People Operations Manager

Location: Greater Denver area strongly preferred. Remote candidates in the Central, Mountain, or Pacific time zones are welcome to apply.

Reports to:

COO

Travel: Regular travel expected. Visit our Denver and San Francisco offices at least once per quarter each, attend quarterly leadership meetings, and join us for Camp Rocky Talkie Summer Jam, our annual 3-night summer retreat.

Rocky Talkie is committed to making easy-to-use, high-performance communication products for use in adventure sports and business. We're a growing, outdoor-driven brand with a tight-knit team that values ownership, honesty, and getting better every season.
At Rocky Talkie, we're driven by the belief that better communication in the backcountry can save lives. As part of this mission, we donate $2 per radio sold to search and rescue teams around the country, supporting those who help keep outdoor communities safe.

We're looking for a People Operations Manager who loves rolling up their sleeves, cares deeply about people and process, and wants to help build a company where great humans can do their best work as we scale.

You'll be Rocky Talkie's sole HR professional. On any given day, that means answering a benefits question, scheduling interviews, and updating records in Gusto. It also means sitting with leadership to shape org design, compensation philosophy, and how we grow. You'll own the full people function: day-to-day people operations, recruiting and onboarding, employee relations and manager support, and culture and engagement.

You'll be a trusted partner to leaders and teammates whenever people decisions need to be made.

Rocky Talkie is a distributed company. We have offices in Denver and San Francisco, but much of our team works remotely. Day-to-day collaboration happens over video, Slack, and shared docs, with in-person time during office visits, leadership meetings, and our annual retreat. Ideally, you will enjoy the unique challenges of helping a remote-first team thrive.

• Serve as the people voice in leadership conversations and advise the COO and leadership team on people opportunities and risks as we grow.
• Partner with senior leadership to strengthen cross-functional teamwork
• Build a practical people roadmap that fits a small, scaling company: right-sized policies, programs, and systems
• Regularly assess our benefits offerings against team needs, market benchmarks, and budget, and recommend changes to leadership

• Own employee lifecycle management from onboarding to offboarding
• Own payroll and benefits administration in Gusto, partnering with Accounting to keep both accurate and on time
• Manage HR systems (Gusto, benefits platforms, performance tools, etc.)
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws across a team spread over multiple states
• Support internationally based employees engaged through our Employer of Record (EOR) provider, partnering on onboarding, payroll, benefits, leave, employment changes, and offboarding
• Maintain accurate employee records, documentation, and policies

• Be the first point of contact for employee questions, concerns, and guidance, navigating sensitive situations with empathy, clarity, and consistency
• Coach managers through performance conversations, feedback, and development plans
• Run performance review cycles and ongoing feedback processes

• Own the full recruiting lifecycle, from an approved opening through a new hire's first day
• Partner with hiring managers to define needs, write job descriptions, design interview plans, and create a consistent, thoughtful candidate…