Senior People Operations Manager

WORDSMITH Wordsmith is building the legal operations platform for in-house teams, and we are growing fast. We believe in-house legal is becoming one of the most important functions in the AI era. Every business is moving faster, but legal work is still too often scattered across inboxes, chats, documents, and disconnected systems. Wordsmith brings that work into one system. Requests come in from across the business, AI agents handle the routine, lawyers stay in control where judgment matters, and every step is captured as work happens. We are built for in-house legal, not law firms. Our goal is to help legal teams move faster, reduce unnecessary external counsel spend, and become a function the business can run with. More than 500 companies, including Financial Times, Safelite, Trip.com http://Trip.com, Canva, Starling, and Sage, use Wordsmith. Backed by $100M from Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Highland Europe, and others, we are building one of the defining companies in legal AI.     THE ROLE You’ll own the operational backbone of our People function: payroll, global mobility, PEOs, commission and equity administration, HRIS, and the systems that keep everything in sync. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on clean operations, not a junior administrator position and not a People leadership seat. You'll operate the frameworks our leadership and Finance set (pay philosophy, salary bands, commission structure, equity strategy). Your job is to implement those decisions accurately and on time, with a clear audit trail, and with the judgment to stop or escalate anything that doesn't fit the framework or lacks proper approval. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own payroll controls and monthly validation across UK payroll, PEOs, and other employment models, with clean reconciliation to Finance each month - Run visa and mobility operations end-to-end: sponsorships, relocations, compliance, right-to-work controls, and coordination with immigration advisers. - Manage commission review, approvals, exceptions, ns and payment accuracy each cycle; reconcile commission data between sales systems, Finance, and payroll - Own equity grant administration: approvals, documentation, vesting schedules, leaver events, exercises, cap table reconciliation and employee communications - Build and improve people workflows in Humans, Ashby and connected systems, using automation to remove manual steps from pay reviews, promotion packs, onboarding and routine queries. - Own onboarding, probation, employment changes, transfers, parental leave, and offboarding end-to-end: coordinate access, equipment, payroll and documentation across People, IT, Finance and hiring managers WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR ESSENTIAL - 5+ years of People Operations or HR generalist experience in a scaling technology business or high-growth scaleup, with meaningful hands-on work in payroll, mobility, PEOs and benefits - Track record of building and running multi-country people processes from the ground up, not just maintaining existing structures. - Confidence owning payroll controls, global mobility operations and equity administration across multiple jurisdictions - Strong data literacy and experience with HRIS platforms, payroll systems and ATS integrations, with a bias toward automation over manual work - Clear written communicator who can produce clean documentation and audit-ready records VALUED - Experience independently owning multi-country payroll, mobility and equity through a scale up's growth phase. - Familiarity with PEO relationships, renewals and service management - Experience with commission administration and pooling HOW WE WORK We're an office-first team in London. You'll be based at our offices on Paul Street and expect to work in-office as your default. We work together because it helps us move faster, collaborate closely across Finance, IT and People, and stay sharp on detail. This role sits at the center of trust for the whole company. We expect high standards of accuracy, timeliness and data integrity. You'll manage sensitive information and ensure payments, visas, and equity records are handled properly. People will come to you with urgent requests and competing priorities. You need to stay organised, keep control of your workload, and know when to push back and when to escalate. This isn't a role for someone who needs a heavy process or lots of direction.     WHY WORDSMITH We're scaling fast across product, commercial, and engineering, and People operations is foundational to that growth. Every new hire adds complexity to payroll, visas, benefits, and equity. Getting that right, automated, ed and audit-ready is what lets us move quickly without losing control. This role is a key foundational hire. You'll be building the systems and processes that scale with us from ~130 people toward 300. You'll have real ownership over how the function works, and a clear seat in how we operate. You'll report to our Head of People (or interim People leader, with a clear line to a future Head of People), work closely with Finance and leadership, and have meaningful say in how we run the function.