Northwood · 17 hours ago
People Operations Manager
Torrance, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
$100K/yr - $135K/yr
5+ years expNorthwood is a modern space infrastructure company focused on connecting space and Earth. They are seeking a People Operations Manager to own and scale core people operations, ensuring accurate systems, compliant processes, and a great employee experience as the company grows.
AerospaceHardwareSatellite Communication
Responsibilities
Own end-to-end People Operations programs, including policies, performance management, benefits, compliance, and employee lifecycle processes across a rapidly scaling organization
Lead benefits administration across medical, dental, vision, FSA, and related programs, including renewals, open enrollment planning, employee communications, and day-to-day support
Serve as a primary point of contact for employee questions related to benefits, payroll, HR policies, and HR systems, ensuring a high-quality employee experience
Own day-to-day administration of Northwood’s HRIS (Rippling), including employee lifecycle changes, data integrity, reporting, audits, and ongoing system optimization
Ensure ongoing compliance with federal, state, and local employment regulations (with particular focus on California & Washington DC)
Partner with leadership and People partners to support annual performance and compensation review cycles
Build and continuously improve scalable onboarding and off boarding programs, documentation, and People processes that support a high-growth
Qualification
Required
5+ years of People Operations, HR, or HR Program ownership experience, with demonstrated end-to-end responsibility for core people programs
Experience supporting a high-growth startup environment, including scaling processes ahead of headcount thresholds (e.g., 200+ employees)
Strong working knowledge of California employment compliance, including ongoing obligations beyond onboarding (policies, training, audits, wage/hour, leaves, postings)
Hands-on experience owning benefits administration and open enrollment processes, including planning, communications, and employee support
Direct experience managing leaves of absence (e.g., FMLA, CFRA, PDL, parental, medical), with an understanding of compliance nuances
Proven ability to own HR data accuracy, reporting, audits, and systems
Experience administering and optimizing an HRIS, with a strong operational mindset and attention to detail
Preferred
Experience in ITAR-regulated environments or within aerospace, defense, or similarly regulated industries
Hands-on experience implementing, configuring, or optimizing Rippling
Strong operator mindset with the ability to design processes, anticipate risk, and build scalable systems ahead of growth
Benefits
Medical
Dental
Vision
FSA
Company
Northwood
Northwood was founded by Bridgit Mendler, Griffin Cleverly, and Shaurya Luthra with the mission to expand access to space by transforming satellite backhaul infrastructure.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$36.4MKey Investors
Harvard Innovation Labs
2025-04-22Series A· $30M
2024-02-19Seed· $6.3M
2023-02-08Grant· $0.1M
Leadership Team
Bridgit Mendler
CEO – Cofounder
G
Griffin Cleverly
Co-Founder, CTO
Recent News
Satellite Today
2025-07-11
Ars Technica - All content
2025-07-10
Company data provided by crunchbase