People Operations Manager

Plain is redefining customer support for B2B companies, building a fast, powerful platform for true customer relationships. This senior individual contributor role as People Operations Manager is a unique opportunity to build and scale the company’s People foundations, owning end-to-end People operations, tech stack, and culture initiatives across SF and London, partnering with leadership and functional leads at a high-growth, global startup.

Must Have

• Run end-to-end People operations across the employee lifecycle
• Own coordination across SF and London
• Own and improve the People tech stack
• Partner with Finance, Ops, and Talent on headcount planning
• Design and run performance and growth processes
• Build culture with intent
• 5-6 years experience in People Operations at a fast-growing startup
• Experience in a global or multi-entity environment
• Systems-minded approach to operations
• Strong ownership and comfortable operating without a playbook
• Deep care about culture and performance

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive, globalized salaries
• Generous option grant on employee-friendly terms
• Quarterly offsites with the whole company in interesting and fun places
• $1000 per year to spend on your WFH setup
• Desks at coworking spaces whenever you need
• Flexible, parent-friendly culture
• Enhanced parental leave
• 35 days, including public holidays, to take as you wish
• Founders cook the whole team dinner at the end of the year

People Operations Manager

San Francisco

Sound interesting?

We'd love to hear from you.

Apply Now

Your application will be reviewed by us. We'll get back to you within a week. We can't wait to meet you!

Plain is redefining customer support for the next generation of B2B companies. We’re building the fastest, most powerful platform to help companies move beyond reactive support and build true customer relationships.

Some of the world’s most forward-thinking companies, like Cursor, Ashby, Vercel, and Granola to unify all customer interactions, enable faster team collaboration, and supercharge their workflows with AI.

We’re a small, tight-knit crew with offices in SF and London. This role is hybrid with 3 days a week in our SF office. Because we work closely with our teammates in Europe, we start early (around 7am, with plenty of coffee!), but you’ll find quiet afternoons for heads-down work.

Why this role is special

This is a rare opportunity to help build and scale the company’s People foundations as a senior individual contributor at a high-growth, global startup.

You’ll be responsible for making sure Plain’s People systems actually work - from tooling and onboarding to performance and culture - while partnering closely with our Head of Operations (Youmna), founders, recruiters, and functional leads. You’ll work horizontally with Talent, enabling and supporting recruiting efforts, with end-to-end ownership of People operations and programs.

This role is ideal for someone who wants real scope and impact without managing a team, and enjoys being close to the details while shaping how the company operates as it scales.

What you'll do

• Run end-to-end People operations across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding/offboarding, contracts, payroll changes, benefits, visas, and new-joiner logistics.
• Own coordination across SF and London, including scheduling, offsite planning, and cross-office travel.
• Own and improve the People tech stack (e.g. Ashby, Humaans, Remote, Justworks), partnering with Talent to support hiring workflows, automation, and reporting.
• Partner with Finance, Ops, and Talent on headcount planning, budgets, hiring forecasts, and hiring-related logistics.
• Design and run lightweight performance and growth processes, including probation reviews, feedback loops, and performance and compensation cycles.
• Build culture with intent, helping leadership to translate values into systems and rituals that reinforce urgency, ownership, and clarity across a globally distributed team.

This is a great fit if you…

• Have 5–6 years of experience in People Operations or a closely related role at a fast-growing startup.
• Have worked in a global or multi-entity environment, and are comfortable operating across the US and Europe.
• Are systems-minded, and enjoy consolidating tools, automating workflows, and improving how things run.
• Have strong ownership and are comfortable operating without a playbook, including rolling up your sleeves and doing the gritty, unglamorous work when needed.
• Care deeply about culture and performance, and want to make values like urgency and accountability real and measurable.

This won't be the right role if you…

• Are looking to manage or build a People team in the near term - this is a senior individual contributor role.
• Want a narrow or purely administrative HR role, rather than broad ownership across People systems, programs, and culture.
• Prefer highly structured environments where processes and answers are already defined.
• Are uncomfortable switching between hands-on execution and higher-level thinking in the same week.
• Aren’t excited about working in the office multiple days per week and collaborating closely in person.

The salary range shown is intentionally broad to reflect the range of skills and levels that we are open to for this role. Your placement within in the salary range will be decided upon completion of the interview process, taking into account factors like your demonstrated skills, and the depth of your experience. Our Recruiting team will be able to provide more details during the interview process.

Apply on Ashby

• Competitive, globalized salaries for everyone, regardless of where you live
• Generous option grant on employee-friendly terms
• Quarterly offsites with the whole company in interesting and fun places
• $1000 per year to spend on your WFH setup
• Desks at coworking spaces whenever you need
• Flexible, parent-friendly culture
• Enhanced parental leave
• 35 days, including public holidays, to take as you wish

At the end of the year, the founders cook the whole team dinner. You might feel that’s a threat rather than a benefit, but we were told in a non-anonymous survey that our food is one of a kind.