Position Overview: Ready to Step Up?

If you have spent the last few years mastering the foundational mechanics of HR, payroll, and systems administration, and you are ready to take on big things and fully own your workflows, this is your moment. We are looking for a sharp, high-trajectory builder who has learned the ropes as a Specialist and is hungry to make the leap and take full ownership as a Manager.

Based out of our Chicago office, you will play a key role in delivering a seamless and scalable employee experience at Codal. This position owns and executes essential People Operations programs across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding, benefits to compliance, and systems to reporting, while actively partnering across the global team on initiatives that drive engagement, performance, and organizational effectiveness. We will trust you to become our absolute master of BambooHR and Lattice, while connecting Greenhouse data to bridge the gap between our recruiting pipeline and our current headcount. You will actively experiment with AI tools to automate manual tasks and future-proof our department. You’ll serve as a trusted resource for employees and managers, ensuring operational excellence while helping us continuously evolve and improve how we support our team.

The Core Pillars of Your Role

Own the Execution: Payroll, Timesheets & US Benefits

• BambooHR Payroll Ownership: Take the wheel of our full-cycle US payroll process within BambooHR. You will ensure absolute accuracy across employee timesheets, tax withholdings, deductions, commissions, and compensation adjustments.
• Financial & Budget Stewardship: Manage and reconcile the professional development budget, stripe budgets, and associated people expenses, partnering with our global accounting team to keep financial tracking predictable and audit-ready.
• Benefits Strategy & Administration: Serve as the primary owner of US benefits programs (medical, dental, vision, mental health, and ancillary offerings). Lead annual open enrollment, manage vendor relations, handle employee inquiries, and audit monthly billing reconciliations.
• 401(k) Recordkeeping: Own the timely upload and reconciliation of 401(k) deferrals and company match files post-payroll, partnering with brokers for year-end compliance auditing.

Drive the Tech: HRIS Optimization, Unified Reporting & AI Integration

• System Master (BambooHR & Lattice): Act as the core system admin. You will audit, clean, and optimize data workflows across payroll, onboarding, and performance management to make our tech stack run flawlessly.
• Full-Funnel People Analytics: Connect data from Greenhouse recruiting pipelines to current employee records in BambooHR. You will deliver unified headcount reporting and lifecycle metrics so leadership has a total, comprehensive picture of our workforce talent from application to retention.
• Lattice Performance Power-User: Support performance cycles and engagement initiatives. You will manage the logistical execution of our annual and mid-year review cycles, ensuring the process is high-impact and low-friction for the team.
• AI & Workflow Automation: We don't want you stuck in manual spreadsheets. We expect you to actively explore, champion, and implement AI integrations and automated workflows within our HR operations to eliminate admin friction and scale efficiency.

Polish the Journey: Background Checks, Lifecycle Management & Compliance

• High-Touch Onboarding & Screening: Own and continuously improve the backend onboarding journey. You will run clean, swift background checks via Checkr and execute accurate I-9 verifications through E-Verify, ensuring every compliance step is met before facilitating engaging orientation sessions.
• Empathetic Support & Offboarding: Serve as the trusted, go-to contact for tier-1 employee inquiries, resolving payroll, timesheet, and benefits queries with clarity and care. Manage offboarding workflows to ensure system access removal and compliance requirements are executed consistently.
• US Compliance Expert: Keep Codal compliant with federal, state (Illinois), and local Chicago employment laws, compliance reporting (EEO-1), and policy updates.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

• You successfully transition our manual, ad hoc processes into automated, scalable systems and AI-assisted workflows.
• Payroll, benefits, and compliance processes are executed 100% accurately, on time, and without friction.
• HRIS data is exceptionally clean, beautifully organized, and trusted by leadership.
• Employees feel deeply supported and informed through your clear, plain-language communications.
• Leadership views you not just as a coordinator, but as a critical driver of operational excellence.

Who You Are

• A Rising Star: You have 3 to 10 years of solid experience under your belt. You know how HR operations work, but you are ready to stop assisting and start owning.
• An HR Tech Enthusiast: You naturally gravitate toward software shortcuts, automation, and AI tools. You love configuring systems to do the heavy lifting for you.
• An Ownership Mindset: You take immense pride in being the dependable anchor. When you say "I've got this," leadership knows it will be done flawlessly.
• A Data-Driven Process Builder: You look at messy data, disjointed systems, or undefined steps and get genuinely excited about organizing them into predictive, analytics-rich structures.

Qualifications

• Experience: 3 to 10 years of dedicated experience in People Operations, HR Operations, or Payroll and Benefits administration, ideally within a fast-paced technology or consultancy environment.
• Payroll & Compliance Capabilities: Hands-on experience running a US payroll cycle and managing employee timesheets is required. Practical experience running background checks via Checkr and I-9 verifications via E-Verify is essential.
• Technical Skills: Experience as an administrator within BambooHR, Lattice, and Greenhouse is a major advantage. Strong Excel skills (for reconciliations, headcount reporting, and budget tracking) are required. High tech-literacy with a desire to integrate AI tools into daily workflows.
• Presence: This is a hybrid role based out of our Chicago office. You will need to be in the office 3 days per week.  
• Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Why Join Us?

This is the ultimate growth pad for your career. You get the autonomy to step up into a Manager title, shape our US infrastructure using cutting-edge tech, and make a massive impact within a fast-growing, global digital consultancy.

• Codal is a global agency with over 200 employees, and offices in the US, Canada, the UK, and India 
• We regularly host happy hours, dinners, excursions, and other company events to unwind after a hard day at work
• Office snacks and drinks + a fancy Bevi water machine with flavored water 
• We offer Medical, Life, Dental/Vision, and many more insurance types 
• Employer 401k match - 4% 
• A recreational group that regularly competes in city leagues for softball and volleyball 
• An office in the heart of downtown Chicago with a gym, food court, Walgreens, rooftop bar, outdoor sports court, and other amenities
• Working hybrid for in-person collaboration and sprint-planning days