Heron Power
Senior/Staff People Operations Specialist
4d ago
USALeadpayrollbenefits administrationcomplianceemployee relationsonboarding
Senior People Operations Specialist to build and own HR operations, payroll, benefits, compliance, and employee relations at Heron Power.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience
- 5+ years of progressive HR / people operations experience, including senior-level responsibility at a high-growth company
- Hands-on experience running payroll, including non-exempt/hourly staff
- Experience owning HRIS and payroll systems, including implementations and integrations with third-party tools
- Exceptional discretion, judgment, and communication skills — employees at every level trust you with sensitive matters
- Strong knowledge of federal and California employment law
Nice to have
- Prior experience as the first or early HR hire at a Series A–C company
- Experience supporting a scaling manufacturing, warehouse or hourly workforce
- PHR, SPHR, or SHRM-CP/SCP certification
- If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.
- Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges from $125,000 to $170,000 per year.
Conditions
- Prepare payroll for salaried and hourly employees in partnership with Finance
- Lead benefits evaluation, annual renewals, open enrollment, and day-to-day administration
- Manage HR systems and lead necessary transitions and integrations in partnership with IT
- Build scalable timekeeping, attendance, scheduling, and wage-and-hour processes ahead of manufacturing ramp
Other
- Heron Power is a startup building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and cost-effective hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.
- Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron’s leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products.
- We believe no one person knows everything. We learn together, build together, and solve hard problems from first principles. You’ll work in a fast-moving, deeply technical environment where ownership and impact are real.
- We are seeking a Senior People Operations Specialist to serve as Heron Power’s first dedicated HR hire. Reporting to the VP of Finance & Operations, you will help build the people operations foundation for a company scaling from R&D into manufacturing. You will own HR operations, payroll administration, benefits, compliance, employee relations, and manager support, while implementing the systems and policies needed to support a growing non-exempt and hourly workforce. This is a hands-on, high impact role that will influence Heron Power’s culture for years to come.
- Own employee onboarding, background checks, immigration with outside counsel, I-9 verification, and new hire orientation
- Manage offboarding, including final pay coordination, exit interviews, systems deprovisioning, and documentation
- Coordinate performance review cycles, promotions, job changes, and salary adjustments in partnership with Finance and leadership
- Support contractor onboarding, renewals, and offboarding in partnership with Legal and Finance
- Serve as the first point of contact for employee relations, manager coaching, performance concerns, investigations, and HR cases
- Maintain the employee handbook, HR policies, required trainings, employee records, and compliance calendar
- Partner with Compliance/EHS on workers’ compensation, OSHA-related processes, safety training, and injury reporting
- We have a short list of must-have requirements. We prioritize a strong grip on first principles, hands-on skills, and a sense of initiative. Domain-specific knowledge and experience will help determine the career level for each hire.