People Operations Specialist

About this role

About VSCO

For years, we've helped photographers create their work. Now we're building what comes next.

VSCO exists for photographers. Not as a side feature, not as an afterthought, but as the whole point. We build the connected system photographers rely on, and we've spent over a decade earning the trust of a global creative community that takes the craft seriously.

Photography is at an inflection point. AI is reshaping what's possible for creative work, and that's where our mission shines. VSCO is building the full photographer's workflow: from creating and editing your work, to delivering it to clients, to running your business. All of it built thoughtfully, with photographers leading the way. We believe the future of photography tools creates more space for creativity, handling the busy work so photographers can focus on the craft.

If you care about craft, community, and what technology can unlock for creative people, this is the work. We're a mission-driven and focused company where your work ships quickly, is meaningful, and reaches tens of millions of people worldwide. You'll have a real say in what we build and how we build it. We hire people who don't wait to be asked, naturally connect the dots, care about the quality of what they ship, and believe the best outcomes come from building together.

About You

People Operations is where a company's values become real: in how someone experiences their first day, how people are set up to do great work, how a compensation change gets communicated, how a policy actually gets followed.

We're hiring a People Operations Specialist who wants to own the systems and processes behind VSCO's employee and contractor experience, and who gets genuine satisfaction from making things run cleanly at scale. You'll work closely with our CEO and People Team to build and manage the infrastructure behind our workforce: our HRIS and contractor management systems, onboarding and offboarding workflows, compliance processes, and the data and reporting that help us make good decisions about our people.

This isn't a generalist HR role. It's built for someone who thinks like an operator and an analyst: someone who sees a manual, inconsistent process and can't help but turn it into something clean, repeatable, and built for efficiency.

If you're 3-5 years into your career, love building and managing systems that quietly make everything work better, and want to grow into a broader People or Operations leadership role, this is that opportunity.

This role reports directly to the CEO and is based out of our San Francisco, CA office (minimum 3 days/week in office).

The Day-to-Day

Own People Systems & Infrastructure

• Own and maintain our HRIS, contractor management platforms, and related systems, ensuring data accuracy and integrity across the employee and contractor lifecycle

• Evaluate, implement, and improve the tools that support hiring, onboarding, payroll coordination, benefits administration, and contractor engagement

• Build reporting and dashboards that give leadership visibility into headcount, org structure, contractor spend, and workforce trends

Delightful Employee & Contractor Experience

• Manage end-to-end onboarding and offboarding for both employees and contractors, ensuring a smooth, well-documented experience at every step

• Own contractor classification, agreements, and renewals in partnership with Legal and Finance, keeping VSCO compliant as the contractor base grows

• Coordinate benefits administration, leave management, and other lifecycle processes with accuracy and discretion

Build Smarter Systems, Drive Sharper Decisions

• Identify where existing people processes are manual, inconsistent, or breaking down, and design scalable systems to replace them

• Use data to answer questions about the workforce, such as turnover, time-to-hire, and contractor utilization, and in collaboration with leadership, turn findings into clear recommendations

• Document policies and processes so they're easy to follow, easy to audit, and easy to hand off as the team grows

Airtight Compliance & Payroll Operations

• Keep VSCO compliant with employment and contractor regulations across the jurisdictions we operate in

• Own recurring compliance workflows, including onboarding documentation, I-9/employment eligibility processes, required employee notices, and employee file maintenance

• Partner with Finance and external vendors to coordinate payroll inputs, audits, employee changes, contractor payments, and related reporting

Elevate VSCO’s Culture

• Partner with the CEO and leadership team on policy updates, handbook maintenance, and internal communications about people programs

• Support culture-building efforts, including team offsites, all-hands logistics, employee appreciation, and the operational backbone of a great employee experience

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, People Systems, or a related operational role

• Hands-on experience with HRIS platforms such as Sapling and Lattice, and contractor management systems

• Strong systems thinker: you build processes that scale, not workarounds that hold

• Enjoy working with data: you can build a report, spot a trend, and turn data into clear insights that leadership and managers can use to support decisions

• Working knowledge of core employment and contractor compliance fundamentals, or the ability to get there quickly

• Excellent written communicator: clear, concise, and precise, especially when documenting policy or process so that employees clearly understand

• High discretion and judgment: you handle sensitive employee and contractor information with care

• Fluent using AI tools: you use them to work faster and think better, not as a substitute for creativity or judgment

• Continuously evaluate emerging AI tools and workflow automation opportunities that improve the employee experience while reducing manual administrative work.

What

Similar jobs

• People Operations Specialist — Doss · San Francisco
• People Operations Specialist — Goodfire · San Francisco, CA
• People Operations Specialist — Overflow · Remote
• People Operations Specialist — Chaosindustries · El Segundo, California, United States
• People Operations Specialist — Horizon3ai · Chicago, Illinois
• People Operations Specialist — Astro-mechanica · Remote
• People Operations Systems Specialist — Bridgebio · San Francisco - 1800 Owens
• People Operations Manager — Suno · Boston