People Operations Coordinator

Job Description

Focus Lab is a strategic brand agency that’s looking for the next addition to our team. We're a U.S.-based, remote-friendly company made up of thoughtful, creative professionals who are passionate about partnering with good companies. 

Leveraging our craft and care for others, we exist to unlock the potential in the people around us, both internally and externally. We approach challenges with process-driven intentionality to inform the solutions we create. Craft is our calling card, camaraderie is our brand.

Role location: Remote, USA

Due to the nature of this role and the compliance requirements involved, we are currently only able to consider candidates who live in and are authorized to work in the United States. We’re unable to accept international applicants or sponsor work visas at this time.

About the Role

We’re looking for a people champion to join our crew — someone who leads with empathy, aligns deeply with our core values, and genuinely loves supporting humans at work. You’re a servant-minded teammate who enjoys rolling up your sleeves and contributing across the entire employee lifecycle, from recruiting to offboarding and everything in between.

You don’t need decades of experience to thrive here, but this also isn’t your first rodeo. You bring strong interpersonal skills, sound judgment, and a high level of discretion and professionalism. In this role, you’ll partner closely with our Chief People Officer (and occasionally our Chief Operations Officer) to support a wide range of People Ops initiatives that help our team do their best work.

What you'll support

• Benefits administration, payroll support, and compensation research
• ATS management, recruitment coordination, applicant communication, and interview scheduling
• Onboarding and offboarding experiences that are thoughtful, compliant, and human
• State and federal compliance efforts, including workers’ compensation, I-9 verification, labor law notices, and state correspondence and registration
• Various audits and filings, including 401(k) audits, Form 5500 filings, and W-2 and 1099 reporting
• Team recognition and culture efforts, including swag ideation, assembly, and shipping to teammates
• Team engagement initiatives and internal event planning (we like to have fun together).
• General people ops support to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes

Experience supporting remote teams is a big plus, as is comfort navigating compliance and coordination across multiple states.

If you’re energized by people-first work, enjoy balancing heart and operations, and want to grow your career in a hands-on People Ops role — we’d love to meet you.

You can expect to:

• Be heard. You’ll have a real voice in how our Operations and People processes evolve. We want your perspective, and you’ll play a meaningful role in researching and evaluating current and future benefit offerings.
• Partner closely with our benefits brokers to administer our full benefits suite — medical, dental, vision, life, disability, critical illness, accident, cancer plans, and our 401(k) — ensuring accuracy and a great teammate experience.
• Serve as the go-to person for benefits-related questions, helping teammates feel informed, supported, and confident in their choices.
• Handle highly sensitive information with care. You’ll hold the “keys to the kingdom” when it comes to employee data and will help ensure compensation, tax, healthcare, retirement, and payroll information is accurate and up to date.
• Support compensation research and tracking, assisting with updates, documentation, and ongoing maintenance.
• Help facilitate and continuously improve onboarding. This may include setting up payroll and tools, ordering home office equipment, sharing benefits information, coordinating week-one schedules with directors, and finding ways to make each new teammate’s start feel thoughtful and smooth.
• Assist with offboarding, including administrative tasks and exit interviews, ensuring transitions are handled with clarity, compliance, and care.

About you:

You’re someone who cares deeply about people and the details that support them. You bring curiosity, empathy, and a steady hand to your work, and you’re comfortable operating in a role that balances heart, discretion, and follow-through.

The ideal candidate has:

• 2+ years of People Operations experience (experience supporting a remote team is strongly preferred; agency experience is a plus, but not required)
• Clear, thoughtful communication skills, both written and verbal, with internal teammates and external partners
• Experience administering benefits for a distributed or remote team
• Comfort working in Google Workspace and modern People Ops tools like Gusto, Lattice, and Workable
• An interest in learning how AI tools can thoughtfully support People Ops work, from improving efficiency to enhancing the teammate experience
• The ability to work well within a team and build strong, trusting relationships
• The self-awareness to say “I don’t know yet,” and the curiosity to go find the answer
• A willingness to have thoughtful, sometimes tough conversations and ask good questions
• Strong active listening skills and a natural sense of empathy
  

Bonus (but not required):

• SHRM certification
• Experience with Gusto, Lattice, and Workable
  

You’ll really stand out if you can demonstrate:

• Strong attention to detail. (Pro tip: include the word “Applebee’s” somewhere in your application for bonus points.)
• Alignment with our core values and a people-first mindset
• Soft skills in the way of your humility, hunger, and people smarts — you care, you try, and you treat others well

It doesn’t matter what your degree is in, or exactly how many years of experience you have. Many of our teammates are self-taught. We’re looking for a strategic thinker and empathetic communicator whose love of the craft goes beyond self-expression.

Interested?

Cool. Here’s how to apply:

1. Write a cover letter. It doesn’t need to be long! Just tell us why you’d make a great addition to the team at Focus Lab and what you see your future looking like here.
2. Briefly share some People Ops initiatives you’ve worked on and why they’re relevant.
3. Make sure your application materials demonstrate at least some of the experience and qualities listed above.

We understand that candidates will not check every single box we have here; most of us didn’t when we applied. If you are interested and can show that you’d make a great addition, we encourage you to apply.

What happens after you apply?

Our plan is to get through all the applications within a week after the job posting closes. Our goal is to begin interviewing in February, with an ideal start date in March.

This job posting will close on Monday, February 9th at 5 pm EST.

What does the interview process look like?

• A video call with a leader to discuss your interest, experience, and any initial questions.
• A video interview with our chief people officer to go deeper into the role, how people ops supports the business, and what success looks like at Focus Lab.

Benefits

We’ll cover the full benefits package in more detail during the interview process, but the key benefits provided by Focus Lab include:

• Unlimited paid time off. You’ll be encouraged to take a minimum of 20 days outside of holidays and sick time
• Health, dental, and vision insurance plans (medical covered at 100% for you; medical and dental covered at 50% for your dependents)
• Life, disability, accident, critical illness, and cancer insurance plans
• Retirement plan beginning at your one-year anniversary
• Paid parental and adoption/caregiver leave
• Professional development available upon request
• Two-week paid holiday rest at the end of the year

Be who you are with us.

We’re devoted to building an inclusive, supportive culture. That means we don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We especially welcome people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ to apply.

At Focus Lab, you’ll find an empathetic crew who checks their egos at the door. We aim to assume the best of each other, strive for excellence in all we do, lean into tough situations, and feel empowered to own our work. Sound like you? Super. We expect you'll be successful here.