About the Role
As Senior, People Operations Manager, you'll own the systems, workflows, and operational backbone that make our People team run. This is a role for someone who is energized by building efficient, scalable infrastructure, and who will use design thinking to create best-in-class experiences and systems for our amazing team. You'll report to the Director, People & Culture, and work closely with our Manager, People Operations to make sure the operational systems enabling Blue J's team are scalable and user-friendly.
Responsibilities
- Apply design thinking principles to build People Operations infrastructure, starting with a deep understanding of the employee and manager experience before designing solutions.
- Design scalable workflows, processes, and systems that are efficient, intuitive, and reflect Blue J's high bar for quality.
- Own and manage the full employee lifecycle through preboarding, onboarding, offboarding, contracts, and documentation.
- Establish clear policies, maintain and evolve the employee handbook, and build internal processes that scale with the company.
- Create operational rigor through clear documentation, standard operating procedures, and process governance, without sacrificing the warmth and humanity that makes Blue J special.
- Identify operational bottlenecks and lead the redesign of processes to improve both efficiency and experience, setting the strategy and direction that you and the Manager, People Operations executes against.
- Build infrastructure that supports Blue J's growth to 300+ employees.
- Serve as the strategic owner of Blue J's People technology ecosystem, including BambooHR, Lattice, Enboarder, and future tools.
- Evaluate, select, and lead the implementation of new People systems and integrations, bringing the right framework and questions to ensure we choose tools that work for us long-term.
- Own significant system reconfigurations, upgrades, and migrations, partnering with the Manager, People Operations on day-to-day administration.
- Actively explore and implement AI tools that reduce administrative burden, surface insights, and elevate the employee experience.
- Stay current on emerging HR technology and AI capabilities and bring forward-thinking recommendations on where and how to adopt them at Blue J.
- Design and expand self-service solutions so employees and managers can get what they need quickly, easily, and without friction.
- Use AI and automation tools to eliminate manual touches, reduce friction, and free the People team to focus on higher-value, more human work.
- Leverage automation, AI, and system integrations to reduce friction across the employee lifecycle, making every interaction with People processes as smooth and low-effort as possible.
- Establish repeatable operational frameworks that enable the People team to operate consistently and effectively.
- Build approval workflows, communication workflows, and employee lifecycle workflows that reduce operational complexity while maintaining a high-quality employee experience.
- Create operational leverage by ensuring work is designed once, documented once, and repeatable at scale.
- Establish and maintain accurate People data and reporting infrastructure.
- Identify data needed to solve a problem and surface insights proactively.
- Develop dashboards and reporting that provide meaningful insights into workforce trends, engagement, retention, hiring, and organizational health.
- Ensure data integrity across People systems.
- Track and analyze people metrics to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Own the strategy and design behind onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, promotions, transfers, leaves, and other lifecycle events, partnering with the Manager, People Operations on process improvement and execution.
- Systematize and document processes to ensure continuity, scalability, and resilience across the team.
- Hold a high bar for the quality of every touchpoint employees and managers have with People processes, ensuring experiences that feel premium, not just functional.
- Build scalable lifecycle processes that support a growing global workforce and evolving employment models.
- Identify and prioritize lifecycle improvements in partnership with the Director, People & Culture, and collaborate with the Manager, People Operations on implementation.
- Ensure compliance with employment laws and HR best practices across Canada and the US.
- Oversee Canadian and US benefits and compensation administration, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and a smooth employee experience.
- Maintain documentation, policies, and compliance processes, in collaboration with the Manager, People Operations.
- Ensure People Operations practices are compliant, auditable, and scalable.
- Build operational controls that reduce risk while maintaining a positive employee experience.
- Support audits, reporting requirements, and compliance-related initiatives.
- Ensure sensitive employee information is handled accurately and securely.
Requirements
- 7+ years of progressive experience in People Operations, HR Operations, Business Operations, or a similarly systems-oriented function.
- Demonstrated success building scalable operational infrastructure in a high-growth environment.
- Solid understanding of Canadian employment law and HR best practices; US experience is a valuable asset.
- Global experience is an asset.
- Deep experience with HRIS systems, workflow design, process automation, and systems selection and implementation.
- Familiarity with HR tools such as BambooHR, Lattice, Pave, or similar.
- Familiarity with AI tools such as Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT, or similar.
- Enthusiasm for AI and a track record of using emerging tools to improve how work gets done.
- Proven analytical capability and comfort working with People data, reporting, and operational metrics.
- Proven ability to identify inefficiencies, design practical and well-considered solutions, and direct others on execution.
- Proven project management capability with the ability to manage multiple operational priorities simultaneously.
- Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
- A builder mindset with a bias toward simplification, efficiency, and scale and a high bar for quality.
- A design thinking mindset — you start with the human experience and work backward to the system, not the other way around.
Skills
- Design thinking
- Scalable workflows
- Process design
- Systems design
- Employee lifecycle management
- Policy development
- Process governance
- HRIS systems
- Workflow automation
- Systems implementation
- AI tools
- Data analysis
- Reporting
- Compliance management
- Risk management
- Project management
Location
- Toronto
Work Type
- Hybrid
Experience Level
- Senior
Salary/Compensations
- CA$125,000-CA$150,000 per year
Benefits
- Competitive base salaries
- Stock options
- Healthy work/life balance
- Great benefits package that covers you and your family
- Pickleball
- Career growth opportunities
About the Company
- Blue J is growing fast, and we're building the People infrastructure to enable our team to do their best work in a best in class work environment!
- We recently closed our $122M Series D, we're scaling from 150 to 300+ employees over the next two years, and we want every part of our employee journey to feel as intentional and human as it does today.
- We are mission-driven and motivated by success, but we’re friendly, we’re collaborative, and we care about each other.
- We’ve got all the start-up perks you’d expect, and are intentionally building a culture where you can pickleball if you want, feel safe to be yourself at work, and watch your career grow because your team has invested in you.
Equal Opportunity
- We believe our strength is built on diversity of thought, and encourage candidates from all backgrounds and experiences to apply.
- We value inclusiveness and are an equal opportunity employer.
- We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
- We strive to create an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates.
- If you need any accommodations during the interview process, please let us know in your application.
- Our team is dedicated to providing the necessary support and making reasonable adjustments to ensure a smooth process for everyone.
