People Operations Manager

About Skylight

Skylight is a digital consultancy using design and technology to help government agencies deliver better public services.

We're at the forefront of a civic movement to reinvent how all levels of government serve families, patients, and many others in today's digital world.

If you want to play a part in driving this critical movement forward, we'd love for you to join our growing team of public interest technologists.

The work we do matters.

About the job

Since launching several years ago, our team has grown rapidly. We find ourselves in an exciting position to further deepen our partnerships within the government contracting space, to continue to attract and retain amazing teammates, and to scale our capacity to make an even bigger difference in the world.

Currently, our company is organized into three main groups: Executive Office (sets and operationalizes the strategic direction of the company), Federal Health & Civilian (focused on federal health and civilian missions), and Defense & Security (focused on defense, national security, and public safety missions).

As Skylight's People Operations Manager, you'll report directly to the Head of People Operations and play a vital role in running the people programs our team relies on every day. In this hands-on position, you'll focus on administering benefits and leave, managing the employee life cycle from onboarding through offboarding, and keeping our people systems, records, and policies accurate and current. The work you do will have a direct impact on our ability to attract, support, and retain amazing public interest technologists.

What you'll do

Benefits and leave

Administer our benefits programs end to end, including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, FSA, HSA, and 401(k)

Own the working relationship with our benefits broker and carriers, including renewals, plan design discussions, and issue escalation

Run annual open enrollment, from communications and employee education through system configuration and post-enrollment reconciliation

Administer all leaves of absence, including parental, medical, FMLA, short-term disability, and state paid family and medical leave programs

Maintain leave tracking and reporting so business unit leaders have the staffing visibility they need without exposing confidential detail

Partner with Finance on payroll inputs, leave-related pay adjustments, and benefits reconciliation

Employee lifecycle

Run onboarding end to end, including the preboarding checklist, new employee orientation, I-9 verification meetings, and E-Verify submissions, and coordinate with IT so system and equipment access is ready on day one

Run manager onboarding for employees stepping into people-management roles

Run offboarding end to end, including the checklist, exit surveys, and state compliant final pay and benefits steps, and confirm with IT that access is revoked and equipment is returned

Process role, project, and reporting-line transitions, keeping employee records and timekeeping assignments aligned and routing access changes to IT

Maintain employee data across our people systems, including address and status changes that carry tax or compliance implications

People systems and data

Serve as the administrator for our HRIS (Rippling), covering configuration, data integrity, reporting, and integrations with our timekeeping and payroll systems

Build and maintain automated workflows in the HRIS so routine people processes run without manual intervention

Run HRIS and people-system implementations and migrations, including vendor coordination, data validation, go-live readiness, and post-launch stabilization

Employee relations and performance

Support employee relations matters by conducting intake, maintaining documentation, preparing correspondence, and coordinating with the Head of People Operations and outside counsel where needed

Support managers through performance conversations and performance improvement plans, including template preparation, documentation standards, and follow-up tracking

Run the mechanics of our compensation and promotion cycles, including packet assembly, tracker maintenance, letter generation, and system updates

Policy, compliance, and communications

Serve as the first point of contact for employee questions on benefits, leave, pay, and policy, through our People Operations inbox and our internal request channels

Maintain our people policies and knowledge base, keep the policy backlog current, and flag where a policy is missing, stale, no longer compliant, or contradicted by practice

Deploy and track mandatory compliance training, such as anti-harassment and security awareness, and follow up on non-completions

Monitor multi-state employment compliance obligations and surface changes that affect our policies or practices

Write and publish company-wide people communications, including benefits deadlines, policy changes, and process updates

Maintain the SOPs, templates, and checklists behind our people workflows so the process survives any one person

Identify manual processes worth automating and use our tools, including AI, to reduce the administrative load on the function

Contribute to a work environment where people feel supported, informed, and treated consistently

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

Five or more years of progressive experience in an HR generalist, people operations, or benefits and leave role

Demonstrated ownership of benefits administration end to end, including broker management, renewals, and open enrollment

Demonstrated ownership of leave administration across multiple states, including interaction between company policy, federal leave law, and state paid leave programs

Experience supporting employee relations matters, including documentation, correspondence, and knowing when to escalate

Working knowledge of federal and multi-state employment law as it applies to leave, accommodation, classification, and pay practices

Sound judgment balancing transparency and visibility with confidentiality, privacy, and risk

Proven ability to collaborate across the business, partnering openly with leaders and teams rather than working in a silo

Hands-on administration of an HRIS, including reporting, configuration, workflow automation, and data integrity

Experience running onboarding and offboarding end to end, including I-9 and E-Verify compliance

Experience working with remote and distributed teams

Organized, detail-oriented, and quality-minded, with the follow-through to close items rather than route them

Superior written and oral communication skills, including the ability to explain a policy clearly to someone who is frustrated

Comfort working without a playbook, and the instinct to write one afterward

Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services

A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values

Ability to travel for work from time to time

Nice-to-have qualifications

Experience with Rippling or a comparable HRIS

Experience in a government contracting, consulting, or professional services environment

Experience administering benefits and leave through a company's growth from roughly 100 to 300 employees

Experience implementing a leave management platform, a benefits administration system, or an HRIS migration

Experience deploying and tracking mandatory compliance training across a distributed workforce

Familiarity with government contractor compliance obligations, such as EEO reporting, affirmative action planning, or Service Contract Act requirements

Professional certification such as PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP

Don’t meet every qualification but think you can do the job? We’d still love to hear from you. If you’re excited about the role, apply. We consider candidates with a range of backgrounds and ex