Senior People Operations Partner

About the Role

Sofar Ocean builds the sensors and software that map and forecast ocean conditions, from our Spotter buoy network to Wayfinder voyage optimization and SpotCast. We're a lean, high-ownership team of about 100 people, which means the person behind our HR infrastructure has an outsized effect on how it feels to work here.

We're looking for a Senior People Operations Manager who can own that infrastructure end to end: build (some of) it, run it, and improve it without needing to be told what's broken. This is a highly autonomous role. You'll be trusted to identify gaps, prioritize what matters, and execute with minimal oversight. It also demands real attention to detail: payroll, compliance, and employee data don't tolerate sloppiness, and small errors here erode trust fast. And it requires a sense of urgency: when someone's leave, pay, or onboarding is on the line, "eventually" isn't good enough!

Every process you build touches a real person's experience of working at Sofar. This role is as much about protecting the culture and wellness of every Sofarer as it is about operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

HR Infrastructure & Technology: Own and optimize our HR systems (Rippling, Ashby, Slack, and related tools), ensuring data integrity, building automation where manual work creates friction, and producing People analytics leadership can actually use.

Compliance & Risk Management: Maintain rigorous compliance with federal, California, and San Francisco labor law (FMLA/CFRA, SF HCSO, FLSA). Lead audit readiness, including SOC 2 or SOX documentation as needed.

Total Rewards & Payroll: Partner with finance and external vendors on payroll processing, benefits administration, and open enrollment, catching discrepancies before they become problems.

Employee Lifecycle & Operations: Run onboarding, internal mobility, leaves of absence, and off-boarding cleanly and consistently. Support the ongoing transition of our international team members to direct-hire employment as we stand up new entities abroad.

Process Optimization: Continuously look for administrative friction and remove it. Draft clear SOPs and keep the employee handbook current, treating documentation as a way to make the People function more autonomous, not less.

Required Qualifications

Experience: 6+ years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3 years focused specifically on People Operations, ideally in a fast-growing startup environment.

Location: Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, able to be onsite at Pier 28 4 days/week.

Technical Skills: Advanced administrator experience with modern HR platforms (Rippling, Ashby, Slack, or similar) and strong Excel/Google Sheets skills for data analysis.

Legal Knowledge: Deep working knowledge of California employment law, wage-and-hour rules, and leave administration.

Education/Certifications: Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field. SHRM-SCP or SPHR is a plus, not a requirement.

What we need most: someone who takes ownership without hand-holding, sweats the details that others miss, moves with urgency, and genuinely cares about the day-to-day experience of the people around them.

What We Offer

Competitive base salary ($130,000–$155,000) + equity

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance

Learning and development stipend

Flexible PTO, plus one company-wide office closure week

Catered onsite lunches

Flexible working hours (in some cases, lets chat!)