People Operations Lead

About Manifest

Manifest OS is the leading AI-native company on a mission to replace the billable hour and make legal services more accessible for American businesses and consumers. We power the next generation of AI-native law firms with one unified global brand, a proprietary technology platform, and a centralized back office — enabling lawyers to eliminate the administrative burden and focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for their clients. Manifest OS has raised a $60M Series A from Menlo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, First Round, and Quiet Capital.

About the Team

You'll be the first People Operations hire at Manifest, which means you're not joining a team — you're building the team that will drive People strategy and culture across the organization. You'll create the employee experience that will carry our company as it scales — we can't deliver exceptional outcomes for clients without first building an exceptional place to work. Reporting directly to leadership, you'll have both the freedom and the accountability that comes with being first.

About the Role

We're hiring our first People Operations Lead to build a world-class employee experience and a culture that makes Manifest the best place to work in legal tech. This role is primarily about people — how they feel walking in the door on day one, how connected they feel six months in, and how proud they are to be part of this team. You'll also build the foundational systems and infrastructure that keep things running cleanly as we scale, but your north star is culture, community, and belonging. You'll own the full People function from day one, which means you'll have both the freedom and the accountability that comes with that.

What You’ll Do

People Experience & Culture (~75%)

• Own the onboarding experience end-to-end — design and run an onboarding program that makes every new hire feel genuinely welcomed, oriented, and set up to do their best work from day one. This isn't a checklist; it's a first impression that lasts.

• Build the rhythm of our culture — plan and execute the events, rituals, and touchpoints that bring our team together: offsites, team dinners, happy hours, company-wide celebrations, and the small moments in between that make people feel like they belong somewhere special.

• Shape our values and employer brand from the ground up — lead our company values-setting exercise and translate those values into lived experience, not wall art. You'll be the keeper of what makes Manifest, Manifest.

• Champion employee engagement — design feedback loops (surveys, 1:1 listening sessions, stay conversations) that surface how people are actually feeling, and then act on what you hear. You'll own the programs that keep our best people energized and growing.

• Create the moments that matter — milestone recognition, tenure celebrations, team wins, personal life events. You'll build the culture of care that makes people tell their friends, "you have to come work here."

• Partner with managers to build great teams — coach people managers on how to run effective 1:1s, give meaningful feedback, and create the kind of team environments where people do their best work.

People Systems & Operations (~25%)

• Stand up and maintain our core People infrastructure — configure our HRIS, ensure data integrity, and build the reporting that gives leadership real insight into the business.

• Establish the operational backbone — own payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and the documentation that keeps us audit-ready as we grow. Build it once, build it right. You'll also design and implement core HR processes — onboarding, offboarding, leaves, and more — across both our Manifest OS and Manifest Law offices, ensuring a consistent, seamless experience for every employee regardless of which side of the business they sit on.

• Write the foundational People policies — first versions of our internal mobility framework, PIP process, performance calibration, and compensation review cycles. These won't be inherited; you'll set the standard from scratch.

What We're Looking For

• 4–6+ years in People Operations or HR, with meaningful time spent on culture, employee experience, or people programming — not just ops and compliance

• A track record of planning and executing memorable, high-impact employee events and offsites that people actually talk about

• Hands-on experience with a modern HRIS — not just using it, but configuring and trusting it

• Someone who leads with warmth and builds genuine relationships across an organization

• Someone who operates like an owner: you spot the gap before someone points it out, and you close it without waiting to be asked

This is for you if....

• You light up when someone says "we've never had a real onboarding program" or "we've never done a company offsite" — because you see exactly what's possible

• You believe culture is built in the details: the welcome note, the first team lunch, the way someone's work anniversary is acknowledged

• You want your fingerprints on how a company gets built, and you're motivated by the idea that the experience you create now will shape how people talk about Manifest for years

• You can hold both things at once: the big-picture culture vision and the operational rigor to make it real

This is not for you if....

• You're primarily an HR generalist who prefers compliance, policy, and systems work over events, programming, and people engagement

• You need a fully resourced team or established infrastructure to feel effective; right now, it's largely you, and that's the point

• You are looking for a remote role — this position is in-office in NYC, five days a week