People Operations Manager

About Condor

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are invested to discover and develop new therapies, yet the financial infrastructure behind that work has not kept pace. Clinical operations and finance live in disconnected worlds, forcing teams to make high-stakes decisions using fragmented tools and static data.

Condor exists to change that. We are a system of action, building the financial intelligence layer that will power the next era of clinical development. Condor connects clinical operations, vendor activity, and financial signals into a single, real-time intelligence layer, giving R&D and finance leaders true command over how their organizations operate. Our platform is pharma-native, AI-driven infrastructure — built around an operation layer of guarded, audited business logic, a bitemporal source of truth, and AI agents that reason over real clinical and financial data. We are a high-growth Series A company backed by Insight Partners, Felicis, and 645 Ventures, growing rapidly with Top 200 biopharma companies.

ABOUT CONDOR

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are invested to discover and develop new therapies, yet the financial infrastructure behind that work has not kept pace. Clinical operations and finance live in disconnected worlds, forcing teams to make high-stakes decisions using fragmented tools and static data.

Condor exists to change that. We are a system of action, building the financial intelligence layer that will power the next era of clinical development. Condor connects clinical operations, vendor activity, and financial signals into a single, real-time intelligence layer, giving R&D and finance leaders true command over how their organizations operate.

Condor is pharma-native, AI-driven infrastructure built to scale industry standards we helped define with Big 4 partners. It powers prediction, control, and execution across the most complex R&D environments in the world.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

Condor has moved past proving the concept. Enterprise teams already trust Condor to run critical operations and finance. The work ahead is the hardest part: scaling something people depend on when the stakes are this high.

• Condor is a high-growth company backed by top institutional partners like Felicis and 645 Ventures, growing rapidly with Top 200 biopharma companies. We are building foundational infrastructure for how new therapies reach patients, and we are building the internal systems
• to match.

THE ROLE

Condor Software is seeking a People Operations Manager to build and run the people function end to end. This is our first dedicated People hire. How we onboard someone on day one, how we level and pay people, how we develop them, and how we decide what kind of company we are: all of it is open, and all of it is yours to design.

You will report to the VP of Finance & Operations, who owns executive and leadership team partnership. Your focus is the function itself and the day-to-day experience of everyone in the company.

You will also be the person people come to. Being close to the team, knowing how they are actually doing, and removing the friction that makes someone's week harder than it needs to be is a real part of this job, not a byproduct of it.

This is a builder role. Not a lot exists yet, which means you get to decide how a company scales its people function rather than inheriting someone else's version of it. You will have a leadership team that backs your judgment and moves quickly on it, and you will see the effect of what you build almost immediately.

It is also a real operating role. The recurring work has to run well, because people's pay, benefits, and careers depend on it. The best person for this job is energized by both: the blank page and the thing that runs reliably every month.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

People Operations & Systems

Own Rippling as the system of record for the company, including data integrity, workflow automation, and integrations across the rest of our stack

Run payroll and benefits administration, including open enrollment and renewals, broker relationships, 401(k), and COBRA

Own employment compliance, including multi-state registrations, exempt and non-exempt classification, I-9s, required filings, the employee handbook, and leave administration

Maintain people data and reporting, including headcount, attrition, and org views that tie to Finance's headcount plan and board materials

Own the structure and standards of our internal Notion workspace so that company knowledge, policies, and process documentation live somewhere findable and current

Use AI to take manual work out of the function wherever it makes sense, from drafting and documentation to onboarding workflows and answering common employee questions

Talent Lifecycle

Design and run onboarding so that a new hire has a great first day and gets productive quickly

Own offboarding end to end, including transition planning, systems and access deprovisioning, final pay, and exit interviews

Own recruiting operations, including Ashby, interview process design, scorecards, offer letters, and candidate experience, working alongside our external recruiting partners

Partner with hiring managers on role scoping, interview loop design, and closing candidates

Performance, Levels & Compensation

Build out our leveling framework and career ladders, partnering with the VP of Finance & Operations and function leads on the design

Build defensible salary bands using market data, and help shape our compensation philosophy alongside Finance

Design and run performance review cycles, including calibration, manager enablement, and follow-through on outcomes

Own the annual compensation review and promotion process

Manager Support & Employee Relations

Coach and support managers on giving feedback, running performance conversations, and developing their teams

Support managers through sensitive employee relations matters with discretion and sound judgment

Bring a clear point of view and the judgment to push back when something does not look right

Culture & Employee Experience

Define and steward what it actually means to work at Condor, in practice rather than on a poster

Be a visible and approachable point of contact for the whole company, including for the questions people do not know who to ask

Own the employee experience end to end and keep looking for the small things that would make working here better

Build the rituals that hold a distributed, fast-moving team together, including onboarding traditions, recognition, and team gatherings

Measure engagement on a regular cadence and act on what the data says

Build our learning and development approach, including manager training, individual development planning, and how we invest in people's growth

FIRST YEAR PRIORITIES

What we would expect this person to have delivered twelve months in:

The operational foundation running cleanly, with payroll, benefits, and compliance in good shape

A leveling framework and compensation bands in place, applied consistently across the company

A performance review cycle designed, run at least once, and improved based on what we learned

Onboarding rebuilt into an experience new hires talk about, with a faster path to being productive

Managers better equipped to manage, with a clear point of view from you on where the gaps still are

Notion structured as a real internal knowledge base, with clear standards for where things live

A team that knows who to go to, and a People function people actually want to engage with

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Required

5 or more years in People Operations, HR, or a combined People and Talent role, including time at a growing startup

Direct experience with multi-state employment compliance and the practical realities of California employment law

Experience building or contributing to leveling frameworks and compensation bands, not j