Director, People Operations

Director, People Operations - New York

3i is hiring its first dedicated People leader. Reporting to the COO, you will build and own the people function end to end: people operations, compliance, compensation, performance and leveling, policies and the employee handbook, and IT. The function has been run alongside finance and operations until now; your job is to design the system that replaces that, run it, and be the day-to-day partner to managers and leadership on every people matter.

Leadership sets headcount plans, compensation budgets, and org design. You own everything that turns those into a consistent, compliant, well-documented people operation across every jurisdiction where 3i has employees, and you bring the recommendations on comp, leveling, and policy that leadership decides on.

This is a builder's role: a team of one to start, with budget authority over vendors, tools, and outside counsel, and a direct line to the founders.

What You’ll Own

Policy, compliance, and the handbook

• Write and maintain the employee handbook, core HR policies, and standard operating procedures, with jurisdiction-specific addenda for Canada, GB, and Israel
• Own multi-jurisdiction employment compliance: state registrations, required notices and trainings, filings, recordkeeping, worker classification (employees, contractors, offshore team), and the annual compliance calendar
• Manage outside employment counsel, the PEO, and the benefits broker, including scope and spend

Compensation, leveling, and bands

• Build and own 3i's leveling framework and salary bands; benchmark against market data and keep them current
• Run the annual compensation cycle and the promotion and comp-change process, including approval workflows and documentation
• Own pay transparency compliance in postings and offers; coordinate equity administration with Finance
• Partner with Finance on the annual benefits renewal and contribution strategy

Performance and employee relations

• Redesign and run the performance review cycle: timelines, templates, calibration, manager and peer feedback, and its link to the comp cycle
• Coach managers on feedback, performance conversations, corrective action, and performance improvement plans; build 3i's manager training
• Manage involuntary terminations with leadership and counsel; conduct or coordinate workplace investigations and escalate appropriately

People operations: the employee lifecycle

• Own the recruiting process: postings, structured interviews, candidate experience, offers, and the recruiting-to-onboarding handoff. Depending on the role, we recruit in house or partner with a specialist recruiter; you decide which, manage the agency relationships, and run the process either way (recruiting is a full-time job on its own, and this role is not a full-cycle recruiter)
• Run onboarding end to end: paperwork, I-9 and background checks, systems and equipment, 30/60/90-day check-ins
• Administer benefits through our PEO (Justworks): open enrollment, plan changes, carrier and broker coordination, employee questions
• Manage leaves of absence across the US, Canada, [GB, and Israel]
• Partner with Finance on payroll inputs so every cycle is accurate and on time
• Own offboarding: separation documentation, final pay, benefits continuation, access removal, exit interviews

IT

• Own device procurement, setup, and lifecycle; MDM; and the equipment budget, working through our third-party managed service provider (MSP) for hands-on support
• Own identity and access: SSO, provisioning and deprovisioning, password management, and the access review cadence
• Manage the MSP relationship: scope, SLAs, tickets, and spend. Administer core SaaS and seat management, and partner with Product/Tech on security basics (phishing, policies)

Systems, data, and engagement

• Own the HRIS and employee records; keep people data clean and audit-ready
• Build and report people metrics: headcount, turnover, time-to-hire, review completion, comp-band placement
• Use automation and AI to remove manual work: self-serve policy answers, onboarding workflows, first-draft documents
• Run engagement surveys and turn results into recommendations; own internal comms for people programs

About You

• 7+ years in People Operations or HR, with at least 3 as the senior or sole People leader at a company that grew through 30-100 employees
• Comfortable with recruiting: you have run searches yourself or managed agencies through them, can scope a role with a hiring manager, and can step into the pipeline when needed
• You have built the function before: written the handbook, designed the bands, stood up the review cycle, and picked the systems, not just administered them
• Hands-on with a PEO (Justworks, Rippling, or similar) and HRIS administration; comfortable owning IT basics or willing to learn them fast
• Working knowledge of US multi-state employment law; experience with Canadian, UK, or Israeli employment a plus
• Direct experience with terminations, investigations, and sensitive employee relations, handled with discretion and judgment
• Strong writer: you can draft a policy, manager guide, or employee memo that ships without heavy editing
• Analytical and systems-minded; at home in spreadsheets, people data, and working closely with Finance
• You introduce structure without bureaucracy and manage up and across with founders, managers, and counsel
• Based in New York City; this role is in-office full time