Technical People Operations Specialist
Who We Are
Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems-designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.
Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.
We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.
The Way We Work
The people who thrive here are builders who move fast, communicate openly, take ownership, and continuously improve themselves, their teams, and our company. Here's what that looks like in practice:
- Move with Urgency: We move quickly, make thoughtful decisions, and keep momentum. We value action over perfection and learn by shipping.
- Take Ownership: We own outcomes, not just our individual work. We make decisions that move the company forward and follow through.
- Communicate Openly: We communicate directly, seek to understand, and create clarity for others. Honest conversations help us move faster together.
- Build Great Teams: We lead by example, empower others, and create healthy teams where people can do their best work.
- Raise the Bar: We're always improving ourselves. We learn from feedback, consistently challenge ourselves to grow, and focus on the work that matters most.
- Think Long-Term: We design for what's next. We create scalable systems, simplify complexity, and use AI and automation to amplify our impact.
What We're Looking For
We're hiring a data-driven People Operations specialist to build the AI-native People Ops organization Lightning AI runs on.
Most companies buy six HR tools and then spend three years stitching them together. We're not doing that. We're building a tailored People operating system in-house that “just works”, including automated workflows for hiring, onboarding, and agentic employee and manager support as products.
You'll be reporting to the Head of People Ops, where you'll find the problems, design the fix, and ship it to production while creating a best in class employee and manager experience.
We are a small but mighty, high-velocity, and talent-dense team. We value extreme ownership and low-ego collaboration, living by “shipped is better than perfect”.
What You’ll Do
In one sentence: build, ship and administer People workflows, systems and solutions that make Lightning run better. This is the core of the role.
- Design secure systems with role-based permissions and appropriate data access. People data is some of the most sensitive data in the company; access control is a first-class feature, not a later hardening pass.
- Build agents, workflows, dashboards, and decision-support tools that help the People team, managers, and leaders make better decisions faster.
Own day-to-day People Operations administration across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, HRIS updates, documentation, and employee data management.
- Support payroll and benefits administration, including employee changes, audits, reconciliations, enrollments, and resolving employee questions and issues.
- Serve as a point of contact for employee and manager questions across pay, benefits, leave, policies, systems, and other People programs, partnering with the broader People team on escalations when needed.
- Keep our People data and systems accurate and reliable through regular audits, data cleanup, documentation, and process maintenance.
- Support recurring People programs and operational cycles, pitching in wherever needed to keep the function running smoothly.
- Partner with the broader People team to identify, scope, and ship internal solutions end to end-from research and design through implementation, deployment, and iteration.
- Build and maintain integrations, reporting, and automated workflows across our People systems.
- Build solutions that meet legal and compliance requirements for handling employee data across multiple jurisdictions.
What You’ll Need
- A demonstrated People Operations specialist with strong product instincts and real experience building secure automated solutions for historically manual tasks:
- 4+ years of experience in Tech with holistic People Operations service delivery and administration plus tier 0 / 1 / 2 employee and manager support. You've built or worked deeply on the systems behind it: knowledge bases, case management, ticketing and routing, SLA and quality measurement, escalation paths, deflection. You understand why a Tier 2 employee relations case needs different handling from a Tier 1 password reset, and you can build for both.
- Experience with people data, business systems, analytics platforms, or enterprise data infrastructure (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, SQL, Excel).
- Deep familiarity with HRIS and / or ATS platforms (Rippling, Greenhouse, Ashby, or similar), as a builder or through close partnership with People teams.
- Experience designing secure systems with role-based access control and data permissioning.
- Strong product instincts. You think end to end, ask why, and care whether the thing actually gets used.
- Excellent stakeholder management and demonstrated cross functional partnership with Finance, Legal, and IT. You can turn a multi-team operational mess into a technical solution without needing a roadmap handed to you.
- Experience building processes and products from scratch and taking them to production.
Nice To Have
- Agile familiarity with Anthropic / OpenAI, and AI agents
- Experience with Rippling, Greenhouse, Ramp, Carta, Pave, or Tilt
We are committed to offering competitive compensation that reflects the value each team member brings to our mission. Final offers are based on factors such as experience, skills, geographic location, and role expectations. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package for eligible roles includes a discretionary bonus, a meaningful equity component, and comprehensive benefits.
The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is:
$110,000—$160,000 USD
Benefits and Perks
We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support our employees’ health, well-being, and long-term success:
- Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.
- Meaningful Equity: RSUs that give employees a stake in the company's long-term success.
- Retirement Savings: 401(k) matching (U.S.) and pension contributions (U.K.).
- Flexible Time Off: Unlimited PTO, company holidays, and floating holidays to support work-life balance.
- Company-Wide Winter Break: Two weeks of company closure each winter to disconnect and recharge.
- Paid Parental & Family Leave: Paid leave to support you and your family through life's important moments.
- Professional Development: Annual learning and development allowance to support your professional growth.
- Wellness Benefits: Wellness and work-from-home stipends to support your physical and mental well-being.
- Sabbatical Program: Four weeks of paid sabbatical leave after four years of service.
- Flexible Work: Flexible schedules and a hybrid work model for our office-based teams.
- In-Office Meals: Complimentary meals at our office hubs.
Benefits may vary by location, team, and role.
At Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.