People Operations Generalist - Chicago, IL

About the Job

The People Operations Generalist plays a critical operational role in ensuring the accurate, compliant, and timely delivery of payroll and core people administration across multiple countries. The role acts as the bridge between People Operations and Payroll, ensuring that employee data, contractual changes, and payroll inputs are correct, controlled, and auditable. The role is focused on accuracy, process discipline, and service delivery, supporting a global workforce and enabling confidence in pay, data, and people processes.

• Maintain accurate employee records within the HRIS (UKG), ensuring data integrity and timely updates.
• Process contractual documentation including offer letters, contracts, variations, and confirmations.
• Manage employee lifecycle administration: onboarding, changes, and exits.
• Ensure documents are correctly issued, signed, stored, and auditable.
• Support general HR topics (Employee Relations, Training, Well‑Being, Disciplinaries, etc).
• Oversee accurate record keeping and maintenance of attendance, annual leave, sickness, and any other absence.

• Act as a point of contact for employee payroll queries, resolving issues professionally and within agreed SLAs. Work with our Employer of Record to administrate onboarding, changes, and offboarding until transition to full internal payroll has occurred.
• Support People Partners and Managers with payroll‑related people changes.
• Work closely with Finance to ensure alignment between payroll, cost reporting, and budgeting.

• Identify opportunities to improve payroll and people administration processes.
• Support the development of standard operating procedures, checklists, and controls.
• Contribute to HR system improvements and change initiatives, including payroll automation and data quality improvements.

• Prepare, validate, and submit payroll inputs in line with local payroll calendars and cut‑off dates.
• Ensure all pay‑impacting changes (new starters, leavers, salary changes, allowances, bonuses, overtime, deductions) are accurately processed.
• Carry out pre‑ and post‑payroll checks, including reconciliation and variance analysis.
• Act as a key liaison with internal payroll teams and external payroll providers.
• Support year‑end payroll activities, audits, and statutory reporting.
• Process and manage multi‑state payroll operations, ensuring accurate and timely payroll for employees across multiple U.S. jurisdictions.
• Demonstrate strong knowledge of California payroll laws and regulations, including wage and hour requirements, overtime rules, meal and rest break compliance, and state‑specific tax requirements.
• Ensure payroll practices comply with federal, state, and local payroll regulations.
• Maintain accurate payroll records and resolve discrepancies related to multi‑state tax with holdings, deductions, and garnishments.

• 3–5 years of progressive People Operations and/or Payroll Administration, preferably in a fast‑paced or mission‑driven organization.
• Experience working with HRIS and payroll systems (UKG experience desirable).
• Strong understanding of payroll accuracy, data controls, and compliance requirements.
• High attention to detail with a strong sense of accountability.
• Ability to manage confidential information with discretion.
• Strong organizational and time‑management skills.
• Highly proficient in Office 365/Microsoft Office.
• HR certification such as SHRM‑CP or PHR preferred but not required.
• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field required (or equivalent combination of education and professional experience).

• Experience supporting payroll across multiple countries / states.
• State of California payroll processing experience.
• Understanding of employment law impacts on payroll.
• Experience working in a global or matrix organization.
• Process documentation or continuous improvement experience.
• Bilingual/Spanish speaking, preferred but not required.

Within a learning and development culture, we offer unlimited access to a wealth of professional and…