terms, and renewal rates
- Identifies and executes cost-reduction opportunities across benefits design, staffing levels, and vendor contracts without compromising employee experience or compliance
- Brings compensation expertise to market benchmarking, offer structuring, and bonus/incentive plan design; partners with leadership on pay equity and positioning
- Designs and implements performance-metric frameworks and scorecards by role, tied to the firm's EOS scorecard and practice-group KPIs
- Tracks individual and team performance data, partnering with practice leads on review cycles, calibration, and development planning
- Manages capacity and utilization planning across Strategic Finance, Transaction Diligence, and Corporate Development, forecasting staffing needs against workload and pipeline
- Partners with practice leads to flag capacity gaps or overages and inform hiring, cross-staffing, or workload-rebalancing decisions
- Applies AI tools across the employee lifecycle to optimize processes, screening, policy drafting, performance-metric analysis, communications, and reporting
- Evaluates and pilots emerging AI/HR-tech tools, recommending adoption where they improve efficiency, accuracy, or cost
- Builds and maintains HR dashboards and metrics (headcount, attrition, time-to-fill, ramp success, benefits utilization, cost-per-hire, capacity/utilization)
- Proactively identifies and implements process improvements across the employee lifecycle
Skills
- 5+ years of experience in human resources, people operations, or a related role
- Bachelor's degree with relevant undergraduate focus
- Exceptional organizational and project management skills
- Strong written and verbal communication abilities
- Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously while remaining calm, maintaining attention to detail, and aligning with broader business priorities
- High level of professionalism and discretion handling confidential information
- Strong judgment, business acumen, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to learn quickly and make informed decisions
- Demonstrated ability to be proactive, responsive, and comfortable anticipating needs before being asked
- Entrepreneurial self-starter mindset and dedication to improving processes and creating structure
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft 365, including Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Able to work within HCM software modules
- Experience using AI tools to drive automation, organization, and efficiency
- Experience operating effectively in a fast-paced and evolving environment
- Experience in professional services, consulting, finance, investment banking, M&A advisory, legal services, accounting, or a related industry
- Familiarity with iSolved software, Docusign, and project management tools
Benefits
- Professional growth and continuous learning opportunities
- Fully remote work environment
- Semi-annual performance bonuses
- 401(k) with immediate vesting and employer match after one year
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Unlimited vacation time
- Accrued paid sick leave
- Short-term disability insurance
- Three team offsites per year
- Full medical, dental, and vision benefits
Company Overview