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Rippling is a unified HR, IT, and Finance platform that manages the entire employee lifecycle—from payroll and benefits to computers and third-party app provisioning—across 80+ countries. The company has raised $1.4B+ from top-tier investors including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, and Sequoia.
The Global Payroll Operations team is expanding rapidly and seeking a Strategic Operations Lead to serve as a chief-of-staff-style operator reporting directly to the Director. This role is designed for someone who can transform operational complexity into clear priorities, repeatable systems, and measurable execution as the team doubles in size and triples in operational scope.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead high-priority operational programs across global payroll product lines, identifying systemic gaps, standardizing workflows, and building durable playbooks, automation, and AI-driven tooling to support rapid global expansion.
- Drive global operating cadences, executive reviews (WBRs/MBRs), and accountability frameworks. Translate ambiguous strategic priorities into structured workstreams with clear ownership, milestones, and ROI.
- Serve as the senior point of escalation for high-friction customer issues, driving end-to-end resolution and leading root-cause analyses (RCAs) with Product, Engineering, and Ops to eliminate systemic gaps.
- Act as the key operational link across Ops, Product, Engineering, CX, and external third-party partners—ensuring product gaps and operational risks are clearly documented and business decisions are made with clear trade-off frameworks.
- Partner with operations leadership on team administration, including global headcount planning, resource allocation, operating budgets, offsites, and training programs.
- Collaborate closely with teams across EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, with flexibility for early-morning or evening meetings to support cross-timezone collaboration.
This role offers exposure to global product operations and immediate impact on product and customer experience. The person in this role will be a jack-of-all-trades operator who improves how the team operates as it scales significantly.
Requirements:
- 5+ years of high-impact experience in BizOps, Strategy & Ops, Program Management at a fast-growing startup, or strategic rigor from top-tier consulting/banking with a desire to own real operational execution. No HR or global payroll background required.
- Hands-on operator mindset with high grit and bias for action; eager to dive into messy processes, diagnose root causes, and build practical solutions.
- AI niftiness and tech fluency; habit of leveraging AI tools and automation to solve bottlenecks and scale personal leverage.
- High adaptability and elastic thinking; thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments where priorities shift constantly.
- Track record of driving complex, cross-functional projects to completion without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Analytical and data-driven; comfortable analyzing dashboards and operational metrics to distinguish critical risk from noise.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to synthesize dense topics for executive decision-making and frontline guidance; strong collaborative muscle with diverse stakeholders.
