Senior Manager, Compliance & Employee Relations

About the Role

Every day, teacher absences cost students learning time, a loss felt hardest in under-resourced schools. Kokua closes that gap by connecting schools with passionate guest educators who step in and make an immediate difference in the classroom, delivering substitute teaching staffing services across a growing, multi-state footprint that we're continuing to expand.

At Kokua, compliance is how we keep classrooms safe and covered. Every guest educator we place has to be screened, cleared, and credentialed for the state, district, and school they're working in. If that work is wrong, students may be put at risk. If it's slow or overly complex, classrooms go uncovered. Either way, school partners lose trust in us. Getting it right is central to the service we provide.

The Senior Manager, Compliance & Employee Relations owns Kokua's workforce compliance framework: the standards, controls, and employee relations expertise that keep Kokua's people practices sound as the company scales into new states. Rather than owning every process that touches a compliance requirement, you'll translate legal and regulatory complexity into simple, scalable processes that Talent, Operations, and other frontline teams can execute themselves, with you providing the oversight, monitoring, training, and escalation path that keeps it all working.

You'll work closely with Talent, Operations, Payroll, and HRBP to make sure compliance gets executed where the work actually happens, not just designed centrally and handed down.

Essential Duties

Educator clearance and student safety

• Maintain a requirements matrix by state, market, and school partner covering screening, credentialing, training, and other placement requirements.
• Define background screening, fingerprinting, credentialing, and mandatory reporting training requirements for guest educators.
• Establish controls that prevent assignments before required clearance is complete, and monitor those controls for gaps.
• Coordinate educator misconduct matters and required reporting with Operations, the VP of People, and counsel.

Employee relations case management and investigations

• Independently manage routine and moderately complex ER cases, including investigation, documentation, recommendations, and resolution. Escalate high-risk or legally complex matters to the VP of People and/or external counsel as appropriate.
• Partner with managers and HRBPs to determine appropriate responses, corrective action, and follow-up.

Compliance program ownership 

• Own the standards, controls, and framework for Kokua's workforce compliance program across the full employee lifecycle, from hiring and onboarding through employment changes, leaves and accommodations, and separation. Talent, Operations, Payroll, and other functions execute the day-to-day steps within that framework.
• Develop and maintain scalable processes, controls, documentation, and training that make compliance requirements simple enough for regional and frontline teams to execute consistently, and own audit readiness across applicable federal, state, and local requirements.
• Monitor changes in employment requirements, assess their impact on Kokua's policies and processes, and translate those changes into updated guidance for the teams responsible for applying them.

Partnership with HRBP

• Serve as the specialist partner to the HRBP function, owning compliance standards, formal investigations, and guidance on employee relations risk, while HRBPs lead business partnership, organizational effectiveness, manager coaching, and routine performance support.
• Work with HRBPs to keep that line clear in practice, with defined handoffs when a performance or manager issue picks up compliance or ER risk and needs to move into a formal process.
• Support HRBPs and leaders in situations that involve both organizational or performance considerations and compliance or ER risk, bringing the specialist lens without taking over the business relationship.

New market launch support

• Own the compliance readiness checklist for each proposed market, including requirements, accountable owners, dependencies, deadlines, and unresolved risks.
• Provide a documented readiness recommendation before launch and promptly escalate issues that could affect the launch date.
• Research applicable employment and workforce requirements and identify changes needed to policies, processes, systems, and training.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders and external counsel to ensure compliance requirements are understood and operationalized before launch.
• Build scalable approaches that allow Kokua to enter new jurisdictions without unnecessarily creating complexity for frontline teams.

Risk escalation and advisory 

• Help leaders assess risk, determine appropriate next steps, and understand when an issue requires escalation.
• Provide practical guidance on matters that may arise throughout the employee lifecycle, including accommodations, leave, employee conduct, workplace safety, wage and hour, immigration, and other employment-related compliance issues.

Reporting

• ER resolution: track case volume, resolution timelines, and complexity trends to give leadership a clear, current picture of ER health and workload.
• Compliance readiness: report on audit results, credentialing and background-check accuracy, and the status of any open remediation items across Kokua's markets.
• New market readiness: track whether compliant policies and processes are in place ahead of confirmed market launches, and flag readiness gaps early.
• Business enablement: track how the range of issues Talent and Operations teams are equipped to handle independently continues to grow, and the resulting reduction in escalations to the central team.

Qualifications

Required

• 6+ years of progressive HR, employee relations, or compliance experience, including direct investigation experience
• Demonstrated success implementing multi-state compliance programs in a high-volume, distributed workforce, with measurable improvements in accuracy, turnaround time, or operational simplicity.
• Strong working knowledge of employment practices and requirements across multiple U.S. jurisdictions
• Experience with I-9/E-Verify, background and credential compliance, wage and hour, leave, accommodations, or other workforce compliance programs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex or sensitive issues clearly to non-HR audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently, manage competing priorities, and build structure in a growing organization.

Preferred

• Experience in high-complexity, employee-protective states such as New York, Illinois, or California
• PHR/SPHR or SHRM-CP/SCP
• Experience in staffing, contingent workforce, or education-sector HR
• Experience supporting or leading HR/compliance work associated with entering a new state or market
• Experience designing compliance tools or training for non-HR audiences

Compensation

This role may be performed remotely from anywhere in the United States, with a preference for candidates based in Eastern, Central, or Mountain time zones. The anticipated base salary range for this role is $100,000 to $115,000 USD. Actual starting pay within this range will depend on the candidate's experience, qualifications, and skills relative to the role's requirements. This role is eligible for bonus compensation and participation in Kokua Education's benefits program, which includes medical/dental/vision coverage, 401k retirement plan and company match, paid time off.