HR Operations Manager

The work we do at Loka changes lives: whether it’s helping millions of children learn to read, cutting billions of dollars in food waste or accelerating the discovery of cancer treatments. We’re the 2024 AWS Innovation Partner of the Year and we deliver at the highest level while taking every other Friday off (yes, really).

Loka is looking for an HX Operations Manager to build and lead a scalable, reliable and human-centered operations engine that supports our global growth. This role combines leadership, operational excellence and hands-on execution to ensure our employee operations run smoothly, consistently and with clear ownership across regions. You will lead and evolve HR Operations across Eastern and Western Europe, USA and LATAM, balancing execution, structure and scalability while ensuring compliance, consistency and operational excellence.

Join us to build systems that scale, improve employee experience and shape how operations support a fast-growing global organization.

The Role

• Lead, coach and develop a distributed HR Operations team across multiple regions. 

• Set a clear bar for ownership, standards and quality across all HR Ops processes.

• Escalate complex or high-risk operational matters as needed.

• Own and continuously improve the full HR Operations lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, compliance, payroll coordination, benefits, vendors and internal programs.

• Identify operational bottlenecks, risks and inconsistencies and implement solutions that scale with company growth.

• Balance global consistency with local legal and cultural requirements.

• Treat HR Operations as an internal service, prioritizing work based on urgency, employee impact, risk and cost.

• Design scalable processes, improve documentation and reduce manual work through automation and better tooling. 

• Partner with Finance, Legal, HRIS and Leadership to ensure aligned and reliable operations.

Requirements

• 5+ years in HR, People, or Operations roles with end-to-end operational ownership

• 3 years of experience leading and developing teams

• Strong hands-on experience managing operational processes (onboarding, compliance, payroll coordination, contracts, benefits, etc.)

• Experience operating in service-oriented environments, balancing prioritization, response time, and impact

• Demonstrated experience scaling operations in growing environments (startup, scaling company, or evolving organization)

• Background in the IT/technology sector

• Strong client/service mindset, understanding operational impact on employees and business outcomes

• Experience working in globally distributed or remote-first organizations

• Strong operational rigor, ownership and attention to accuracy and risk management

• Fluent English used daily in professional environments

Additional Strengths

• Regular collaboration with Finance and/or Legal teams

• Process and systems mindset, including automation, workflow optimization and documentation

• Ability to balance leadership with hands-on execution when needed

Benefits

• Every other Friday off: 26 extra days off per year

• Remote-first: Work where you feel most productive

• Explore Program: Live 3 months in Portugal, Colombia, or Macedonia

• Relo Program: Relocate permanently to one of our European hubs

• LokaLabs™: Build moonshot solutions to real-world problems

• Paid vacation, sick days, and local holidays

• Mental health and wellness benefits

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