HR Manager

Hello There Collective is a social-first creative and content agency. We work with challenger and enterprise DTC brands — OOFOS, Thrive Market, and others — across a diverse mix of categories and channels, from paid social and influencer to broader integrated marketing programs. New business is the entry point to all of it, and it only works if the person running that process is asking sharp enough questions to know what we're actually being asked to solve. The Role Hello There Collective is looking for an experienced Director of People Operations & Culture to own three connected parts of the employee experience: ramping new hires to full productivity in their first 90 days, keeping the team culturally connected throughout the year, and auditing and fixing the internal workflows and systems that support both. This is not an entry point into people operations. We need someone who has already done this at an agency, who understands the influencer content and social paid landscape well enough to know what “ramped up” actually looks like for those roles, and who can walk in and immediately spot where our current processes are creating friction. What You’ll Do Onboarding & New Hire Success (First 1-3 Months) Own onboarding for new hires across influencer, content, and social paid functions, with ramp plans specific enough to reflect what success actually looks like in each of those roles Serve as the primary point of contact for new hires during their first 90 days, checking in regularly and removing blockers before they become problems Build and maintain onboarding materials, training schedules, and role-specific ramp plans in partnership with department leads Set clear 30/60/90 day milestones and know how to evaluate whether a new hire is actually on track versus just busy Gather feedback from new hires to continuously sharpen the onboarding experience Coordinate with hiring managers to ensure new hires have the tools, access, and context they need on day one Process & Systems Optimization Audit current onboarding, culture, and internal operations workflows to identify where time, clarity, or morale is being lost Fix and update outdated or inefficient processes, tools, and documentation, and build new ones where gaps exist Standardize how onboarding and culture initiatives are run across the agency so quality doesn’t depend on who happens to be managing it Partner with department leads to understand where influencer and social paid workflows create bottlenecks for new hires, and redesign onboarding to address them directly Recommend and help implement tools or systems (HRIS, project management, documentation) that improve consistency and reduce manual work Culture Management Own the cultural integration of new hires, making sure they feel connected to the team and its values from the start, not just trained on process Plan and execute cultural events and traditions throughout the year that reflect and reinforce team values Build a culture calendar that balances celebration, connection, and consistency Act as a culture barometer for the organization, staying close to team sentiment and surfacing what’s working and what isn’t Partner with leadership to ensure company values show up in day-to-day team experience, not just in a deck What You Bring 6-8+ years of experience in people operations, talent, or agency operations, with real time spent inside an influencer marketing, social, or content agency A working understanding of influencer content and social paid workflows, deep enough to know what good ramp-up looks like for those roles and where new hires typically get stuck A track record of building onboarding programs from scratch at an agency, not adapting a corporate template Direct experience auditing and fixing broken internal processes or systems, with specific examples of what you improved and the impact Genuine enthusiasm for culture-building, not just event planning Strong project management instincts: you can hold multiple new hire timelines, a full events calendar, and a process improvement backlog without dropping a thread Excellent interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence; new hires should feel like they have an ally, not a compliance checkpoint Comfort working cross-functionally with hiring managers, leadership, and new hires at the same time A bias toward action and follow-through over long planning cycles Confidence to walk in, question how things currently work, and change it when it’s not working Nice to Have Prior experience at a boutique or mid-size influencer, social, or creative agency specifically Familiarity with tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Asana or monday.com, or an HRIS platform Experience designing internal events or team offsites Experience building or rebuilding SOPs, playbooks, or internal documentation systems Why This Role Matters The first three months set the tone for someone’s entire tenure, and culture is the thing that keeps people long after the onboarding checklist is done. But none of that works if the underlying systems are broken. This role sits at the intersection of onboarding, culture, and process, someone who has done this before, knows what great looks like at an agency, and has the judgment to fix what isn’t working instead of just running it as-is. #J-18808-Ljbffr