Manager, People Operations

About ANNA

ANNA (Allied Network for Neurodevelopmental Advancement) is a mission-driven organization that provides ABA services to young autistic children (under the age of 6) and their families using a neurodiversity-affirming, Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) approach. We operate multiple centers across Massachusetts and Missouri (6 and growing!) and are looking for an exceptional People Operations builder to construct the people engine behind our growth.

Position Overview

The Manager, People Operations will build and run the operational backbone of the employee experience across ANNA's US markets — onboarding workflows, payroll accuracy, multi-state compliance, employee relations, performance infrastructure, and workforce reporting.

This is a high-velocity build role with unusually broad ownership for a manager-level position. We are scaling across states, which means the compliance calendar, the policy library, the dashboards, and the ER processes largely remain to be created — you will create them, run them, and improve them simultaneously. This is deliberately a sleeves-rolled-up role: you'll be in the payroll run, the I-9 file, and the compliance tracker yourself, and that's by design. You'll own US employment infrastructure end to end from Canada: state registrations, payroll cycles in Rippling, credential and I-9 compliance for a frontline clinical workforce, and the leave-law and classification decisions that keep a multi-state healthcare employer clean.

ANNA is an AI-native company, and we expect People Operations to be built that way — AI-assisted policy drafting, automated compliance monitoring, agentic onboarding workflows. You'll build people systems that most HR teams twice our size are still waiting on.

Strong performance in this seat has a defined growth path to Senior Manager, People Operations.

What This Role Is Really Like

• Builder-first. You'll create most systems from scratch. The satisfaction here is in standing things up.

• High-throughput. Payroll runs, compliance deadlines, ER cases, onboarding cohorts, and executive reporting all move on their own clocks. Strong operators find the rhythm; this role rewards them.

• AI-leveraged. The only way one person runs this scope is with AI doing the heavy lifting — and you'll build and improve those workflows yourself.

• High-agency. You'll spot the compliance gap or process failure before anyone assigns it to you — and fix it.

• Precise at volume. I-9s, credential expirations, deduction accuracy — the work is recurring and consequential, and the standard is zero dropped balls.

Key Responsibilities & Deliverables

Payroll & HRIS Operations

• Own end-to-end US payroll execution in Rippling across multiple states, including deductions, adjustments, and off-cycle runs, with a zero-defect standard

• Serve as system owner for the HRIS — configuration, workflow automation, data integrity, and integrations with ANNA's broader stack

• Manage benefits administration operations in partnership with brokers and carriers

Compliance & Risk

• Build and run the multi-state compliance calendar: state registrations, wage and hour requirements, leave laws, posting requirements, and healthcare-specific credentialing

• Own I-9 and work-authorization compliance and the credential-expiration monitoring system for clinical staff

• Maintain the policy library and employee handbook across states, using AI-assisted drafting and review

Onboarding & Employee Lifecycle

• Design and run onboarding workflows that get new clinical and corporate hires productive fast — measured in hours, with automation carrying the repetitive load

• Own offboarding, transfers, and lifecycle changes with clean documentation and system hygiene

Employee Relations & Performance Infrastructure

• Run ER casework end to end under US employment law — documentation, investigation support, performance improvement plans, and terminations — in partnership with leadership

• Build ANNA's performance management infrastructure: review cycles, calibration tooling, and the reporting behind them

Reporting & AI-Native Systems

• Build and maintain workforce dashboards leadership actually uses: headcount, retention, compliance status, payroll accuracy

• Continuously identify manual People processes and replace them with AI-powered or automated workflows you design yourself

Qualifications

Required

• 4–6+ years in People Operations or HR operations, including time as an early People hire at a high-growth startup or scale-up

• Hands-on ownership of US employment infrastructure: multi-state payroll, state registrations, I-9 compliance, FLSA classification, and leave-law administration

• Experience personally running US ER cases end to end, including documentation and difficult conversations

• Demonstrated AI fluency through real work product — automated workflows, AI-assisted documentation systems, or reporting builds you created yourself

• Ability to work US Eastern business hours

• Precision and follow-through at high volume

Preferred

• Rippling administration experience

• Experience supporting a frontline, multi-site, or healthcare workforce (shift schedules, credential tracking, high-volume hiring)

• Background at an EOR, PEO, or payroll provider serving US clients

• Experience implementing or migrating an HRIS or payroll platform yourself

If you don't meet every preferred qualification, we still encourage you to apply.

Ideal Candidate

You are a precision-obsessed builder who thrives where systems remain to be created. You started somewhere structured — a payroll bureau, an EOR, people advisory — and it gave you zero-defect instincts; then you joined a scale-up as one of the first People hires and discovered you love standing things up at speed. You talk about your work in artifacts and numbers: the compliance calendar you built, the payroll migration you ran solo, the error rate you drove to zero. You use AI as a genuine work multiplier and have the workflows to prove it. You are energized by ownership well beyond a typical manager-level scope, and you're motivated by the chance to build the people engine of a mission-driven healthcare company from the ground up.

Compensation & Benefits

Base Compensation

CAD $95,000 – $135,000

Bonus

Target 10–15% of base

Engagement Structure

Full-time engagement through a Contractor of Record in Canada

Additional

Paid time off and holidays; professional development and growth opportunities; supportive leadership and collaborative team culture

Why Anna

At ANNA, we are working to transform autism care by combining rigorous clinical training, compassionate family-centered practice, and neurodiversity-affirming approaches. Our NDBI model supports each child's strengths through play-based, developmentally informed care. As Manager, People Operations, you will build the systems that let our clinical teams focus entirely on children and families.

Learn more about us: https://annaautismcare.com/about-us/

Remote, Canada-based, full-time US Eastern hours.

ANNA is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, and supportive workplace. If you’re passionate about our mission but don’t meet every qualification listed, we still encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective might be exactly what we need.