Senior People Operations Manager

About us:

Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from real animal cells without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. In doing so, the company aims to address some of the most pressing environmental, animal welfare, and public health challenges, while still giving people the meat they love.

Founded as the world’s first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck) and to sell a cultivated meat product in the United States. The company believes that people shouldn’t have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood.

UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times’ Good Tech Awards, FastCo’s Next Big Thing in Tech and World Changing Ideas Awards, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised more than $600 million in funding from a diverse group of leading U.S. and global investors, including top-tier venture capital firms, sovereign investment funds, strategic food and agriculture partners, and prominent technology and sustainability investors.

About This Job: 

We are seeking a visionary Senior People Operations Manager to serve as the architect and lead user of our future HR technology ecosystem. This is a high-impact role designed for a strategic leader who sits at the intersection of human resources, automation, and operational excellence.

You will lead the design and adoption of innovative, AI-enabled solutions while owning our Rippling platform end-to-end. Your goal is to build and operate world-class processes that enhance the employee experience, drive aggressive automation across the business, and ensure our People function is proactive, scalable, and perfectly aligned with business needs.

To begin with you will split your time between driving existing processes and implementing process improvements. To the extent that you can streamline, automate and safely delegate operational responsibilities to less technically-savvy teammates, you will free up your time to lean more and more into end-to-end workflow and system architecture. The needs of the business will continue to evolve as we scale commercial activities, expand geographically and explore new lines of business.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities Include: 

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

Strategy & HR Technology Architecture

• Roadmap Development: Partner with leadership to translate business priorities into a clear People Technology roadmap, identifying high-impact use cases that improve productivity and data quality.
• Platform Ownership: Own the Rippling platform end-to-end—including strategy, roadmap, stability, and long-term evolution. Deploy new Rippling features to optimize functionality and user experience while maintaining strict compliance. Oversee Rippling integrations and data flows in partnership with IT and Security. Establish governance processes to ensure system integrity, security, and access control.
• AI & Automation Leadership: Partner closely with IT to jointly design and implement the end-to-end AI and automation architecture, including data inputs, model orchestration, and lifecycle management.

Operational Excellence & Compliance

• Process Design & Scaling: Architect and scale efficient systems that support the full employee lifecycle while ensuring 100% compliance with labor laws and regulations.
• Process Execution: Drive the flawless execution of core People operations, ensuring that day-to-day administrative tasks are handled with precision and speed.

Job Description:

• Operational Rigor: Maintain high standards of accuracy and reliability in all HR activities, implementing robust audit mechanisms and quality controls to minimize errors and maximize efficiency.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate with Accounting, Procurement, Legal, IT, and Security to align processes with payroll, compensation, and benefits policies.
• Change Management: Lead key initiatives such as policy rollouts and system implementations, ensuring strong adoption and minimal disruption across the company.
• Data-Driven Insights: Establish HR data governance and reporting standards. Leverage data and employee feedback to inform strategy and continuously measure success.

About You: 

• 7+ years in People Operations or HR Technology, with a proven track record of managing complex, integrated HRIS environments.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• Deep technical knowledge of Rippling (including its workflow engine and app directory) and experience managing platform scaling for high-growth companies.
• Demonstrated ability to implement automation and AI-enabled solutions within an HR context to drive self-service capabilities.
• Strong project management skills, with experience managing implementation vendors, budgets, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to act as an executive escalation point for complex platform decisions and cross-functional tradeoffs.
• Strong understanding of global labor laws, data privacy, and HR governance.
• Ability to act as an executive escalation point for complex platform decisions. Strong grasp of data analytics to deliver actionable business insights

Who You’ll Work With:

• This role will frequently interact with all other departments. 

Compensation Range: $150,000 - $170,000* 

• Pay may vary depending on factors including location, job-related knowledge, and skills.

UPSIDE Benefits! 

• Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
• 83-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
• Pet insurance for your furry family members!
• Unlimited PTO
• Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities 

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.