People Operations Specialist

People Operations Specialist - Onboarding About Kikoff

Kikoff is a profitable fintech unicorn on a mission to help millions of Americans build credit and financial independence. Having grown from 10 to 150+ employees over the past four years, we’re scaling rapidly while maintaining our culture of excellence and intensity. We believe in moving fast, raising the bar, and drinking from the firehose - and we need someone who can ensure every new hire is ready to thrive in this environment from day one.

We’re looking for a People Operations Specialist to own and revolutionize our onboarding experience. You’ll be responsible for transforming high‑potential candidates into fully ramped Kikoff team members, managing multiple cohorts per week through an intensive onboarding program. This is a high‑visibility role reporting directly to our Chief of Staff/VP of HR, with clear paths to HRBP or People program management leadership.

This isn’t your typical warm‑and‑fuzzy HR role. You’ll be equal parts operational executor, cultural ambassador, and accountability driver — ensuring new hires are welcomed warmly while being pushed to ramp faster than they thought possible.

• Coordinate end‑to‑end visa and immigration processes for international employees

• Manage background check processes to ensure on‑time starts

• Temporarily own IT systems and equipment coordination (until IT Manager hire)

• Track and resolve any pre‑boarding blockers that could delay start dates

• Design and execute cohort‑based onboarding for new hires weekly

• Coordinate and schedule cross‑functional programming, ensuring all departments deliver their components

• Create an intense yet welcoming experience that reinforces our hard‑charging culture

• Maintain energy and momentum throughout the onboarding journey

• Ensure seamless logistics from day 1 through 90‑day milestone

• Partner with leadership to continuously iterate on onboarding programming

• Define and track success metrics including time‑to‑productivity, new hire NPS, and manager satisfaction

• Identify bottlenecks and implement data‑driven improvements

• Push departments to develop role‑specific onboarding tracks

• Collaborate with our People Analytics & Insights Strategist to measure program effectiveness

• Onboarding runs smoothly without executive involvement in logistics

• New hires consistently rate their onboarding experience 4.5+ out of 5

• Managers report new hires are productive 20% faster than baseline

• Successful experiments and iterations launched monthly

• Zero delays or mishaps in pre‑boarding logistics

• Other functions proactively engage in delivering their onboarding components

• Live for operational excellence
  :
  You’re naturally organized, detail‑obsessed, and nothing falls through the cracks on your watch

• Influence without authority
  :
  You’ve successfully coordinated complex projects across multiple stakeholders who don’t report to you

• Balance warmth with intensity
  :
  You can make someone feel welcomed while pushing them to perform at their highest level

• Think in systems and data
  :
  You don’t measure success by "feelings" but by metrics, trends, and quantifiable improvements

• Learn and iterate quickly
  :
  You’re comfortable with ambiguity and see every week as a chance to make onboarding better

• Communicate with precision
  :
  You can create clear, thoughtful content and facilitate engaging programming

• 1‑2+ years of experience in operations, HR, consulting, or program management (exceptional high‑slope candidates with less experience will be considered)

• Track record of managing complex, multi‑stakeholder processes

• Experience in high‑growth tech companies or fast‑paced consulting environments preferred

• Data analysis skills and comfort with metrics‑driven decision making

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

• Bonus:
  Experience with visa/immigration processes or HRIS systems